Snap Won’t Win From a TikTok Ban. Take It From This Social Media Editor

By Nick Devor TikTok’s pending ban in the U.S. will leave its 170 million stateside users with hours of time to spend on other apps. Competing social media platforms are eager to get their share, but the attention won’t be spread evenly across the social media landscape. TikTok is a unique animal — one I’ve become well acquainted with as Barron’s social media editor. I’m responsible for posting my colleagues’ work to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snap, so I have plenty of experience with how these platforms work, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. I’m not sure investors are fully up to speed on those idiosyncrasies. Snap stock, for instance, jumped as much as 7% Friday following a Supreme Court hearing that left traders thinking that justices wouldn’t stop the ban. In fact, for months, Snap has been cited as a major beneficiary of a TikTok ban. I can […]

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AI Robot Trader Outperformed in 2024. Nvidia, Tesla, and Broadcom Are Some of Its Favorites.

By Elsa Ohlen Artificial intelligence’s rise to become the hottest topic around has hardly escaped anyone’s attention. And the technology may prove to be a winner in investing. SoftBank-backed Qraft Technologies is one company that is betting that AI can deliver in investment and portfolio management. The South Korean fintech has around $60 million in assets over three exchange-traded funds: AMOM, QRFT and LQAI, all powered by AI based on different investment strategies. AMOM uses a momentum-factor strategy. That means it targets stocks that have outperformed in the past on the assumption they will continue to rise. Its biggest holdings are, unsurprisingly, Nvidia (9.2%), Tesla (7.7%), Broadcom (7.1%), and Meta Platforms (4.1%), all of which had impressive runs in 2024. AMOM gained 36% in 2024, while its benchmark, the iShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum ETF, gained 32%. QRFT, a more defensive ETF, holds some 40% of its assets in healthcare,

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ASML Orders Likely to Ramp Up From 1Q

ASML Holding is expected to report higher orders starting in the first quarter compared to recent months, thanks to large clients like Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Jefferies analysts write in a research note. The analysts expect the Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker to post orders of 3.6 billion euros for the fourth quarter of 2024. However, they say these should climb to a range of 5 billion euros to 6 billion euros from the first quarter of 2025. The analysts cited an increase in orders from TSMC as well as the prospect that Samsung might soon be able to supply its high bandwidth memory chips to Nvidia as potential boosts for ASML. ASML shares trade 0.5% lower at 720.80 euros.

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Nvidia’s Lead Expands, Analyst Says: ‘AI Demand Remains Very Strong’

NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) has grown to being among the largest companies in the world due to its AI chip dominance. One analyst sees the Santa Clara, California-based company’s lead expanding. The Nvidia Analyst: In a note published Thursday, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya reiterated a Buy rating for Nvidia with a price target of $190. Main Takeaways: Arya’s semiconductor team hosted Nvidia CFO Colette Kress for an investor meeting in Las Vegas. Arya is more confident in Nvidia as an “AI incubator.” “NVDA’s unique/highly leverageable silicon/system/software platform is spawning new growth engines in physical AI/robotics, onpremise AI workstations (Project Digits), AI PC, autonomous driving (Uber, Toyota partnership) – no other merchant or ASIC rival can match this,” the analyst said. Arya noted other positive signs for the company’s flagship Blackwell chip. “Overall, the tone for AI demand remains very strong across both Hopper and new Blackwell platforms,” the analyst said. “Hopper run rate is

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The Trader: The Stock Market Overreacts. Don’t Lose Your Head.

By Avi Salzman The bond market is in charge right now — and that’s bad news for stocks. The major stock indexes fell sharply on Friday after the monthly jobs report came in hotter than expected and sent bond yields soaring. Investors fear that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates high — or even raise them — to stave off inflation. The yield on the 30-year Treasury note briefly rose above 5%, its highest level since November 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 697 points, or 1.6%, on Friday to finish the week off 1.9%. The S&P 500 index also closed down 1.9% for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.3%. The move wiped out all of the market’s 2025 gains, and then some. Predictions are turning ominous. “Today’s unemployment report likely sounds the death knell for this easing cycle from the Fed,” wrote Peter Graf, chief

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Up & Down Wall Street: Lessons From a Century of Stock Returns: Stay Invested, Let the Winners Run

By Randall W. Forsyth Just a few stocks drive all the returns of the equity market while the vast majority matter little. Indeed, most of them just detract from gains produced by the leaders. This isn’t about the Magnificent Seven behemoth tech stocks, which have accounted for the lion’s share of equity returns over the past two years. A study of U.S. stocks’ returns over nearly a century finds that the median stock actually lost money since 1926 — even while a dollar invested across all stocks on average grew to $229.40 by the end of 2023. Of course, the concentration of outsize returns in just a few stocks is nothing new and, in fact, appears to be the norm over the modern history of equity markets that began in the first Roaring ’20s of the last century. All this comes from recent research by Arizona State University finance professor

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AMD Stock Downgraded. Goldman Names This Surprise Among AI Chip Picks for 2025.

By Elsa Ohlen AMD stock was falling after Goldman Sachs downgraded the chip maker’s shares and named its rivals among the bank’s picks for 2025. The move came following a note from the bank advising investors to tackle 2025 with a “barbell” strategy and own industry-leading artificial intelligence stocks, as well as those exposed to cyclical recovery in traditional chip areas. Goldman analysts led by Toshiya Hari downgraded Advanced Micro Devices to Neutral from Buy Thursday, cutting their price target to $129 from $175. Citing a more conservative PC and traditional server unit outlook — and modest growth for data center graphics processing unit (GPUs) given fierce competition from rivals — Hari also cut the chip maker’s revenue estimates for 2025/26 by double digits. AMD stock fell 2% to $119.40 in premarket trading Friday. Goldman continues to be bullish on Nvidia, saying its GPU is the industry standard. It rates

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Delta Air Lines Expects Premium Travel to Power Earnings

By Alison Sider Delta Air Lines expects a strong appetite for high-end travel to fuel profit in 2025, said Chief Executive Ed Bastian. The forecast comes as the airline posted better-than-expected revenue growth in the latest quarter as demand picked up. The airline’s sales of premium products rose 8% while revenue from sales of main cabin tickets rose 2% in the fourth quarter. Bastian said that the clarity of the election outcome helped restore travelers’ confidence and unleashed more corporate spending. The carrier said quarterly corporate sales rose 10% from a year earlier. “Overall consumer demand, particularly premium demand, has also been very, very healthy through the holiday season,” Bastian said in an interview. “The outlook in the first quarter is quite good.” Delta and United Airlines posted the U.S. airline industry’s biggest profits last year with a focus on upscale offerings for more affluent consumers. — Delta on Friday

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Delta Air Lines Crushes Earnings Estimates. The Stock Is Flying.

By Callum Keown Delta Air Lines crushed earnings and revenue estimates amid red-hot travel demand in the fourth quarter, sending the stock flying higher. The even better news for investors was that Delta sees strong demand continuing in 2025. The carrier expects first-quarter revenue to grow between 7% and 9% year over year, with earnings per share of between 70 cents and a $1. Both those metrics top Wall Street estimates for a 5% revenue jump and profit of 77 cents. The stock rose 5.6% to $64.85 in premarket trading. Heading into Friday’s session, the shares have gained 20% over the past three months. The one disappointment may be Delta’s full-year earnings guidance of $7.35 a share in 2025, which is a little below the $7.44 expected by analysts. But investors don’t seem perturbed by that for now, instead focusing on a bumper 2024 and a strong start to the

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Delta Sees Clear Runway For Strong 2025 Demand

Delta doesn’t see travel demand slowing down in 2025. CEO Ed Bastian notes consumers are increasingly opting for the airline’s premium products and experiences, a phenomenon happening across the industry that more airlines are leaning into and prioritizing. A snapshot of this demand came in November and December when Delta saw four of the top 10 revenue days in its history and double-digit growth in cash bookings driven by both leisure and corporate travelers. President Glen Hauenstein says revenue growth in 4Q came in ahead of its guidance as demand trends accelerated through the quarter and expects adjusted revenue in the March quarter to be up to 9% higher than 2024. Delta climbs 5.3% premarket.

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NVIDIA Leads in AI Innovation Driven by Ecosystem Strengths, Oppenheimer Says

Nvidia (NVDA) is “best positioned” in artificial intelligence with a bullish outlook on applications in the enterprise, robotics and automotive sectors as the company’s ecosystem supports a wide range of AI hardware and software needs, Oppenheimer said in a note Thursday. The Blackwell generation of AI accelerators demonstrates significant generational improvements but supply constraints and liquid cooling requirements could hinder short-term adoption for some configurations, the analysts said. Oppenheimer also said the company’s enterprise offerings, such as Nvidia Intelligent Models, Nvidia Model Optimization tools and Nemotron are tailored for business deployment and its partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enhances AI optimization on personal computers. Nvidia’s entrenched ecosystem, spanning data centers and AI innovation, is seen as core to the generative AI revolution, according to the note. The firm has an outperform rating on Nvidia’s stock.

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Nvidia Stock Dips. Why Investors Are Fretting About Tighter AI Chip Export Curbs.

By George Glover Nvidia could soon face tighter restrictions on sales to China and Russia, according to a report. The chip designer’s shares were falling in late trading on Wednesday. The Big Tech stock slid 1.1% to $138.54 after the closing bell. Markets are closed Thursday for a national day of mourning for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Nvidia shares climbed 4.3% over the first five trading days of 2025. According to Dow Jones Market Data, the stock rose 6.9% over the first five days of 2023 and 5.5% over the same period in 2024. It went on to rack up triple-digit gains in both of those years as the AI craze drove up demand for its products and led to its profit surging. The dip late Wednesday came after a report said that the Biden administration plans to impose a final round of chip export restrictions before leaving office.

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