Boeing factory workers strike halts 737 MAX production: Morning Buzz

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

Boeing’s (BA) Seattle area factory workers walked off the job after rejecting a contract offer, halting production of the planemaker’s 737 MAX jet

Adobe (ADBE) is trading lower after a Q3 beat and Q4 guidance that a number of Wall Street analysts called “conservative”

Uber (UBER) and Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL), announced an expanded partnership that will see the pair bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta, only on the Uber app, beginning in early 2025

Temu owner PDD Holdings (PDD) and Alibaba (BABA) slip as White House vows crackdown on “de minimis” shipments from China

United Airlines (UAL) announced what it calls “the industry’s largest agreement of its kind” with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink’s Wi-Fi service to the airline’s mainline and regional aircraft fleet

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Moderna (MRNA) was downgraded to Underweight at JPMorgan, while also being cut to Neutral-equivalent rating at Jefferies and Oppenheimer
• Borr Drilling (BORR) upgraded to Outperform at Evercore ISI
• Shares of drugmaker Roche (RHHBY) were downgraded to Sell at Deutsche Bank and upgraded to Buy at BofA
• Garmin (GRMN) downgraded to Underweight at Barclays
• TKO Group (TKO) initiated with bullish view at Pivotal Research

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Sony Music (SONY) is in advanced discussions to buy the rights to music recorded by Pink Floyd for about $500M, FT reports
• HP Enterprise (HPE) defends its decision to pursue its case against the Lynch estate, FT says
• Samsung (SSNLF) is considering revising its schedule and plans for its wager foundry projects under construction as it falls increasingly behind TSMC (TSM) DigiTimes reports
• Interactive Brokers (IBKR) plans to launch a market for election betting, WSJ reports
• Activist investor Engine Capital has built a roughly 4% stake in Upwork (UPWK) and is pushing for a shakeup to the board of the freelance marketplace operator, CNBC says

4. MOVERS:

• Peloton (PTON) gains after adjusting its Recommended Retail Prices for some products and offerings
• Nuscale Power (SMR) increases after CLSA initiated coverage of the stock with an Outperform rating
• Instil Bio (TIL) surges after Baird increased its price target on the stock to $180 from $32
• Wendy’s (WEN) rises as Wolfe highlights buzz about SpongeBob, ‘Frosty Frights’ offers
• GE HealthCare (GEHC) falls after announcing a 15M share offering

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• SelectQuote (SLQT) reported Q4 results, with CEO Tim Danker commenting, “2024 was another successful and strong year for SelectQuote”
• RH (RH) reported Q2 results, with EPS and revenue beating consensus
• Ibex (IBEX) reported Q4 results, with EPS higher year-over-year
• Progressive (PGR) reported August EPS
• OFS Credit (OCCI) reported Q3 results, with EPS lower year-over-year

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 426.00, or 1.04%, to 41,522.77, the Nasdaq was up 133.54, or 0.76%, to 17,703.21, and the S&P 500 was up 38.92, or 0.70%, to 5,634.68.