|
|
|
|
Good morning.
Drivers for Lyft and Uber in Massachusetts became the first US workers to certify a ride-hailing union on Tuesday. The App Drivers Union says it will represent as many as 70,000 members. The step was made possible by voters in the Bay State, who approved a ballot measure in 2024 allowing drivers to collectively bargain with companies like Uber and Lyft while remaining independent contractors. Similar campaigns are being mounted in California and Illinois.
As part of a 2024 agreement, Massachusetts already guarantees Uber and Lyft drivers paid sick leave, a pooled health insurance benefit, and a minimum pay of $34.48 per hour, although a driver’s net earnings are diminished by out-of-pocket expenses like gas and vehicle maintenance. Uber and Lyft both signaled their receptiveness to negotiations and working with the union and regulators on Tuesday. Apart from personal labor rights, one existential concern down the road is robotaxis, with Waymo already testing in the Boston area. Advanced machine learning algorithms can drive all night long for no pay, let alone tips.
|
|
|
|
|
|
There’s another one for the memory books.
Shares of Micron surged nearly 20% on Tuesday, enabling the maker of critical high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to join a dozen or so members of the exclusive $1 trillion market cap club. The big bounce came after a big endorsement from UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri. Oh, and a big weekend shoutout from the president of the United States probably helped as well.
Short-Term Memory Loss
The computer memory shortage has proven to be perhaps the most critical supply bottleneck in recent memory. According to a Bloomberg analysis of this season’s earnings calls and reports, memory pricing was mentioned more than 550 times, the most in any full year in records dating to 1999. In turn, HBM now accounts for roughly two-thirds of the total AI chip component cost, up from about 50% in early 2024, according to data research firm Epoch AI. And while historical sector-wide seasonality has long left memory-makers skeptical of the lengthy, costly process of increasing production capacity, demand is now so strong that chip industry leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are positing (or at least very publicly hoping for) the end of cyclicality. Micron even broke ground earlier this year on a $100 billion memory-making plant in upstate New York that will be the biggest fab facility in the US.
Surging HBM prices and the long tail of demand are key reasons why Acuri thinks Micron’s stock, which was already up some 140% year-to-date and 840% in the past 12 months heading into Tuesday, still has room to grow. The company has locked in long-term agreements with major clients at around current price levels, Acuri said in the note. He raised the stock’s price target to $1,625 from $535, by far the boldest claim on Wall Street but hardly the only bullish outlook:
- Also on Tuesday, Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh reiterated an outperform rating and called Micron his “top pick” while predicting the memory shortage would last through at least next year.
- Meanwhile, Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, said in filings earlier this month that it was increasing its stake in the company by 66%, and Appaloosa Management recently moved to make Micron the second-largest holding in its portfolio.
  Marvellous: Micron wasn’t the only chips player to be a major market mover on Tuesday. Shares of rival memory makers SK Hynix and Sandisk rode the momentum to 5% and 7% climbs, respectively. Meanwhile, shares of Marvell Technology, which designs bespoke AI chips and components, climbed 6% on the eve of its next earnings call after scoring an upgrade from HSBC analysts.
Written by Brian Boyle
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo via Einride
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Nvidia playbook seems to be just what the doctor ordered for Eli Lilly.
Similar to the way the chipmaker powered the artificial intelligence boom, Lilly is parlaying its blockbuster weight-loss drug gold rush into a massive stake in the future of medicine. The latest investments from the pharma giant, announced Tuesday, are three acquisitions meant to boost its infectious disease portfolio: Curevo, LimmaTech Biologic and Vaccine Company, which are developing vaccines for shingles, staph infections and the Epstein-Barr Virus, respectively. If completed, they will cost Eli Lilly nearly $4 billion.
“It does provide a lot of upside to Lilly’s potential,” Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, told The Daily Upside. “They have clearly won the GLP-1 market out of sheer scale and volume of production, [and] one of the key drivers of these new acquisitions will be once fully approved (and potentially recommended), Lilly has the industrial base to meet the demand of the market.”
Big Spender
Weight loss medications have surged in popularity of late, and Lilly has dominated the space alongside Novo Nordisk, thanks to Mounjaro and Zepbound. As a result, it became the first healthcare company to snag a $1 trillion valuation and has gone on a shopping spree, acquiring firms working on treatments for cancer, narcolepsy, cell engineering and more.
Lilly announced the acquisitions just a day after reporting upbeat results from a study on its gene-editing treatment VERVE-102, which the company hopes could help prevent heart disease. The highest single-dose injection reduced patients’ cholesterol levels by 62%. Last week, the company shared positive results for its next-gen weight loss drug, retatrutide.
So in the world of health care, Eli Lilly is suddenly everywhere all at once:
- “It is a decent parallel to Nvidia in that they have multiple products that are in high demand, and they have been able to ramp up production capacity to a scale that balances the needs of the market with strong margins protecting shareholders,” Mulberry said.
- While recent earnings reports have focused heavily on GLP-1 revenues, the addition of vaccine segments helps the company diversify growth, he added.
Investor Reaction: Sometimes, big spending can spook investors. Just ask Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, whose defense of the company’s AI spending took up a good portion of real estate in his latest annual shareholder letter. But Eli Lilly’s investors didn’t seem to raise eyebrows; the stock edged higher after the news before ending the day down less than 0.1%.
Written by Mallika Mitra
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo via CME Group
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In Italian, the informal salutation ciao functions as both hello and goodbye. And if you want to say hello to Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, you’ll have to say goodbye to a minimum of €550,000 ($640,000).
The Maranello, Italy-based luxury automaker introduced the high-priced Luce, Italian for “light,” on Monday, forging ahead in an EV market where rivals have gotten cold feet. Unfortunately, the vehicle’s ambitious new design went over as well as Domino’s pizza in Napoli: Ferrari shares fell 8.4% in Milan and 4.8% in New York on Tuesday.
Looks that Kill (Your Stock Price)
Under the hood, the Luce has all the makings of a high-performance Ferrari supercar: four electric motors totaling 1,050 horsepower, maximum power of 772 kW, a top speed of 192 mph and acceleration from 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds. But it’s the exterior where critics say the four-door, five-seat family car strayed too far from Ferrari’s brand.
The automaker outsourced Luce’s design to LoveFrom, the San Francisco-based agency led by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, who helped develop the iPhone and Apple Watch. Unsurprisingly, the car bears many hallmarks of Apple minimalism, especially in its smooth, rounded corners.
The new look provoked outrage among car fanatics, company alums and even politicians. On the sidelines of Monday’s launch event, former Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo told reporters, “If I said what I think, I’d be hurting Ferrari,” adding, “at least remove the Cavallino Rampante [the company’s iconic Prancing Horse logo].” Despite the backlash, analysts still see a bright side:
- Last year, Porsche scaled back its EV plans and, earlier this year, Lamborghini abandoned its plans for a luxury EV. Ferrari now has an opening to test the luxury EV space with less competition.
- Analysts at investment bank Intermonte have set a €417 price target, implying a 46% upside for Ferrari shares.
Priced In: Despite the company remaining highly profitable, Ferrari’s Milan-listed shares have tumbled 33% in the past 12 months, partly the product of the company’s own tradition of offering modest, conservative guidance. Tuesday’s tumble may also be attributable to the fact that Ferrari shares had already climbed last week in anticipation of the Luce announcement.
Written by Sean Craig
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Give ’Em a Break: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to exempt some of the most distressed rent-stabilized landlords from a proposed rent freeze, allowing a one-time hike on certain unoccupied apartments.
- Crude Awakening: The board of oil giant BP unanimously ousted chairman Albert Manifold over alleged “bullying” and “overbearing” behavior.
- Most Traders Spend Hours Staring at Charts and Still Miss the Real Move. The best ones read the flows instead. VantagePoint’s predictive AI spots which sectors are gaining strength, and which are about to lose it. See how it works in this free eBook.*
*Partner
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
