Midday Stock Highlights: Notable Movements from Meta Platforms, Kroger, SAIC, PVH, Snowflake, and Others
Meta Platforms: Shares rose 4% as CEO Mark Zuckerberg considers significant cuts to the metaverse group, potentially reducing the workforce by 30% by 2026.
Kroger and PVH Corp.: Kroger's stock fell 6.5% due to disappointing third-quarter revenue, while PVH Corp. dropped 10% after issuing weak fourth-quarter guidance, missing analyst expectations.
Science Applications International and Dollar General: SAIC's shares surged 17% after beating earnings expectations and raising future guidance, while Dollar General's stock rose 11% following an increase in full-year earnings guidance.
Salesforce and UiPath: Salesforce's shares increased 2.5% after raising fourth-quarter revenue guidance, while UiPath's stock soared 20% due to better-than-expected third-quarter results.
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- Meta Chip Development Canceled: Meta has canceled the development of its most advanced custom AI chips due to design complexities, which will shift its focus to simpler versions, impacting its AI model training capabilities and highlighting challenges in AI hardware development.
- Amazon's AI Model Plans: Amazon is planning to develop AI models using its custom chips, which could significantly reduce costs if successful, indicating its strategic positioning in the AI space while also hedging its bets with investments in OpenAI and Anthropic.
- Alphabet's Technological Edge: Alphabet's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) have reached their seventh generation and are widely used for internal workloads, showcasing its leading position in the AI chip market, attracting companies like Meta, Anthropic, and Apple to rent its TPUs.
- Capital Expenditure Plans: Alphabet plans to invest $175 billion to $185 billion in AI data centers, which is expected to further solidify its competitive advantage in the AI market, especially when compared to competitors relying on Nvidia GPUs, demonstrating a higher return on investment.
- Meta's Chip Development Failure: Meta has scrapped its most advanced custom AI chip development, highlighting the significant design challenges it faces, which diminishes its competitive edge in training AI models despite collaboration with Broadcom.
- Amazon's AI Strategy: Amazon plans to develop AI models using its custom chips, which could significantly reduce costs; however, its substantial investments of $50 billion in OpenAI and Anthropic indicate a diversified approach in the AI sector.
- Alphabet's Technological Edge: Alphabet's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) have reached their seventh generation and have been battle-tested over a decade, making them the preferred choice for several AI companies, underscoring Alphabet's leading position in the AI chip market.
- Capital Expenditure Plans: Alphabet intends to allocate $175 billion to $185 billion for capital expenditures related to AI data centers, demonstrating its long-term commitment to AI investment while indicating a cost advantage over competitors relying on Nvidia's GPUs.
- Self-Power Commitment: Trump is set to sign an agreement with major tech firms like Amazon, Google, and Meta, mandating them to supply their own power for AI data centers, addressing rising public anger over electricity prices, although the specifics of the commitment remain unclear.
- Rising Electricity Pressure: Average residential electricity prices in the U.S. increased by 6% in 2025, contrasting Trump's promise to halve prices during his term, highlighting the government's challenges in controlling energy costs, which could impact his support in the midterm elections.
- Implementation Challenges: The decentralized nature of electric grid regulations across states poses significant hurdles for the Trump administration in converting the pledge into actionable policy, with experts indicating that new federal legislation is necessary to address power supply shortages.
- Increased Political Pressure: Trump is leveraging his political influence to pressure tech companies into absorbing the costs associated with their data centers, despite the complexities arising from state-level regulation of power generation, which may complicate policy implementation.
- Strong Earnings Report: Nvidia reported an adjusted earnings per share of $1.62 and revenue of $68.1 billion for Q4 FY2026, both exceeding Wall Street's expectations of $1.53 and $66.2 billion, indicating robust market performance and profitability.
- Optimistic Guidance: The management guided for approximately $78 billion in revenue for the current quarter, significantly above the analyst consensus of $72.6 billion, showcasing the company's ongoing growth potential in the AI sector, although this does not include potential sales from China.
- Stable Gross Margins: Nvidia achieved a 75.2% adjusted gross margin in the recent quarter and expects about 75% for the full year, demonstrating strong pricing power and enhancing investor confidence in its profitability.
- Conflicted Market Reaction: Despite the strong performance, Nvidia's stock fell by 5.5% post-earnings, reflecting market uncertainty regarding future AI investment returns, particularly as major tech firms may slow capital expenditures amid rising costs and economic concerns.
- Consistent Outperformance: Broadcom has beaten analyst EPS estimates for 19 consecutive quarters; however, following Nvidia's strong earnings report, Broadcom's shares fell 6%, indicating a diminishing market reaction to earnings beats.
- Optimistic Market Predictions: Polymarket gives a 96% chance that Broadcom will report a non-GAAP EPS of $2.02, with Wall Street expecting revenue of $19.18 billion, a 29% year-over-year increase that would set a new quarterly record.
- Significant Capital Expenditure Increase: Both Broadcom and Nvidia plan to significantly ramp up capital spending, with Broadcom's next-generation AI networking switch, “Tomahawk 6,” seen as critical for enhancing data transfer speeds to meet the demands of scaling AI training clusters.
- Acquisition Risk Concerns: Broadcom's $69 billion acquisition of VMware is still being digested, with UBS flagging customer churn risks; speculation on whether Broadcom will mention new acquisitions could impact investor confidence.
- nLIGHT Coverage Initiation: Baird initiates coverage of nLIGHT with an Outperform rating and a $95 price target, citing favorable market trends and robust funding that support growth, particularly enhanced by the company's vertical integration and technological strengths.
- Apple's New Product Launch: Oppenheimer reiterates Apple as Perform, highlighting the new MacBook Pro lines powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, which signify a new era of local AI computing and reinforce Apple's significant lead in efficiency and scalability in personal computing devices.
- PulteGroup and Toll Brothers Ratings: Truist initiates PulteGroup and Toll Brothers with Buy ratings, setting a price target of $170, as they believe the market is significantly undervaluing both companies' profitability potential, especially in the context of a recovering luxury housing market.
- Tesla and General Motors Upgrades: Bank of America upgrades Tesla to Buy with a $460 price target, viewing it as the leader in consumer autonomy, while reinstating General Motors as Buy, expecting benefits from lower warranty costs and regulatory credits.








