Stocks were mostly higher Friday in a shortened trading session following the Thanksgiving holiday. Retailers were in focus on Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season.
These stocks were making moves Friday:
Retail sales have been forecast to rise this season between 3% and 5% from last year, putting the increase roughly in line with the average annual increase over the decade before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation.
Walmart
(WMT), the world’s largest retailer, is well positioned heading into the holidays, said Oliver Chen, an analyst at TD Cowen.
Walmart
has done a “really great job” of consistently undercutting rivals on price while still delivering an easy and enjoyable shopping experience, he said. The stock rose 0.5%.
Other companies noted by analysts for offering value plus convenience include
Costco Wholesale
(COST),
Amazon.com
(AMZN), and
TJX Cos.
(TJX).
Nvidia
(NVDA) was down 1.1%. Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the semiconductor company has told customers in China it was delaying the launch of a new artificial-intelligence chip it designed to comply with U.S. export rules until the first quarter of 2024.
Shares of
iRobot
(IRBT) surged 36% after Reuters reported that Amazon was set to win unconditional antitrust approval in the EU for its acquisition of the smart vacuum company.
Coinbase
(COIN) was rising 6% to $115.84 as Bitcoin traded above $38,000. The last time the largest cryptocurrency traded above $38,000 intraday was on May 5, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Vista Outdoor
(VSTO) said its board would be evaluating a takeover offer from firearms maker Colt CZ Group that values the sporting and outdoor-goods company at $30 a share. The offer from Colt comes after Vista and the Czechoslovak Group, a Czech industrial technology company, announced their own merger deal in October.
Vista Outdoor
shares rose 3.6% to $26.68.
Danish company
Novo Nordisk
(NVO) said it planned to invest 16 billion Danish kroner ($2.34 billion) starting this year to expand an existing production site in France to meet increasing demand for its obesity treatment Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. U.S.-listed shares of
Novo Nordisk
were rising 2.3%.
Cruise, the driverless-car unit of
General Motors
(GM), plans eventually to restart its operations but will do so in just one city. It also will shelve plans for the Origin, a GM-built driverless taxi, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an email sent to employees Wednesday from Cruise’s new co-president, Mo Elshenawy. GM stock was up 1%.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
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