Tech Roundup: Musk, Twitter, Disney and Apple make some waves
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The tech sector experienced a relatively quiet week compared to what it had recently gone through during a raft of sector earnings reports, but that didn't keep some of the biggest teh names from making some noise and garnering attention across Wall Street.
The goings on between Elon Musk and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) picked up some steam when Musk revealed he had recently sold $7B of his Tesla (TSLA) stock. The sales, which occurred between August 5 and August 9, were in contrast to Musk saying back in April that he had "no further Tesla sales planned."
In selling such as a massive chunk of his Tesla (TSLA) holdings, Musk was seen by some on Wall Street as being more likely to go through with acquiring Twitter (TWTR), but at possibly less than the original $44B price tag.
A few notable earnings reports rolled in, with one of the most closely watched coming from the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS).
On Wednesday, Disney (DIS) reported its second-quarter results that included a strong performance from the company's parks division as attendance numbers continued to get back close to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. Disney's (DIS) performance pleased investors so much that the sent the company's shares to a four-month-high.
Semiconductor companies remained active as President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law. Some analysts saw semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) as being the biggest beneficiary of the act, but also said the measure wouldn't be a "silver bullet" for the industry.
Meanwhile, Micron Technology (MU) issued a weak earnings forecast that created a hiccup for the chip sector in the wake of Biden signing the CHIPS Act.
Nvidia (NVDA) also threw a monkey wrench into the chip industry as it released preliminary second-quarter results that showed the effects of weak gaming product sales.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm (QCOM) and GlobalFoundries (GFS) announced they had reached a new long-term extension of their current chipmaking agreement. The deal includes doubling the companies manufacturing levels and expanding the capacity of GlobalFoundries (GFS) chipmaking plant in Malta, New York. GlobalFoundries (GFS) also got a lift as analysts said the company could benefit from the impact of the CHIPS Act.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is still at least a month away from unveiling the next version of the iPhone. But, that hasn't stopped speculation growing about the state of the smartphone market heading into the end of the year, which is always Apple's (AAPL) busiest business period of any year.
Foxconn (OTCPK:FXCOF), which is one of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone production partners, reported better-than-expected quarterly results, but then threw a wet blanket on things by warning of slowing smartphone demand in the months ahead. However, fresh on Foxconn's (OTCPK:FXCOF) heels, reports surfaced saying that Apple (AAPL) has told its iPhone partners to ramp up production, as the company is said to be looking at producing at least as many iPhones this as it did in 2021.
Meanwhile, as Apple (AAPL) gets ready to launch the so-called iPhone 14 in time for the end-of-the-year Christmas and holiday shopping season, an influential Apple (AAPL) analyst said the company might raise the average price of the next iPhone by as much as 15% over the iPhone 13 line.
And, as the iPhone remains Apple's (AAPL) biggest source of revenue by a wide margin, and its services sales equal more than the Mac and the iPad combined, some analysts have said that Apple (AAPL) may get into the digital advertising business as its next big thing to boost is sales.
Among other notable tech happenings were Netflix (NFLX) shares continuing to rally since the company put out its second-quarter results in late July; Softbank (OTCPK:SFTBY) said it had sold off all of its remaining shares of Uber, and that it will divest itself of nearly half of its ownership stake in Alibaba, and streaming TV platform company FuboTV (FUBO) made headlines when it added SportsGrid, a live, 24-hours streaming sports wagering network to its offerings, and some speculation emerged suggesting that Fubo (FUBO) could be in line for a possible takeover.