MicroStrategy Jumps on Latest Bitcoin Buy, Capital Raise Plan

1 hr 46 min ago

Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) rose Monday as one of the largest corporate holders of bitcoin (BTCUSD) added to its stockpile, with plans to raise more capital for future purchases.

The company purchased 1,070 bitcoins for $101 million, at an average price of $94,004 per bitcoin, on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, according to a recent regulatory filing.

MicroStrategy now holds approximately 447,470 bitcoins, worth roughly $45 billion as bitcoin prices climbed back above $102,000 Monday.

The purchase filing comes after the MicroStrategy unveiled plans Friday to raise up to $2 billion over the next three years.

The capital raise adds to MicroStrategy’s previously-announced “21/21” strategy. The 21/21 plan is the company’s strategy of raising $42 billion of capital by selling new shares and fixed-income securities to buy more bitcoin.

MicroStrategy joined the Nasdaq 100 index in late December, although concerns about leverage and sustainability of the company’s bitcoin buying strategy led its stock price to falter in the past month.

Shares of MicroStrategy gained 6% Monday and, despite recent volatility, are up nearly 500% over the past year.

–Andrew Kessel

Uber Rises on Accelerated $1.5 Billion Stock Buyback Plan

2 hr 14 min ago

Uber (UBER) shares jumped Monday after the ridesharing company said it is starting an accelerated stock buyback program with an agreement to buy back $1.5 billion in shares from Bank of America (BAC).

The company said the $1.5 billion purchase—expected to deliver more than 18.5 million shares—represents about 80% of the shares Uber plans to buy back under the accelerated plan, with the rest of the purchases expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.1

The accelerated plan is part of the $7 billion stock buyback program that Uber announced in Feb. 2024, the first buyback program in the company’s history.

Uber CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah said Uber is beginning 2025 with “considerable momentum” and plans to “continue scaling our free cash flows significantly,” allowing it to invest in growing the company while also returning capital to shareholders.

“Our stock is undervalued relative to the strength of our business, and we plan to accelerate our buybacks under the existing authorization as a result,” Mahendra-Rajah said. “This [accelerated share repurchase] represents a value-enhancing deployment of capital, retiring over one percent of our market cap.”

Uber shares were up more than 3% this morning and have gained about 16% over the past year, lagging the S&P 500’s 28% increase over the period.

–Aaron McDade

Chip Stocks Soar as Foxconn Revenue Jumps on AI Strength

2 hr 53 min ago

Chip stocks are surging early Monday after Taiwan’s Foxconn, which assembles Apple (AAPL) iPhones and Nvidia (NVDA) products, posted record fourth-quarter revenue—driven by the boom in demand for AI technologies.

Foxconn, whose formal name is Hon Hai Precision Industry, said Sunday that its fourth-quarter revenue rose 15% year-over-year to 2.132 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($65.09 billion). Its December sales rose 42% to NT$654.83 billion.

“With strong demand from AI servers, revenue experienced strong growth YoY,” the company said.

Shares of AI darling Nvidia were up 4% this morning before CEO Jensen Huang gives the keynote address at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. Micron Technology (MU) were up 10%, while ASML Holding (ASML), Lam Research (LRCX) and KLA Corp. (KLA) each added more than 5%.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was up more than 4%.

–Nisha Gopalan

Supermicro Levels to Watch as Stock Surges

3 hr 33 min ago

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares are soaring this morning after jumping 11% on Friday snap a five-session losing streak.

Sentiment may also received a boost after Microsoft (MSFT) announced Friday that it plans to spend about $80 billion this fiscal year on data centers that power AI, a move that could benefit the server maker through increased partnerships and hardware sales.

Supermicro is looking to move past a volatile 2024 in which accounting and corporate governance issues led to several delayed financial reports. However, CEO Charles Liang said last month that postponed filings will be completed by a Feb. 25 deadline issued by the Nasdaq, easing concerns about a potential delisting.

Supermicro shares ended last year with a 7% gain, but surged more than four-fold between January and March before slumping as much as 85% from their record high. 

Since mid-July, Supermicro shares have oscillated within an orderly descending broadening formation, with the stock tagging both the pattern’s upper and lower trendline on several occasions since that time.

More recently, the price has traded in a narrow range since mid-December but closed above the 50-day moving average (MA) on Friday on the highest trading volume in over a week.

Investors should monitor key support levels on Supermicro’s chart around $26 and $18, while also watching crucial resistance levels near $39, $50, and $63.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Major Indexes Poised to Open Higher on Monday

4 hr 30 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4%.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.8%.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1%.