AnalytixInsight

Major indices resumed their move towards record or 52-week highs last week — Dow Jones gained 2.2%, S&P 500 rose 1.85%, and the Nasdaq composite was up 1.1%. Chinese EV maker Zeekr priced its US IPO at top of range to raise US$441 million, the stock popped 30%+ on its debut. S&P 500 companies that have reported Q1/24 results disclosed buying back US$181.2 billion of their shares during the period, up 16% y/y. Since the start of 2023, the volume of M&A financed by stock or a mix of cash and stock has touched its highest level in more than two decades. SoftBank is in talks to acquire Graphcore, a struggling British semiconductor startup once valued at US$2.8 billion. BigCommerce reportedly hired bankers to explore potential sale. Private equity firms are reportedly circling Peloton for a potential buyout. Warren Buffett gave a prominent gesture of confidence to Apple at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on Saturday, saying it’s “extremely likely” the stock will remain his holding company’s biggest investment despite Apple’s recent struggles. OpenAI will announce and demonstrate updates to ChatGPT and GPT-4 on Monday via livestream, the company said on X on Friday. Apple is finalizing a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT features to iOS 18. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance sued the U.S. government on Tuesday to block a new law signed by President Biden forcing a sale or ban of the short-form video app. In Canada, Sophic Client, Kraken received $3.5 million of orders for subsea security equipment. Tantalus Systems announced a $10 million bought deal financing. American Aires announced a $3 million private placement. Shopify fell 18% on Wednesday, shaving almost US$20 billion off the company’s value, after the company gave revenue and profit guidance for the current quarter that spooked investors.

Markets ended the week strongly, due to a tame jobs report, which led to rate cut hopes and a rebounding Apple, prior to Berkshire indicating it cut its Apple position on Saturday. Dow Jones rose 1.1% during the week, S&P 500 gained 0.55%, and Nasdaq composite rose 1.4%. CoreWeave, an Nvidia-backed cloud startup, said it raised US$1.1 billion in new funding led by Coatue Management. The round valued it at US$19 billion. Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled its first mobile app for iPhone users and a new subscription plan for enterprise customers. Tesla shares surged 15% on Monday after Bloomberg reported that the automaker had partnered with Chinese internet company Baidu to help bring the electric vehicle maker’s driver assistance technology to China. A 10.5% drop in iPhone revenue dragged down Apple’s overall revenue by 4% in the March quarter, the tech giant reported Thursday, leading to a 2.3% decline in net profit. Apple announced a new US$110 billion share buyback and increased the dividend. Apple has renewed discussions with OpenAI about using the startup’s technology to power some new features coming to the iPhone later this year. Google on Monday announced new features for its Performance Max ad-buying tool, which uses artificial intelligence to optimize ad campaigns. In Canada, Sophic Client Ionik announced the sale of PopReach Games portfolio for a total aggregate purchase price of up to US$9.8 million. Sophic Capital Client, Xcyte Digital signed agreement to purchase assets of Webinar.net, bringing the Companys’ Pro Forma revenue run rate to US$5.0 million, before synergies, up 500% since the Company’s 2023 RTO. Zedcor announced a $4 million Bought Deal and $10 million concurrent Private Placement offering. Stack Capital invested US$8 million into Canva.

Last week, the stock market rebounded strongly due to mega-cap earnings even amid an alarming inflation report — Dow Jones rose 0.7%, S&P 500 gained 2.7%, Nasdaq advanced 4.2%. Rubrik rose 16% in its trading debut after the cloud and data security startup backed by Microsoft topped its fundraising goal with a US$752 million IPO. Vista Equity Partners-backed automotive data and software services provider Solera is weighing an IPO that may raise over US$1 billion. Traders who bet against the “Magnificent 7” group of big U.S. tech stocks booked their biggest-ever weekly profit of more than US$10 billion last week, with the biggest gains coming from their short position in shares of Nvidia and Tesla. Thoma Bravo will buy UK-listed Darktrace for £4.3 billion. IBM has agreed to buy Hashicorp, for US$6.4 billion in cash to strengthen its position in cloud computing and AI. Alphabet shares rose as much as 13% in after-hours trading after the company reported 15% higher revenues in the first quarter—stronger growth than analysts had anticipated—and announced it would begin paying a dividend. Meta plunged 16% on weak guidance even though Q1 results beat estimates. Tesla shares jumped 13% after Musk says the company aims to start production of an affordable new EV by early 2025. President Joe Biden signed into law a foreign aid package that includes a requirement that TikTok cut ties with its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban. TikTok has about a year to find a new owner, under the law. In Canada, Sophic Client Kraken Robotics gained access to over $100 million in liquidity via a bought deal equity offering and new expanded bank credit facilities in order to fund growth. Sophic Clients Xcyte Digital, OneSoft Solutions, UGE, ADM Endeavors will be presenting at the Planet MicroCap Showcase next week and will also host 1×1 investor meetings.

Last week, S&P 500 lost 3.05% – its biggest weekly decline in a year. Nasdaq composite fell 5.5% – its worst week since November 2022. However, the first-day stock price of Ibotta, traded up 17% Thursday from its US$88 IPO price, which already was at the top of the range bankers expected. French AI start-up Mistral, is in talks to raise €500 million in a deal that would more than double its valuation to at least €5 billion. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has completed a US$7.2 billion fundraise, exceeding an earlier target of US$6.9 billion. Italy’s Prysmian announced a deal to buy US firm Encore Wire for an enterprise value of about 3.9 billion euros (US$4.15 billion). Bentley Systems is exploring options that include a sale after attracting acquisition interest. Google could spend more than US$100 billion over time developing its artificial intelligence technology. Microsoft is looking to double new data center capacity. Meta Platforms on Thursday launched a new version of Meta AI, available in its apps and Ray-Ban smart glasses. Baidu’s Ernie AI chatbot now has 200 million users. Shares of critical chip firm ASML dropped 5% as sales missed expectations. TSMC cut its chip market outlook as consumer weakness persisted. TSMC’s stock slid more than 6% in Taipei, the biggest intraday decline in about 18 months. In Canada, Sophic Client, Kraken Robotics reported record 2023 financial results, and sees its strong momentum continuing. For 2024, Kraken reiterated guidance, expecting revenue between $90.0 million and $100.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA in the $18.0 million to $24.0 million range. Sophic Client, UGE International achieved notice to proceed milestone for a 847kw rooftop community solar project in Queens, New York. UGE had the project appraised by a third party for a fair market value of US$2.7 million or USD$3.14/watt.