Dell Technologies Inc.
Dell shares closed the week on a strong note after the technology company got a bump from NVIDIA’s “Halo Effect”. The stock was almost 5% higher for the day.
Shares of Dell broke through the $150 price level and new all-time highs as investors have ridden a volatility surge higher since the stock broke through $125.
Dell’s earnings announcement is set for next week, suggesting that some of the advance over the last week may be driven by anxious investor’s buying the rumor.
Dell’s earnings have beaten analyst expectations for eight consecutive quarters, though the company’s revenue has been weaker in growth. The disparity between the two suggests that Dell’s management has been improving margins.
A flip to year-over-year revenue growth in next week’s report would fuel further growth in the stock’s price with a target of $200.
Tesla
Tesla shares made their way back to the most active list today as the stock rallied 3.2% higher for the day.
The move comes on the heels of a bevy of headlines from the Viva Technology 2024 conference in Paris. In whole, the headlines were mixed.
One headline noted that the company’s 2023 Impact Report included a target to sell 20 million EVs by 2030. This target has not been included in previous reports. Other headlines indicated that Tesla was lowering production of their Model Y in Shanghai.
From a look at the chart, today’s move was more about the company’s stock garnering support at $175, a price previously noted in these pages. Today market the 13th day out of 15 that Tesla stock has trade at $175, indicated the market’s tug-of-war between the bulls and bears on Tesla stock.
Strength in the Nasdaq provided a tailwind for Tesla shares as it traded lighter than average volume for the stock due to the holiday weekend trading.
Alphabet
Alphabet shares traded higher on Friday, but didn’t keep up with the rest of the market. Part of the reason for the underperformance were headlines in the media regarding the company’s latest iteration of AI driven search results.
According to CNBC and other sources, the newest “AI Overview” has provided inaccurate responses including answering that “The United States has had one Muslim president, Barack Hussein Obama.” When asked how many Muslim presidents the United States has had.
The examples of nonsense and false replies is being wildly displayed on Reddit and other social media outlets.
Google has had their growing pains with AI rollouts. In 2023, the company’s rollout of its first AI integrations resulted in the company’s market cap dropping more than $100 billion after a botched demonstration of its chatbot tool Bart.
Today’s news punctuates criticism of rush jobs and hurried releases in order to be first to market in the fast-paced AI application space. This has been expressed by employees of Alphabet and other AI leading companies, a view that will likely pick up closer scrutiny moving forward.
Alphabet’s stock remains near its highs just under $180 and remains in a long- and short-term bull market trend.
