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Estée Lauder pops as the beauty giant gets an upgrade

Analysts say the stock could get a glow-up as beauty demand bottoms out and Estée’s supply chain expands.

Nia Warfield

Estée Lauder shares jumped after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold” and raised its price target to $95 from $71.

In a new note, analysts said the beauty conglomerate is finally moving beyond its heavy reliance on China and travel retail, shifting focus toward global innovation and more localized decision-making. Back in 2021, Asia made up over a third of Estée’s total annual revenue.

With much of its recent supply chain investment now complete, Deutsche Bank said the company has more room to leverage future growth and improve margins. Analysts also wrote that the global beauty slowdown may have bottomed out, especially in China and the US.

Inventory issues are also expected to stabilize by the end of FY25, setting the stage for a cleaner rebound next year. The note comes just a week after longtime Estée Lauder Chairman Emeritus Leonard A. Lauder passed away following more than 60 years with the company.

Estée Lauder shares are now positive on the year, up about 1%.

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Akamai climbs to highest level since 2000 after reportedly securing Anthropic as a customer

Akamai’s billion-dollar AI infrastructure customer is Anthropic, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The cloud services company extended gains to trade up over 25% following the news.

On Thursday, the company announced a seven-year, $1.8 billion commitment from a “leading frontier model provider.”

Anthropic has been on a mad scramble to boost compute capacity after facing widespread complaints about Claude usage limits and seeing OpenAI position its accumulation of computing power as a competitive advantage.

In a little over a month, Anthropic has struck or expanded deals with CoreWeave, Amazon, Google, Broadcom, as well as xAI (through SpaceX).

As part of that xAI pact, Anthropic announced that it would be increasing usage limits for paying customers.

Anthropic has been on a mad scramble to boost compute capacity after facing widespread complaints about Claude usage limits and seeing OpenAI position its accumulation of computing power as a competitive advantage.

In a little over a month, Anthropic has struck or expanded deals with CoreWeave, Amazon, Google, Broadcom, as well as xAI (through SpaceX).

As part of that xAI pact, Anthropic announced that it would be increasing usage limits for paying customers.

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NuScale Power falls on disappointing drop in Q1 sales

NuScale shares are dropping in the early trading session after it released Q1 earnings yesterday after the bell that are failing to rejuvenate any excitement in the once high-flying, early-stage nuclear energy company.

The company announced Q1 revenue of just $560,000, well below the $10.5 million estimate, with sales down materially year over year thanks to old licensing and design deals that have since been completed.

The lack of financial progress has made NuScale Power more of a momentum-driven way to play the intersection of clean energy and AI infrastructure, particularly as hyperscalers and data center operators search for long-term power sources.

“The demand for reliable, carbon-free power has never been greater, and NuScale is the only SMR technology provider with a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved design, an established supply chain and NPM components currently in production for commercial use to meet this essential need,” said John Hopkins, NuScale president and CEO. “We are building the infrastructure that this pivotal moment requires.”

Analysts at Goldman Sachs trimmed their price target to $9 from $10 in the wake of this report.

The company ended this quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments of $1.0 billion. The stock has dropped more than 25% year to date.

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Nintendo falls, will hike Switch 2 price amid memory crunch

Gaming giant Nintendo reported the results for its fourth quarter, which ended in March, on Friday morning. Its US-traded ADR fell nearly 4% in premarket trading.

Most notably, Nintendo announced it will raise the price of its Switch 2 console in the US by $50 to $499.99 in September. Investors have been waiting for Nintendo to join its rivals Sony and Microsoft in boosting the price of its flagship console, but the company had thus far been unwilling to do so this early in the Switch 2’s life cycle.

Nintendo shares have fallen about 45% over the past 12 months, as the company has been hit by tariffs and costs have increased due to AI’s memory demand and higher global shipping rates amid the war in Iran.

For its fiscal 2026, Nintendo reported:

  • 2.313 trillion yen ($14.8 billion) in total revenue, compared to estimates of 2.31 trillion yen ($14.78 billion) from Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet.

  • 19.86 million Switch 2 sales, compared to its 19 million forecast.

For the fiscal year ahead (which will end in March 2027), Nintendo forecast 16.5 million Switch 2 sales. The company is guiding for 2.050 trillion yen ($13.1 billion) in sales for the full year, compared to Wall Street estimates of 2.5 trillion yen ($16.1 billion).

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