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Micron rises on price target boost, positive signs from overseas on memory chip pricing

Micron is starting this week as it ended the last one — trading up — with the stock about 2.6% higher as of 7:35 a.m. ET on Monday.

Susquehanna boosted its price target on the US memory chip specialist by 50%, to $300, while maintaining a positive rating on the stock.

Micron’s early advance is also in keeping with recent performance of its peers overseas.

South Korean memory giant SK Hynix soared on Monday, with Shawn Oh, head of Korea cash equities at NH Investment & Securities, telling Bloomberg that the gains were tied to strong pricing for the HBM3e line (the most recent generation of high-bandwidth memory chips) as well as fresh chatter about ADR issuance.

A local brokerage also boosted its SK Hynix price target, estimating that the South Korean company’s operating profit will double this year thanks to the surge in memory chip prices.

Separate reporting from ZDNet Korea indicated that SK Hynix is also delaying the ramp in its HBM4 production, in part to better align the release with Nvidia’s upcoming Rubin chip.

The potential for ADRs would effectively introduce some fresh competition for memory chip investment dollars among American investors, but SK Hynix’s postponement may reinforce demand for Micron’s existing HBM3e chips and give the American company more time to develop its own HBM4 chips.

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Matt Phillips12m

SpaceX valuation chatter lifts satellite stocks

Satellite stocks rose early Monday, riding a wave of excitement about recent reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s satellite startup, SpaceX, is shooting for an $800 billion valuation as it launches a secondary share sale.

EchoStar and Rocket Lab rose, partly in response to the report.

William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote that the valuation news has positive implications for owners of satellite spectrum rights.

If the reported valuation is ultimately achieved, it would be a mark-to-market moment suggesting that traditional satellite spectrum rights are worth more than the market had previously assumed.

That likely explains some of EchoStar’s outperformance on the day. As a legacy provider of satellite-based television services — such as Dish Network — it is a large owner of that spectrum, and has recently been an opportunistic seller of those assets, including to AT&T and SpaceX.

But the market doesn’t seem to like the implications for AST SpaceMobile, which has been trying to build up its portfolio of spectrum rights to compete as a seller of space-based services directly to consumers.

Higher spectrum right prices mean AST will have to cough up more cash as it competes with a Musk-controlled, $800 billion satellite gorilla.

SpaceX to Offer Insider Shares at Record-Setting $800 Billion Valuation

William Blair analyst Louie DiPalma wrote that the valuation news has positive implications for owners of satellite spectrum rights.

If the reported valuation is ultimately achieved, it would be a mark-to-market moment suggesting that traditional satellite spectrum rights are worth more than the market had previously assumed.

That likely explains some of EchoStar’s outperformance on the day. As a legacy provider of satellite-based television services — such as Dish Network — it is a large owner of that spectrum, and has recently been an opportunistic seller of those assets, including to AT&T and SpaceX.

But the market doesn’t seem to like the implications for AST SpaceMobile, which has been trying to build up its portfolio of spectrum rights to compete as a seller of space-based services directly to consumers.

Higher spectrum right prices mean AST will have to cough up more cash as it competes with a Musk-controlled, $800 billion satellite gorilla.

markets

Marvell sinks after Benchmark cuts company, saying that it lost its Amazon custom chip design business

Over the past two trading days, Marvell Technology has faced vexing questions about its relationship with its top two custom chip hyperscaler customers.

Shares are tumbling, down 9% as of 10:21 a.m. ET.

Late last week, The Information reported that Microsoft, its second-biggest custom chip buyer, was in talks to shift that business from Marvell to Broadcom.

Now, Benchmark analyst Cody Acree thinks that Marvell’s largest custom chip customer, Amazon, has done the same, writing that “we now have a high degree of conviction that the company has lost both Amazon’s Trainium3 and 4 designs to its Taiwanese competitor, Alchip.”

Acree downgraded Marvell to “hold” from “buy,” recommending that investors take profit after its post-earnings bounce.

(Harlan Sur at JPMorgan, for what it’s worth, does not believe this is the case, pointing to Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial AI as providing key technology that aligns the company with Amazon’s future chip design needs.)

During the conference call that followed earnings, Sur asked Marvell CEO Matt Murphy about its role with Amazon chips going forward.

“What I would say, which is incorporated into our numbers, is that our product transition from where we are today with our lead XPU customer to the next one is baked into all the numbers I gave you. And yes, I got the backlog, and I got the orders, and we got great visibility there,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s answer was not quite definitive, according to Acree, who thinks that Marvell’s revenue forecast is being “driven by expected continued Trainium2 volumes and a Kuiper low-earth orbit engagement and not the successful transition to Trainium3 designs that many on the sell-side have concluded.”

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J. Edward Moreno48m

Structure Therapeutics posts mid-stage weight-loss pill data in line with Eli Lilly rival

Structure Therapeutics soared in early trading after it reported mid-stage results for its weight-loss pill that were roughly in line with Eli Lilly’s competing product.

The San Francisco-based biotech reported that patients lost roughly 11.3% of their body weight on a lower dose of the pill, aleniglipron, in a mid-stage study. That puts it roughly in line with Lilly’s competing pill, orforglipron, and slightly below Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy.

Both Lilly and Novo’s pills are awaiting regulatory approval and are expected to go to market next year. While the weight-loss numbers were encouraging, Structure’s pill did report higher rates of side effects like nausea and vomiting.

Investors have been closely watching drugmakers’ once-daily pills, which could replace the weekly injections currently on the market. While pills tend to be less effective than shots, they are less expensive to manufacture than prefilled injection pens and are more inviting to squeamish patients.

Warner Brothers To Put Itself Up For Sale

Paramount launches hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery at $30 per share, trying to upend Netflix deal

Paramount is taking its Warner Bros. Discovery purchase effort straight to shareholders.

Max Knoblauch2h

markets

Max Knoblauch3h

Rivian, Lucid, and Tesla all downgraded by Morgan Stanley on tougher EV market

US EV makers are seeing red in premarket trading on Monday, following a fresh downgrade from Morgan Stanley. Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla shares were all trading lower in early hours.

Analyst Andrew Percoco downgraded Rivian from “equalweight” to “underweight” and dropped his price target to $12 — 33% below the stock’s price as of Friday’s close. Percoco wrote that Rivian faces a host of upcoming headwinds, fueled by slowing adoption amid the end of the EV tax credit. According to Morgan Stanley, Rivian’s lower-priced R2 SUV could cannibalize demand for its other vehicles.

The firm also downgraded Lucid to “underweight,” slashing its price target to $10 from a previous target of $30. The new figure would represent an all-time low for the luxury EV maker. Percoco highlighted the potential for further dilution for Lucid investors given the company’s cash needs.

Morgan Stanley downgraded Tesla from “overweight” to “equalweight,” citing high AI expectations, but the bank bumped its price target to $425.

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