Nio surges to an 11-month high following an upgrade from UBS ahead of its new SUV launch

Chinese EV maker Nio is climbing for the fourth straight trading day, following an upgrade from UBS to “buy” from “neutral.” Nio’s nearly 7% jump propelled the stock to its highest level since last October.

UBS also bumped its price target for Nio up to $8.50, a 37% hike.

Nio will begin deliveries of its new ES8 SUV this weekend, priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y. Last week, the EV maker said it planned to raise up to $1 billion on a share offering.

According to UBS analyst Paul Gong, Nio’s latest products “could further attract consumers after the US $1 billion equity offerings strengthened visibility on its healthy operations.”

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Hyunsoo Rim3h

Nike plunges on weak guidance as China sales slide and tariffs bite

Nike fell around 10% in pre-market trading Friday after the sportswear brand issued lower-than-expected Q3 guidance, despite beating Wall Street estimates on both earnings and revenue for the latest quarter just finished (Q2).

Sales rose 1% year on year to $12.4 billion for the quarter ended November 30, beating the $12.2 billion estimate compiled by LSEG, while adjusted earnings per share of $0.53 also topped the $0.38 estimate — aided by a 9% sales increase in North America, which helped offset a 17% decline in China.

However, for the quarter starting December 1, Nike expects revenues to be "down low single digits" with only "modest growth" in North America, while weakness in China and the company’s Converse brand is expected to persist, CFO Matthew Friend said on the earnings call. The company’s gross margin is also expected to fall by around 175-225 basis points, due to higher costs tied to new tariffs, he added.

After a years-long pivot towards a more direct relationship with customers, Nike’s D2C strategy is stumbling, with a 14% drop in sales for “NIKE Brand Digital.” Its Converse brand was another sore spot, posting a 30% sales drop in Q2, following a 27% decline in Q1.

China also remains a key pressure point, with sales in the region dropping 17% year-on-year, as CEO Elliott Hill — now a little over a year into his turnaround plan — said its recovery is "not happening at the level or the pace we need to drive wider change." Still, he added that the company is now "in the middle innings" of its comeback.

With this morning's slump, Nike shares are down down roughly 23% year-to-date.

Luke Kawa12h

Oracle soars after TikTok signs agreement to sell its US operations to consortium that includes the cloud computing giant

Oracle is up 5.5% in premarket trading on Friday following yesterday’s news that TikTok owner ByteDance signed contracts with three major investors who are leading a joint venture to take over the short-form video app’s US operations, per a widely-cited company memo from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

The trio of parties in that consortium are the cloud computing company, private equity firm Silver Lake, and MGX, a tech investment company backed by Abu Dhabi.

Per reports, the structure of the deal is roughly aligned with what was outlined in September, which valued TikTok’s US operations at about $14 billion. Relative to some less-popular peers, that seems like a pretty low price tag, so picking up doomscrolling on a discount (or if you prefer, short-term video browsing on a budget) looks to be a worthy catalyst for the bump in the beaten-down hyperscaler’s shares. And that’s even before mentioning the potential for Oracle’s cloud business to enhance its preexisting relationship with TikTok.

Toby Bochan

Market Wrap

17h

Markets cheer surprise gift of cooler CPI amid renewed AI optimism to finish higher

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 surged on Thursday — perhaps we’ll have a Santa rally after all!

CAMARILLO, CA FEBRUARY 09: A cannabis farm worker de-leafs cann

Trump signs executive order expediting reclassification of marijuana as a less dangerous drug

Rescheduling would lift regulatory pressures that have been weighing on US cannabis operators’ margins. Shares of weed companies, many of which don’t sell cannabis in the US, tumbled an hour before the executive order was signed.

J. Edward Moreno19h

Max Knoblauch20h

Rivian climbs as it rolls out a “universal hands-free” update and scores an upgrade from Baird

Shares of EV maker Rivian are on pace for their 10th best day of 2025 on Thursday, following an upgrade from Baird to “buy” from “hold” and the rollout of its new hands-free driving update.

Baird raised its price target on Rivian nearly 79% to $25, writing that “2026 is the year of R2.”

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Despite referring to it as “universal hands-free” driving, the EV maker says the feature will not stop or slow for traffic lights or stop signs, follow navigation systems, or make turns, and will function only on roads with visible lane lines.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

Rivian rolls out new 'Universal Hands-Free' driving feature | TechCrunch

Meanwhile, Rivian says its new hands-free feature will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel across 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads.

Rivian revealed the update at its AI Day last week, when it also hinted at a robotaxi plan.

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