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Workers move cardboard shipping boxes at Amazon's fulfillment center in Swindon, Wiltshire, as they prepare for orders ahead of Black Friday on November 24 (Ben Birchall/Getty Images)
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Packaging manufacturer hits new high thanks to our online-shopping addiction

Shares of Packaging Corp. of America are surging after the company reported better-than-expected sales and profits, with management highlighting e-commerce as a key growth channel.

Luke Kawa

The aptly-named Packaging Corp. of America is one of the top performers in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, up as much as 6.8% and on track for its biggest gain in over a year.

The castellans of corrugated boxes reported better-than-expected sales and earnings for the third quarter while offering guidance for the final quarter of 2024 that was better than what analysts had penciled in.

It’s now the best-performing materials stock in the S&P 500 with a gain of more than 40% year-to-date, narrowly edging out gold miner Newmont Corp.

The continued success for the box-maker sends a reassuring signal about the American consumer, where there’s been off-and-on worries about the outlook for spending in light of some sporadic concerns about how the job market is doing. In particular, executive vice president of corrugated products Thomas Hassfurther highlighted online shopping as a source of strength.

“I’ve mentioned many times that we have a lot of e-commerce customers and that a lot of our customers got into e-com a number of years ago,” he said. “That segment continues to grow nicely, and that’s evidenced by anything you see out there data-wise regarding big-box stores and some of this other stuff, and so, a lot of online shopping.”

Nondurables are more in demand than durable goods, Hassenfurther said, a legacy of the time early in the pandemic when a lot of spending on big-ticket items got pulled forward.

During a Q&A with analysts, CEO Mark Kowlzan said that investing for growth was a higher priority — and better use of cash — for the company rather than buying back its own shares. That’s another good read-through on end-user demand for, well, everything that’s put in boxes. 

“We did not expect to see the kind of growth this year that we have experienced, and we’ve been talking about building inventory all year and we’ve not yet succeeded in coming anywhere near close to where we should be,” he added.

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Trump administration says tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports are coming... in 2027

After a year-long investigation into China’s tactics to bolster its domestic semiconductor industry, the US has determined that its practices are “unreasonable” and is going to do something about that in 18 months.

The Trump administration’s office of the US trade representative said today that it plans to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese semiconductors at a rate higher than 0% to be decided at least 30 days before June 23, 2027.

“China’s pursuit of its dominance goals has severely disadvantaged US companies, workers, and the U.S. economy generally through lessened competition and commercial opportunities and through the creation of economic security risks from dependencies and vulnerabilities,” per the USTR’s notice of action.

These levies, should they come to pass, would apply to silicon, diodes, transistors, and more.

US markets were completely unbothered by this revelation, likely because there is no immediate action against Chinese semi companies and therefore no disruption to business-as-usual. This represents a punting of a contentious matter, similar to how China delayed restrictions on rare earth shipments as part of a deal between Presidents Trump and Xi following their October meeting.

It’s another sign of a thaw in the US-China relations over the hot-button issue of semiconductors after President Trump gave Nvidia the go-ahead to sell its H200 chips to buyers in the world’s second-largest economy.

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ServiceNow strikes deal to buy cybersecurity firm Armis for $7.75 billion in cash

ServiceNow has agreed to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis for $7.75 billion in an all-cash deal, the largest purchase in the company's history.

That price tag is $750 million above what Bloomberg suggested was the top end of what Armis would cost just last week, and about $1.65 billion above what the company had been valued at in a November funding round.

Armis had been readying itself for an IPO, with many major investors looking to take a stake in the firm.

Instead, it’s now a key cog in the software platform company’s bid to lean on cybersecurity features to bolster its appeal to customers in a world in which the rise of AI adds to the potential threats of business disruptions and data breaches.

Per the press release:

As rapid AI adoption expands the attack surface for organizations, real-time visibility into vulnerabilities and actionable insights for what to fix first are critical to minimize risk and strengthen security posture. The acquisition of Armis will extend and enhance ServiceNow’s Security, Risk, and OT portfolios in critical and fast-growing areas of cybersecurity and drive increased AI adoption by strengthening trust across businesses’ connected environments.

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Novo Nordisk rallies after FDA weight loss pill approval

Novo Nordisk’s US-listed shares are up 7% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the US Food and Drug Administration approved its Wegovy weight loss pill on Monday evening.

Now the first pill of its kind to receive approval from the regulator, Novo’s Wegovy pill is expected to launch in the US in early January 2026, and awaits the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory authorities’ approval after submitting for review in the second half of 2025, per the company’s press release. The 1.5 milligram starting dose of the pill will be sold at an introductory price of $149 a month.

“The pill is here. With today's approval of the Wegovy® pill, patients will have a convenient, once-daily pill that can help them lose as much weight as the original Wegovy® injection,” said Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk.

The approval was based on Novo’s Oasis 4 trial, which found participants who took 25 milligram doses of Wegovy pills daily lost 16.6% of their body weight over a 64 week period.

The approval will give Novo — which lost more than 50% of its market cap this year after Eli Lilly took the crown in weekly US prescriptions for injectable weight-loss drugs with its product Zepbound — a first-mover advantage in the expanding market. Lilly, which is down some 1% in pre-market trading today, has said its own oral drug orforglipron could be approved by March 2026.

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