SEC Chair Gensler to resign

In a major victory for the crypto industry and its growing army of lobbyists, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that he would resign January 20, making way for a Trump nominee to run the powerful regulator.

Gensler became the crypto world’s bête noire after the SEC sued Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance, among others, alleging the firms failed to follow US securities laws. The companies continue to fight in court, with arguments often hinging on technical reasons why crypto should not be considered a security. Courts have mostly backed Gensler’s positions on crypto, Reuters observed.

US SEC chief Gensler to step down on Jan. 20

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Tasha Matsumoto

10h

Stocks trade higher as tech rebound continues

Tech was the best-performing sector for the second consecutive session.

Chicago Bulls Mascot Benny the Bull dunks the ball during the halftime show of the Missouri Valley Conference college basketball game between the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers and the Illinois State Redbirds on February 2, 2019.

Matt Phillips13h

Sandisk and Micron slip as Samsung rushes new product into production

Sandisk and Micron, which have boomed along with prices for the memory chips needed for the AI data center build-out, are limping behind the broader market Monday after a weekend report that South Korean chip giant Samsung is beginning “mass production” of its latest memory product, HBM4, slightly earlier than expected.

US memory chip maker Micron also makes HBM (high-bandwidth memory), which is essentially a large memory product designed for AI applications.

Sandisk doesn’t make HBM. But it is developing a kind of high-bandwidth flash NAND memory product that is intended to function as an HBM option for AI data centers.

More broadly, signs that Asian production giants are responding to high prices by ramping up supply means that the nosebleed pricing of memory chips that quintupled Sandisk’s profit over the last year might not last forever.

Samsung to begin mass production of HBM4 chips later this month: sources | Yonhap News Agency

Samsung moves first on HBM4 in bid to regain AI memory edge

US memory chip maker Micron also makes HBM (high-bandwidth memory), which is essentially a large memory product designed for AI applications.

Sandisk doesn’t make HBM. But it is developing a kind of high-bandwidth flash NAND memory product that is intended to function as an HBM option for AI data centers.

Hyunsoo Rim

GLUTIDE TURNED

15h

Novo Nordisk has lost most of its post-Wegovy market cap gains

A weak sales outlook and a copycat scare capped a brutal week for Europe’s one-time most valuable company.

Still life of a bottle of the new Wegovy semaglutide tablets on a womans hand.

Matt Phillips16h

Oracle rises as DA Davidson gives it a “buy” rating because of OpenAI positivity

Oracle rose after receiving an upgrade to start the week. Analysts at DA Davidson bumped up their view on the stock from “neutral” to “buy” and kept their $180 price target on the shares. That’s about 27% higher than Friday’s close.

Their shift isn’t so much about Oracle but about OpenAI, which Davidson folks now think is increasingly likely to be able to make good on billions of dollars’ worth of planned spending on computing power at Oracle and other hyperscalers. They wrote:

“We are now more positive on OpenAI, based on changes in strategy, new frontier models, the pressure on Google’s competitors from its recent ascent, and progress on its fundraising efforts. Most importantly, we believe OpenAI already has as much as $40B of cash on hand and may be raising as much as another $100B by the end of the quarter, which should help pay for the data centers Oracle is building for OpenAI. Since the market is currently assigning the OpenAI relationship a negative value, we believe the fundraise will serve as a catalyst for outperformance.”

For OpenAI’s part, CEO Sam Altman just told employees that the company was “back to exceeding 10% monthly growth,” according to CNBC reporting.

Max Knoblauch16h

Roblox rises following upgrade and price target hike from Roth Capital as growth in older players boosts optimism

Shares of Roblox are up in early trading on Monday following a price target hike and an upgrade from “neutral” to “buy” from Roth Capital.

Roth bumped its price target up from $78 to $84, with analyst Eric Handler citing the company’s “sustainable virtuous circle where continuously improving creator/development tools are producing higher quality games, which enhances the user experience, and drives higher engagement.”

Handler also noted Roblox’s success in growing its 18-plus player base, which increased 50% last year and, per Roth, “monetized 40% higher than under-18-users.”

The platform surged after reporting its fourth-quarter earnings last week, with stronger-than-expected full-year bookings guidance. Still, the stock remains below levels in January, before the debut of Google’s AI interactive worlds generator, Project Genie.

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