Wall Street Indexes Extend Weekly Gains to Fourth Consecutive Week Broadcom Soars 20%

Barry Adams
13 Dec, 2024
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street advanced following a down day in the previous session after tech stocks led the rebound. 

The S&P 500 index gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7% after Broadcom posted a surge in revenue in its AI segment. 

The two widely followed benchmark indexes are set to extend weekly gains to above 1% and stretch weekly advance to the fourth consecutive week. 

Investors are worried that the recent market rally may have stretched valuation after consumer price inflation met expectations, but the core rate of inflation has stayed well above the Fed's target rate of 2% for several months. 

Moreover, the acceleration in the producer price inflation suggested that goods prices are still rising, despite the Fed's increasing rates more than eleven times over 2022 and 2023. 

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index increased 0.3% to 6,071.79, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1% to 20,001.43, and the Russell 2000 index fell by 1.4% to 2,361.08. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged higher to 4.18%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 4.30%, and 30-year Treasury bonds increased to 4.52%.

WTI crude oil increased $0.03 to $70.32 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged down 5 cents to $3.32 a thermal unit.

Gold decreased by $10.88 to $2,710.88 an ounce, and silver fell by $0.05 to $31.87. 

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged higher by 0.05 to 106.77.

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

RH jumped 13.5% to $432.99 after the home furnishing company lifted its fourth quarter and full-year outlook. 

The retailer estimated revenue in the fourth quarter to rise between 18% and 20% and in the full year to advance between 6.8% and 7.2%. 

Revenue in the third quarter ending on November 2 increased to $811.7 million from $751.2 million, net income swung to a profit of $33.2 million from a loss of $2.2 million, and diluted earnings per share were $1.66 compared to a loss of 12 cents a year earlier. 

Broadcom Inc. soared 17.5% to $212.36 after the advanced semiconductor chipmaker reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings. 

Total revenue in the fourth quarter soared 51% to $14.1 billion from $9.3 billion, net income advanced to $4.3 billion from $3.5 billion, and diluted earnings per share rose 90 cents from 83 cents a year earlier. 

"Broadcom's fiscal year 2024 revenue grew 44% year-over-year to a record $51.6 billion, as infrastructure software revenue grew to $21.5 billion, on the successful integration of VMware," said Hock Tan, President and CEO. 

"Semiconductor revenue was a record $30.1 billion, driven by AI revenue of $12.2 billion. AI revenue, which grew 220 percent year-on-year, was driven by our leading AI XPUs and Ethernet networking portfolio," added Tan. 

The company guided fiscal first quarter revenue of $14.6 billion and estimated adjusted operating earnings of 66% of projected revenue, indicating rising operating margin because of the sale of higher-value chips. 

The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of 59 cents per share payable on December 31 to shareholders on record on December 23. 

In the previous quarter, the chipmaker reported lukewarm revenue when adjusted for the purchase of VMware. 

Consolidated revenue in the third quarter, including the latest acquisition of VMware, soared 47% to $13.1 billion from $8.9 billion, and excluding VMware, it rose 4% from a year ago, respectively. 

Net income swung to a loss of $1.9 billion from a profit of $3.3 billion, and diluted earnings per share were a loss of 40 cents compared to a profit of 77 cents a year earlier.