Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Amazon — The e-commerce giant popped 7% after posting stronger-than-expected earnings and robust cloud and advertising growth. Revenues for its Amazon Web Services grew 19% on a year-over-year basis. Apple — Shares dropped 1.6% even after the technology giant surpassed top-and-bottom line estimates for the recent quarter, and showed 6% revenue growth. Net income declined as company paid a one-time charge connected to a tax decision in Europe. Atlassian – The stock surged more than 21% on the heels of the software company’s better-than-expected quarterly results for the fiscal first quarter. Atlassian earned 77 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $1.19 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had penciled in 64 per share and $1.16 billion in revenue. The company also raised its revenue growth forecast for the full year. Intel — Shares rallied more than 5% on stronger-than-expected earnings and upbeat guidance . The chipmaker posted adjusted earnings of 17 cents a share on $13.28 billion in revenue. That topped the 2-cent loss per share and $13.02 billion in revenue expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Abbott Laboratories — Shares of the biotech company rose 5% after a jury in Missouri cleared Abbott of liability in a baby formula case. There are still other similar cases pending against Abbott. Boeing — Shares gained 2% after the agreeing to a new offer with its union as it hopes to bring an end to a seven-week long strike. The deal would include 38% raises over the next four years, with a vote on the proposal slated for Monday. Avis Budget — The car rental company slipped 1.5% after posting third-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Earnings per share came in $1.53 below the $8.18 estimates from analysts polled by LSEG. The company reports revenues of $3.48 billion per share, versus an LSEG estimates of $3.53 billion. Chevron — The oil giant’s stock rose 2%. Chevron topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and returned more than $7 billion to shareholders during the period through buybacks and dividends. Super Micro Computer — Shares of the AI server maker lost 3%, building on their more than 38% week-to-date loss after disclosing that Ernst & Young had resigned as its auditor due to concerns over its accounting practices and the independence of its board. Exxon Mobil — Shares of the oil giant added nearly 2% after Exxon beat Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings expectations, reaching its highest production level in more than 40 years. Exxon posted earnings per share of $1.92, excluding items, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $1.88 per share. The company’s revenue of $90 billion came out slightly short of analysts’ forecast of $93.94 billion, however. Juniper Networks — Shares dipped slightly. Juniper Networks posted preliminary third-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates, but did not provide financial guidance for 2024, citing its pending acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise . Juniper Networks earned 48 cents per share, on an adjusted basis, more than the StreetAccount consensus estimate of 45 cents per-share earnings. Revenue of $1.33 billion topped the FactSet estimate of $1.26 billion. — CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Sean Conlon, Pia Singh and Sarah Min contributed reporting
Ken Griffin, chief executive officer and founder of Citadel Advisors LLC, speaks during an Economic Club of New York event in New York, US, on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin issued a warning against the steep tariffs President-elect Donald Trump vowed to implement, saying crony capitalism could be a consequence.
“I am gravely concerned that the rise of tariffs puts us on a slippery slope towards crony capitalism,” the billionaire investor said Thursday at the Economic Club of New York.
The Citadel founder thinks domestic companies could enjoy a short-term benefit of having their competitors taken away. Longer term, however, it does more harm to corporate America and the economy as companies lose competitiveness and productivity.
Crony capitalism is an economic system marked by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials.
“Those same companies that enjoy that momentary sugar rush of having their competitors removed from the battlefield, soon become complacent, soon take for granted their newfound economic superiority, and frankly, they become less competitive on both the world stage and less competitive at meeting the needs of the American consumer,” Griffin said at the event.
Trump made universal tariffs a core tenet of his economic campaign pitch, floating a 20% levy on all imports from all countries with a specifically harsh 60% rate for Chinese goods.
The protectionist trade policy could make production of goods more expensive and raise consumer prices, just as the world recovers from pandemic-era inflation spikes.
“Now you’re going to find the halls of Washington really filled with the special interest groups and the lobbyists as people look for continued higher and higher tariffs to keep away foreign competition, and to protect inefficient American businesses have failed to meet the needs of the American consumer,” Griffin said.
At the same event, Griffin also said that he’s not focused on taking Citadel Securities public in the foreseeable future. Citadel is a market maker founded by Griffin in 2002.
“We’re focused on building the business, on investing in our future. And we do believe that there are benefits to being private during this period of very, very rapid growth,” he said.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Nvidia — Shares of the chipmaker dipped about 1% in midday trading, after gyrating earlier in the session. Nvidia beat on top and bottom lines for the third quarter, posting adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share on revenue of $35.08 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had called for earnings of 75 cents per share on $33.16 billion in revenue. Nvidia also gave a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter. Baidu — U.S. shares of the Chinese search engine fell about 5% after Baidu’s third-quarter revenue declined by 3% compared to the year-ago period . Still, the company posted a 12% increase in its non-online marketing revenue, fueled mostly by growth in its artificial intelligence cloud business. Alphabet — Shares declined 5% on news that the Department of Justice is pushing a federal judge to force Google divest its Chrome internet browser in order to create a more level playing field for competitors in the search industry. That follows a ruling in August that Google has a monopoly in the search market. Snowflake — The data analytics software maker saw shares skyrocket more than 34%, after the company’s better-than-expected third-quarter results . The stock is heading for its best day ever. Snowflake also called for $3.43 billion in fiscal 2025 product revenue, implying 29% growth. CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said Snowflake is focusing more on saving money. Merus — Shares of the cancer therapeutics company gained nearly 4%. Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Merus with a buy rating, saying it sees big gains ahead driven by the company’s cancer treatment. Netflix — Shares rose nearly 2% on the heels of Bank of America reiterating its buy rating on the stock and upping its price target to $1,000. The bank cited live events, as well as Netflix’s in-house ad tech platform, as catalysts for growth. Crypto-related stocks — Stocks tied to cryptocurrencies earlier rose after the price of bitcoin crossed $98,000 for the first time , but they fluctuated after Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz warned that a pullback in bitcoin will come eventually. MicroStrategy was down 1%, reversing its earlier gains, while Coinbase dipped 3%. Miner Mara Holdings gained nearly 10%, while trading platform Robinhood dipped about 1%. BJ’s Wholesale Club — Shares moved 9% higher after the warehouse club’s third-quarter adjusted earnings beat the Street’s estimates. BJ’s also boosted its full-year guidance. The company said it will increase its membership fee and announced plans to repurchase $1 billion shares. PDD Holdings — Shares of the e-commerce giant, which owns Temu, fell 9.7%. PDD missed profit and revenue estimates. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Yun Li and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, testifies during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress,” in the Dirksen Building on Nov. 30, 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday issued a finalized version of a rule saying it will soon supervise nonbank firms that offer financial services likes payments and wallet apps.
Tech giants and payments firms that handle at least 50 million transactions annually will fall under the review, which is meant to ensure the newer entrants adhere to the laws that banks and credit unions abide by, the CFPB said in a release. That would include popular services from Apple and Google, as well as payment firms like PayPal and Block.
While the CFPB already had some authority over digital payment companies because of its oversight of electronic fund transfers, the new rule allows it to treat tech companies more like banks. It makes the firms subject to “proactive examinations” to ensure legal compliance, enabling it to demand records and interview employees.
“Digital payments have gone from novelty to necessity and our oversight must reflect this reality,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The rule will help to protect consumer privacy, guard against fraud, and prevent illegal account closures.”
A year ago, the CFPB said it wanted to extend its oversight to tech and fintech companies that offer financial services but that have sidestepped more scrutiny by partnering with banks. Americans are increasingly using payment apps as de facto bank accounts, storing cash and making everyday purchases through their mobile phones.
The most popular apps covered by the rule collectively process more than 13 billion consumer payments a year, and have gained “particularly strong adoption” among low- and middle-income users, the CFPB said on Thursday.
“What began as a convenient alternative to cash has evolved into a critical financial tool, processing over a trillion dollars in payments between consumers and their friends, families, and businesses,” the regulator said.
The initial proposal would’ve subjected companies that process at least 5 million transactions annually to some of the same examinations that the CFPB conducts on banks and credit unions. That threshold got raised to 50 million transactions in the final rule, the agency said Thursday.
Payment apps that only work at a particular retailer, like Starbucks, are excluded from the rule.
The new CFPB rule is one of the rare instances where the U.S. banking industry publicly supported the regulator’s actions; banks have long felt that tech firms making inroads in financial services ought to be more scrutinized.
The CFPB said the rule will take effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.