Plus, the U.S. added seven Chinese supercomputing firms to its blacklist on national security concerns, GameStop is naming Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen as chairman of the board, and CommScope is spinning off its home networking business.
Stocks were higher at the open on Thursday with the Dow adding 23 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose by 0.2%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.8%.
The S&P 500 rose to another new record high this morning amid a strong rally in tech stocks and after closing at a new all-time high on Wednesday even as jobless claims came in higher than expected. The Labor Department reported initial claims for the week ended April 3 or 744,000, while economists had expected a reading of 694,000. “The jump in jobless claims is disappointing but doesn’t change our view that the next few months will see huge job gains as the economy continues to reopen,” said Jeff Buchbinder, equity strategist at LPL Financial. “In fact, it wouldn’t shock us to see employment return approach pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.”
The U.S. added seven Chinese supercomputing firms to an economic blacklist citing national security concerns. The Commerce Department added Tianjin Phytium Information Technology, Shanghai High-Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center, Sunway Microelectronics, the National Supercomputing Center Jinan, the National Supercomputing Center Shenzhen, the National Supercomputing Center Wuxi and the National Supercomputing Center Zhengzhou to its blacklist. “Supercomputing capabilities are vital for the development of many—perhaps almost all—modern weapons and national-security systems, such as nuclear weapons and hypersonic weapons,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “The Department of Commerce will use the full extent of its authorities to prevent China from leveraging U.S. technologies to support these destabilizing military modernization efforts.”
GameStop shares jumped this morning after the company announced Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen will become chairman of its board after its annual shareholder meeting on June 9. Cohen invested in GameStop last year and has spearheaded the company’s corporate overhaul away from its brick-and-mortar business and towards e-commerce. In addition to uplifting Cohen to the chairman roll, GameStop plans to nominate two new board members: Larry Cheng, managing partner of Volition Capital, and Yang Xu, senior vice president of global finance and treasury at Kraft Heinz.
General Motors shares are down nearly 2% this morning after the automaker announced it is temporarily idling or extending shutdowns at several plants in North America due to the ongoing global semiconductor shortage. The temporary plant closures range from a week or two to several additional weeks for plants that have already been idled due to the parts disruption. GM said that the closures have been factored into its earnings forecast for the year, and will reduce its operating profit by $1.5 billion to $2 billion this year. “We continue to work closely with our supply base to find solutions for our suppliers’ semiconductor requirements and to mitigate impact on GM,” the company said in a statement. “Our intent is to make up as much production lost at these plants as possible.”
And CommScope shares are up 4% after the communications-hardware company announced plans to spin-off its home networking business. The company said the moves is part of its effort to “optimize the business portfolio, drive above-market growth, and control costs,” adding that the spin-off will be completed by the end of the first quarter 2022. CEO Chuck Treadway, who joined the company in October, said the company’s board and management team have taken a comprehensive review of CommScope’s portfolio. “As we proceeded with this review, it became clear that the Home Networks business’ distinct strategy, growth characteristics, investment requirements and returns on invested capital are not aligned with the rest of our portfolio,” Treadway said in a statement. “We believe that Home Networks will be better positioned to deliver superior home and consumer-oriented products as an independent company.”
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Blink Charging Company (NASDAQ: BLNK): Blink Charging shares are up 13% at the time of writing after the EV charging provider announced the upcoming deployment of 42 charging ports at ten Four Brothers Pizza Inn locations across New York. “As electric vehicle use continues to gain popularity, drivers are looking for convenient and reliable charging options at dining establishments and entertainment venues, where they can park and charge. We’re pleased to have this opportunity to partner with Four Brothers, an historical and respected family business, utilizing our owner/operator model,” said Brendan Jones, President of Blink Charging. “We’re confident that EV drivers, among their clientele, will recognize the value of our fast Level 2 chargers. We look forward to opportunities to support future Four Brothers locations.”