BlackRock on Monday upgraded its overall outlook for U.S. stocks to overweight from neutral, as the world’s largest asset manager sees the S&P 500’s upward momentum continuing for the next six to 12 months amid cooling inflation and potential interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The stock market’s tech-driven rally, fueled by investor excitement over artificial intelligence, should “broaden out as inflation falls further, the Fed starts to cut rates, and the market sticks to its rosy macro outlook,” s ...

Legacy media companies must navigate a tricky road in the streaming era, and a Wells Fargo analyst thinks Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. might be leaving billions of dollars in revenue on the table by not making one strategic move. Companies that have their own media content face tough decisions as they figure out whether they should go all-in on their own streaming services or look to make money off their programming in other ways. Warner Bros. Discovery WBD, -2.50% is experimenting with putting some of i ...

Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s stock has been on a tear, achieving a record all-time high last week as it rumbles toward projected bang-up results for the quarter on Tuesday.A rebound in advertising sales, growing optimism about its plans for generative artificial intelligence and the routine shedding of workers in the past several weeks all have analysts and investors in buoyant spirits.“We believe Google can grind higher even after rising 58% in 2023” because of accelerating ad revenue, easy comparisons, s ...

An influential set of General Motors Co. dealership owners have been asking the automaker for more hybrid vehicles, out of concern that they are missing out customers who aren’t ready for electric vehicles yet, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.GM GM, +0.27%, Ford Motor Co. F, +0.22% and carmakers have pumped the brakes on their EV plans in recent months, while Tesla Inc. TSLA, +2.61% last week warned Wall Street that it could grow slower this year as it grapples with launching a new EV that would cos ...

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.87% and Roomba parent iRobot Corp. IRBT, -3.36% said Monday they are terminating their planned acquisition agreement because they believe there’s no path to regulatory approval in the European Union. “We’re disappointed that Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot could not proceed,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president and general counsel. This outcome “will deny consumers faster innovation and more competitive prices, which we’re confident would have made their lives easier a ...

It’s almost time for investors to find out more about the next leg of Microsoft Corp.’s artificial-intelligence growth. The technology giant became a poster child for AI last year thanks to its investment in OpenAI, the creator of the popular ChatGPT chatbot. And the AI revolution seems to already be helping Microsoft’s MSFT, -0.23% Azure cloud-computing business, which has been seeing better trends than Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, +0.10% GOOGL, +0.21% Google Cloud.But while Microsoft appears to be winning AI wor ...

Tesla Inc. is expecting capital expenditure to exceed $10 billion in 2024 and to range from $8 billion to $10 billion for each of the following two fiscal years.The electric-vehicle maker TSLA, +0.34% made the disclosure in its 10-K annual report filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission published on Monday.“We are simultaneously ramping new products, building or ramping manufacturing facilities on three continents, piloting the development and manufacture of new battery cell technologies, expandin ...

Ryanair on Monday lowered its full-year profit guidance, as it said higher fuel and staffing costs, and a decision by online travel agents to stop listing its flights, had hit profits in the final three months of 2023.The Irish airline also told investors that delays of Boeing aircraft deliveries are set to impact its growth over the coming year. The low-cost airline RYA, -0.88% RYAAY, +0.09% said the decision by “pirate” travel agents — including Kiwi, and Booking Holdings BKNG, +0.47% owned websites Kayak ...

3M Co. MMM, +0.01% said Monday the litigation settlement it agreed to for selling potentially faulty earplugs to the military is on track to exceed the 98% participation threshold by the final registration date of March 25. The company has opted to pay $1 billion of the total of $6 billion in cash, instead of stock, a choice it was allowed once it reached the 98% participation threshold. “The strong support from more than 250,000 eligible claimants who have elected to participate in the settlement and rele ...

The heaviest stretch of the fourth-quarter earnings storm hits this week, with 106 companies set to report results. But results from only five — all part of the gang of tech behemoths known as the Magnificent Seven — will play an oversized role in steering collective corporate profit growth into positive territory for the period. The numbers explosion begins on Tuesday, with results from two of those seven, Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.23% and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +0.21% GOOG, +0.10%. It continues ...