European stocks look set to open broadly higher on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran has stayed executions of protesters, signaling he may hold off on attacking the country for now.Meanwhile, Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that discussions at the White House with U.S. vice-president J.D. Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio were "frank but constructive", stressing that any proposal undermining Danish sovereignty or Greenland's right to self-determination was "total ...

Core Viewpoint - U.S. stocks finished lower, led by declines in technology shares and bank stocks, despite some banks beating quarterly profit estimates. Concerns over a proposed cap on credit-card interest rates have negatively impacted financial sector sentiment [1][9]. Financial Sector - Citigroup and Bank of America shares fell despite beating Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit. The S&P 500 bank index dropped, with Wells Fargo down 4.6% after missing profit expectations [1][9]. - Financials, which had seen significant gains in 2025, have declined this week due to concerns over President Trump's proposed credit-card interest rate cap, which could squeeze consumers and hurt profits in the financial sector [1][9]. - Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, noted that profit-taking and consolidation are occurring in the banks after a strong run, but overall optimism remains [2]. Technology Sector - The S&P 500 technology sector also fell, as investors shifted focus from expensive megacap stocks to value and more defensive names [2][9]. - Shares of Broadcom and Fortinet dropped following reports that Chinese authorities instructed domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software from U.S. and Israeli firms [5][10]. Market Performance - The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 42.36 points (0.09%) to 49,149.63, the S&P 500 lost 37.14 points (0.53%) to 6,926.60, and the Nasdaq Composite decreased by 238.12 points (1.00%) to 23,471.75 [5][9]. - The small-cap Russell 2000 index reached a record closing high, along with the S&P 500 industrials index, indicating strong performance in certain sectors [4][9]. Economic Indicators - U.S. producer prices matched forecasts in November, while retail sales exceeded expectations. Consumer prices in December rose as projected [6][10]. - Interest rates are expected to remain steady through the first half of the year, with traders anticipating at least two cuts before year-end [7][10]. Trading Volume - Trading volume on U.S. exchanges was 22.54 billion shares, significantly higher than the 16.69 billion average over the last 20 trading days. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.85-to-1 ratio on the NYSE [8][10].

Group 1 - Chinese authorities have instructed domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software from over a dozen U.S. and Israeli firms due to national security concerns, as the software may collect sensitive data and transmit it overseas [1][2] - The directive specifically targets American companies such as VMware, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Recorded Future, McAfee, Claroty, and Rapid7, as well as Israeli firms like Check Point Software Technologies, CyberArk, Orca Security, and Cato Networks [2][5] - This move is part of China's broader strategy to replace Western-made technology with domestic alternatives amid ongoing tensions with the West over technology and trade [7] Group 2 - The U.S. and China are preparing for a visit by President Donald Trump to Beijing in April, which may influence future technology and trade relations [7] - The Trump administration has approved Nvidia's exports, allowing the company to ship its artificial intelligence chips to China and other countries, indicating a potential easing of restrictions [10][11] - Nvidia's spokesperson expressed support for the decision, highlighting the balance it strikes for America's chip industry and job market [11]

Broadcom stock (NASDAQ: AVGO) tumbled roughly 5% on Wednesday following Reuters reports that Chinese authorities instructed domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software from about a dozen U... ...

China has officially banned cybersecurity software from a dozen U.S. and Israeli firms – including Broadcom (AVGO)-owned VMware – citing “national security concerns.” AVGO shares are inching down at the time of writing following this announcement that’s part of Beijing’s broader push to replace Western technology with domestic alternatives. More News from Barchart Including today’s decline, Broadcom stock is down more than 18% versus its 52-week high. www.barchart.com Why Is the China News Negative f ...

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by CrowdStrike shareholders who said the cybersecurity company defrauded them by concealing its inadequate software testing and quality assurance procedures, befo... ...

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have told domestic companies to stop using cybersecurity software made by roughly a ​dozen firms from the U.S. and Israel due ‌to national security concerns, two people briefed on the matter said. Broadcom-owned VMware, Palo ‌Alto Networks and Fortinet are among the U.S. firms whose cybersecurity software has been banned, while Check Point Software Technologies is among the Israeli companies, they said. Reuters was not able to ⁠establish how many Chinese ‌companies ...

Group 1: Company Performance - Broadcom had a remarkable performance in 2025, with a stock increase of nearly 50%, outperforming Nvidia by 10 percentage points [1] - In Q4 of fiscal year 2025, Broadcom's total revenue reached $18 billion, a 28% year-over-year increase, while AI semiconductor revenue was $6.5 billion, up 74% year-over-year [6] - For Q1, Broadcom anticipates AI semiconductor revenue to reach $8.2 billion, a 100% year-over-year increase, contributing nearly half of the total expected revenue of $19.1 billion [7] Group 2: Product Strategy - Broadcom is focusing on custom AI chips, specifically application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which are designed in partnership with AI hyperscalers [3][5] - This strategy allows Broadcom to fill a market gap and provide cost-effective alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs, as they eliminate middlemen in the supply chain [5] Group 3: Market Outlook - Analysts project Broadcom's revenue growth for FY 2026 at 51%, with a 36% growth rate expected for the following year [8] - Despite the promising outlook, Broadcom trades at a premium valuation of 34 times forward earnings, compared to Nvidia's 25 times FY 2027 earnings [10]

Whales with a lot of money to spend have taken a noticeably bearish stance on Cisco Systems.Looking at options history for Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) we detected 11 trades.If we consider the specifics of each trade, it is accurate to state that 27% of the investors opened trades with bullish expectations and 54% with bearish.From the overall spotted trades, 2 are puts, for a total amount of $107,124 and 9, calls, for a total amount of $474,726.Predicted Price RangeTaking into account the Volume and Open In ...

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO).And retail traders should know.We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with CSCO, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.So how do we know what these investors just did? Today, Benzinga's options scanner sp ...