Stocks Lower in Late Trading; S&P 500, Nasdaq on Pace for Weekly Losses

Intuitive Surgical Hits New High as Device Demand Jumps

57 minutes ago

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) shares traded at an all-time high Friday after the maker of robotic medical devices posted better-than-expected second-quarter results on soaring demand for its da Vinci surgical machine.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.46. Revenue increased 14.5% to $2.01 billion. Both exceeded forecasts. 

Intuitive Surgical said worldwide procedures with its da Vinci system rose 17%, and it placed 341 in medical facilities, 10 more than in the same period last year. At the end of June it had a total of 9,203 in use, a 14% gain from the end of the first half of 2023.

The company said that surgical procedures weren’t hurt by COVID-19, as they were in China during lockdowns there a year ago. More people are having procedures done that they had put off during the pandemic, the company said.

Intuitive Surgical shares were up 9% in late trading, leading gainers on the Nasdaq and S&P 500.

–Bill McColl

A Big Nvidia Stake Sends Another AI Stock Soaring

2 hr 52 min ago

Shares of Serve Robotics (SERV) surged on Friday after Nvidia (NVDA) reported a 10% stake in the delivery technology company, making it the latest upstart to get a boost from the AI giant’s halo effect.

Nvidia in a regulatory filing late Thursday said it owned 3.7 million shares of Serve, a stake valued at about $9.8 million based on Thursday’s closing price.

Shares of Soundhound AI (SOUN), a voice AI and speech recognition company, jumped in mid-February when Nvidia disclosed a stake that at the time was valued at less than $4 million. Soundhound stock has since gained more than 125%.

Serve is a last-mile delivery company whose semi-autonomous delivery robots can be seen on the sidewalks of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Serve, once a subsidiary of food delivery service Postmates, was acquired by Uber (UBER) in 2020 and subsequently spun off in 2021.

Serve shares were up more than 200% in recent trading. 

–Colin Laidley

Travelers Tumbles After Earnings Miss

4 hr 1 min ago

The Travelers Companies (TRV) shares fell sharply Friday as the big insurance provider missed estimates for second-quarter sales and net premiums written.

The company reported quarterly revenue was up 12% to $11.28 billion, less than forecasts. Net written premiums rose 8% to a record $11.12 billion, but that also was below forecasts. Adjusted profit of $2.51 per share was better than expected.

Shares were down about 7% in recent trading, making Travelers the biggest decliner among Dow components.

–Bill McColl

American Express Drops as Revenue Misses Expectations

5 hr 14 min ago

American Express (AXP) reported larger profits than analysts had expected for the second quarter Friday, despite revenue and net interest income (NII) that fell short of estimates.

The company’s stock was down about 4% in mid-morning trading, making it among the big decliners on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The banking and credit card provider reported record quarterly revenue of $16.33 billion, but analysts had expected $16.56 billion. Profits of $3.02 billion, or $4.15 per share, handily beat projections.

American Express joined peers in the finance industry in reporting sequentially lower NII, dropping to $3.73 billion from $3.77 billion in the first quarter.

American Express CEO Stephen Squeri said the company is affirming its revenue growth projections of 9% to 11% for the full fiscal year, while also lifting EPS projections to a range of $13.30 to $13.80, up from $12.65 to $13.15 previously.

–Aaron McDade

CrowdStrike Plunges, Rivals Surge

6 hr 26 min ago

CrowdStrike (CRWD) shares plunged Friday, while those of its rivals surged, after the cybersecurity firm said an update “defect” caused a worldwide outage in Microsoft’s (MSFT) cloud services.

In a statement, CrowdStrike CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz blamed the outage on a “defect” in the firm’s update of its Falcon software. The outage affected services globally of airlines, banks, and other businesses Friday.

Investors bought into CrowdStrike’s rivals as the scale of the damage from the cybersecurity firm’s update was increasingly known. Shares of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) SentinelOne (S) jumped in early trading.

“This is a black-eye moment for CrowdStrike, and I think for the cybersecurity sector,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CNBC in an interview. “The big issue is the brand damage, because CrowdStrike today becomes a household name but not in a good way.”

–Nisha Gopalan

Major Stock Indexes Mixed Ahead of Opening Bell

7 hr 34 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures are up 0.1%

Nasdaq 100 futures are also up 0.1%.