Before the bell: markets running at half speed

Mobile games are gaining popularity, and another stock is set to disappear from the Brussels exchange.

Most Western markets remained closed yesterday, including the Brussels exchange. Trading did take place in the United States, where the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq closed 0.5% higher. The strongest gain in the US came from tech company AppLovin, whose share price climbed 6.8% after a Wells Fargo analyst raised the price target. The upgrade was based on industry checks in mobile gaming, indicating strong growth in revenues from those games. Verisign also rose 5.6% without any clear catalyst. The stock is now up more than 14% since the start of the year, significantly outperforming the broader market. Netflix (+0.3%) appears unaffected by a ruling from an Italian court ordering the company to lower its prices in Italy and refund up to 500 euro to customers. The company has announced it will appeal the decision.

This morning, there are no major movements on Asian markets. In Japan, indices are trading roughly in line with yesterday’s close. Markets in Hong Kong remain closed today. In South Korea, a Samsung stock briefly rose 3.8% at the open after the company indicated that quarterly profit will exceed its full-year 2025 earnings, driven by higher chip prices. In the Netherlands, Nedap and Alfen are publishing results. In the United States, Levi Strauss & Co. will report earnings later today.

Brussels’ disappearing act

Another stock may soon disappear from the Brussels exchange. Israeli company Payton Planar Magnetics, listed on the Brussels fixing market, is likely to be absorbed by its parent company Payton Industries, which is listed in Tel Aviv. Payton Planar Magnetics produces essential components used across various sectors, including data centres and space rockets. Under the proposed plan, Payton Industries would fully acquire its subsidiary. Existing shareholders would receive 7.38 euro per share. Given that the stock closed yesterday at 6.90 euro, the offer appears rather modest. Payton Planar Magnetics was listed on the Brussels exchange in May 1998 at 70 Belgian francs (1.74 euro).

Alphabet and Broadcom partner through Claude AI

Anthropic plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollar on cloud services provided by Alphabet. The OpenAI competitor aims to reduce its reliance on Nvidia for AI computing power. According to the company, it requires massive computing capacity to meet growing customer demand and remain competitive with leading AI chatbot providers. The deal will grant access to 5 gigawatt of AI chip capacity. Building a data centre with a capacity of 1 gigawatt can cost up to 50 billion dollar, with the majority of that investment going toward chips. Of the 5 gigawatt, 3.5 gigawatt will be supplied through orders placed by Alphabet with Broadcom. The news was well received by Broadcom shareholders, with the stock rising 3% in after-hours trading.

Did you know…

that more oil tankers are once again passing through the Strait of Hormuz? This is partly due to successful efforts by several countries, including India and Iraq, to reach agreements with Iran on safer passage.

This article was translated from Dutch and was originally published on Spaarvarkens.be.