Before the Bell: Toyota Sells Fewer Cars

Nvidia puts 20 billion dollars on the table for a large portion of an AI start-up’s assets, Apple’s CEO appears to believe in a Nike comeback, and Toyota produced 3.4% fewer cars last month.

A joyful Christmas to you and your family, from the entire Spaarvarkens.be team.

Because of the holiday, trading activity is quieter on financial markets today, but even during the year-end period we continue to publish a “Before the Bell” every morning. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 (+0.3%) closed at a new record yesterday. The Nasdaq (+0.2%) also edged higher, moving closer to ending 2025 at a fresh high. On U.S. markets, Nike (+4.6%) stood out as a notable gainer. The strong performance followed news that Apple CEO Tim Cook purchased 50,000 Nike shares for his personal portfolio. Nvidia (-0.3%) edged slightly lower, although that came just before the company announced the acquisition of a large portion of the assets of an AI chip start-up for 20 billion dollars. European equity indices barely moved. In Paris, Kering (+1.4%) and LVMH (+0.8%) recovered somewhat from recent losses. In Amsterdam, The Magnum Ice Cream Company gained 1.1%, despite freezing weather. The Bel20 slipped 0.3%, mainly due to a decline in heavyweight UCB (-2.2%). EVS (+5.3%) rose sharply after winning a contract in the United States.

In Tokyo and on the Chinese mainland, stock markets are open today. Both the Topix (+0.3%) and the Hang Seng (+0.2%) are edging higher. Toyota (+0.6%) reported that it sold 1.9% fewer vehicles worldwide last month compared with November 2024. The main culprit appears to be the removal of Chinese subsidies for electric vehicle purchases. The world’s largest carmaker also produced 3.4% fewer vehicles last month. Tomorrow there will be another “Before the Bell.” Markets will be open again, with the exception of Euronext, the London Stock Exchange and Hong Kong.

Is Nike Back on Track?

“Just Do It” must have crossed Tim Cook’s mind when he bought 50,000 Nike shares on Monday for his personal portfolio. When this became public yesterday, the share price of the iconic sportswear company—also a major employer in Laakdal—jumped 4.6%. Despite that gain, Nike is still down 21% since the start of the year. For European investors, there is also the added drag of a weaker U.S. dollar (-13.5%). Since November 2021, Nike’s share price has fallen by no less than 66% in dollar terms. Nike may well need to start taking its own “Just Do It” advice. Does Tim Cook know something more? Or is he simply pleased with his Nike shoes? Or does he believe the company is due for a rebound? With an estimated net worth of 2.6 billion dollars, his Nike purchase—at 58.97 dollars per share, or 2.95 million dollars in total—represents just 0.11% of his portfolio. That certainly puts the transaction into perspective.

Nvidia Sees Potential in Groq

After the market closed yesterday, reports emerged that Nvidia had reached an agreement with chip start-up Groq to acquire certain strategic assets. Although the deal has not yet been officially confirmed, multiple sources indicate that Nvidia is paying 20 billion dollars for Groq’s chip architecture and related intellectual property, along with part of the engineering team and management. Groq itself—not to be confused with Elon Musk’s X chatbot Grok—will continue to exist as a company and retain its cloud operations and customer base. Nvidia is therefore primarily acquiring expertise in deploying AI models, such as for chatbots and image recognition. As recently as September, Groq raised 750 million dollars at a valuation of 6.9 billion dollars in a funding round that included investors such as BlackRock, Samsung and Cisco. Nvidia is thus paying a substantial premium to further cement its dominance in AI infrastructure.

Did you know…

that Nike has been using “Just Do It” as its advertising slogan since 1988? The origin of the famous phrase is far from uplifting. Advertising executive Dan Wieden is said to have drawn inspiration for the slogan from the final words spoken in 1977 by convicted murderer Gary Gilmore before his execution.

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