MORNING NEWS

Broadcom declined late Wednesday as guidance failed to impress, overshadowing the semiconductor company’s better-than-expected results. For the fiscal second quarter, Broadcom notched record quarterly earnings and revenue, amid supercharged growth in its artificial intelligence chip business. Still, Broadcom shares were down 6.1% in after-hours trading after ending Wednesday’s regular session down 0.5% to $479.23. Broadcom reported adjusted earnings of $2.44 a share for the quarter ended May 3, compared with $1.58 a share a year ago and above Wall Street’s expectation of $2.40 a share. Revenue grew 48% to $22.19 billion, edging by the analyst consensus call for $22.13 billion, according to FactSet.

Palo Alto Networks reported higher revenue in the third quarter and lifted its outlook as customers continued to beef up their cybersecurity in the face of heightened threats from artificial-intelligence models. Chief Executive Officer Nikesh Arora said the results should demonstrate that fears of a so-called “SaaS-Pocalypse,” in which AI-native firms will come to displace legacy software incumbents, are misplaced as applied to the cybersecurity industry. “Actually, the capabilities of these models, especially in the cyber space, are causing a renewed interest from our customers to go ahead and deploy much more modern solutions, acting more as a tailwind to the cybersecurity industry as opposed to the death of the cybersecurity industry,” Arora said in an interview.

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence lab recently valued at nearly $1 trillion, said Monday it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, setting up a blockbuster year for IPOs. The filing could put the company behind the Claude AI model on a path to go public this fall. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to stage what is likely to be the largest IPO ever next week. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Anthropic’s chief rival, OpenAI, was preparing to submit its own IPO filing imminently.

Universal Music Group rejected Bill Ackman-led Pershing Square Capital’s bid to buy the world’s largest music company for about $65 billion Friday, after Universal’s largest shareholder voiced opposition. UMG’s board of directors assessed Pershing Square’s unsolicited offer and found that it “fundamentally and materially undervalues UMG and will not deliver superior value creation.” “UMG has built an unrivalled position in the music industry through clear vision and execution,” said board Chairman Sherry Lansing in a statement, adding that the board has “full confidence” in Chief Executive Lucian Grainge and his team.

Amazon Web Services has signed up cloud storage company Snowflake as its latest chips customer, as the proliferation of artificial intelligence agents continues to drive high levels of demand for computing hardware. Snowflake SNOW plans to pay $6 billion over the next five years for access to Amazon’s AMZN Graviton chips inside AWS data centers. Graviton, which AWS released in 2018, is a central processing unit, or CPU—the main computer brains that power everything from personal devices like smartphones and laptops to car computers, data center servers and advanced AI systems.

Quantinuum, Honeywell’s quantum computing subsidiary, finalized the terms of its initial public offering on Tuesday. Under the terms, nearly 21.1 million shares are to be sold at a price range of $45 to $50 per share. At the midpoint of the target range, Quantinuum would generate net proceeds of $941.7 million. This amount could rise to approximately $1.09 billion if the over-allotment option is exercised.

The Zug-based investment firm Partners Group intends to take legal action against the U.S. investment firm Grizzly Research. This was announced by Chairman of the Board Steffen Meister in an interview with the “NZZ am Sonntag.” In a report released in late April, Grizzly Research had circulated serious allegations against Partners Group. “We have decided to take legal action against those responsible at Grizzly Research,” said Meister.

For the first time since 2022, Walmart shoppers filled their tanks with an average of less than 10 gallons per trip at its gas stations. “That’s an indication of stress,” said Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey in an interview. “The headline consumer is reasonably healthy, but when you look underneath, the pressure is uneven.”

Chip giant Nvidia reported record sales and income Wednesday, driven by surging demand for data-center computing and the astronomical rise of artificial-intelligence agents. Sales for the April quarter reached $81.6 billion, up 85% from the year-earlier period and beating the $78.9 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had forecast by 3.4%. Net income was $58.3 billion for the quarter, more than three times the year-earlier result and 36.5% higher than the $42.9 billion analysts had predicted. “Demand has gone parabolic,” Chief Executive Jensen Huang said in a conference call with analysts. “The reason is simple: The era of agentic AI is here.” The record-high sales were driven by growth in Nvidia’s data-center segment, especially the sale of computing hardware, which includes the company’s graphics processing units, or GPUs, as well as other chips.

Home Depot reported lower fiscal first-quarter profit and Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said in an interview that homeowners are continuing to pull back on large home-improvement projects due to economic uncertainty. “When we talk to our customers, they do tell us that they have concerns over uncertainty and housing affordability. They point out that fuel costs are rising, mortgage rates have risen again after falling throughout 2025, and layoffs are increasing,” McPhail said. “And as a result, they tell us they’re continuing to hold off on larger projects.” McPhail said homeowners continue to show interest in improving their home, as evidenced by strong sales in outdoor categories and paint, but that hesitation in undertaking larger projects was leading to weakness in lumber, flooring, lighting and millwork.