BABA News & Events

Moderately bullish activity in Alibaba (BABA), with shares up 17c, or 0.17%, near $98.08. Options volume relatively light with 37k contracts traded and calls leading puts for a put/call ratio of 0.31, compared to a typical level near 0.73. Implied volatility (IV30) dropped 0.26 near 45.52,and above the 52wk median, suggesting an expected daily move of $2.81. Put-call skew flattened, suggesting a modestly bullish tone.

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.MICROSOFT FRONTIER:Microsoftsaid in a blog, "Today we are introducing Microsoft Frontier Company, a new operating business focused on delivering Frontier Transformation through AI for our customers around the world.It will provide a unique combination of skills inclusive of deep industry knowledge, change management and continuous improvement experience, and enterprise-grade AI engineering expertise. This goes beyond what has been labeled as Forward Deployed Engineering and will be the largest, most capable, outcome-driven engineering organization in the industry. We are making a $2.5B investment in Microsoft Frontier Company, embedding 6,000 industry and engineering experts at customers to co-design, co-innovate, deploy and continuously improve AI systems at scale based on measurable business outcomes." Microsoft said Rodrigo Kede Lima will be the President of Microsoft Frontier.AI CHATBOT:Microsoft is merging the consumer and enterprise versions of its Copilot AI chatbots into a single application as it tries to create a more formidable competitor to Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT,The Information's Aaron Holmes and Erin Woo, citing an internal memo that went out Thursday morning. Jacob Andreou, an executive vice President, said the new unified app will also feature AI coding Tools and new AI agents that customers would need to pay extra for, according to The Information, which also noted that Andreou told colleagues he's happy with Copilot's growth in the June quarter.AI AGENTS:MetaCEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's AI agent systems have not advanced as quickly as originally anticipated, Katie Paul and Courtney Rozen of Reuters, citing a recording of an internal town hall. Zuckerberg said the restructuring has not been as "clean" as it could have been, and executives miscalculated the timing of changes.CLAUDE CODE:Alibabahas banned its employees from using Anthropic's Claude Code at work following scrutiny for its features that can identify China-linked users, Eduardo Baptista of Reuters, citing a person familiar with the order.AI BENEFICIARY:Scotiabank analyst Patrick Colville upgraded Oktato Outperform from Sector Perform with a $165 price target. Non-human identity management is the top priority among CISOs in the firm's fieldwork as Agentic AI is rolled out in enterprises, says the analyst, who views Okta as an AI beneficiary from a rising tide of cybersecurity spend as a result of Mythos preparedness as firms look to modernize their identity stack.BUY SENTINELONE:Scotiabank upgraded SentinelOneto Outperform from Sector Perform with a $23.50 price target. Investments in AI native products such as agentic SOC, Purple AI, and AI runtime security positions SentinelOne well to capture new high growth vectors as Mythos preparedness drives incremental security spending, the firm tells investors.BULLISH ON CHECK POINT:Scotiabank upgraded Check Pointto Outperform from Sector Perform with an $185 price target. The firm, which views Check Point as an AI beneficiary as enterprises increase cybersecurity spending to prepare for more advanced threats, thinks the market is underestimating Check Point's growth potential stemming from AI.MOVING TO THE SIDELINES:Bernstein downgraded Datadogto Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $226, up from $180. The firm is moving to the sidelines on Q3 and beyond earnings caution vs. more exuberant investor expectations as demand signals are slowing in both enterprise and some AI Labs. Bernstein points out that "not only do we start lapping tough comps in Q4," it is seeing demand signals flat lining ex-AI that causes ex-AI growth to peak in Q3, and potentially regress -100bps-200bps in Q4.AI LICENSING DEAL:Cevaannounced an AI licensing deal with a U.S. software and AI platform company for a custom AI silicon program targeting next-generation intelligent computing devices. The agreement extends Ceva's customer base beyond traditional semiconductor companies and device OEMs to include software platform companies that are increasingly designing custom silicon to optimize performance, power and area and the overall user experience.

Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures are higher as chip stocks rebound after recent weakness. The Dow also enters the week near record territory. Markets are returning from the holiday weekend with a constructive tone, as investors look to extend last week's rally and begin the new week.Last week's weaker-than-expected labor report reduced some fears of additional near-term Federal Reserve tightening, which has helped improve risk appetite. Investors are now turning attention to Wednesday's Fed meeting minutes for clues on how policymakers view inflation and economic growth going into the second half of the year.Earnings season also begins to move into focus this week. Investors are looking for confirmation that corporate earnings can continue justifying elevated valuations after a strong first half of 2026. Analysts are expecting more than 20% year-over-year earnings growth for S&P 500 companies.In pre-market trading, S&P 500 futures rose 0.41%, Nasdaq futures rose 1.17% and Dow futures fell 0.07%.Check out this morning's top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.HIGHER -Seerup 37% after receiving an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Omid Farokhzad, Seer's chair and CEO, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Seer's Class A common stock for $2.45 per share in cash plus two separate contingent value rightsTeraWulfup 17% after executing a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic at its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, KentuckyOrthofixup 6% after disclosing that CMS had reversed itself on its very recent 10% reimbursement cut within traditional Medicare for non-invasive bone growth stimulatorsBroadcomup 4% after disclosing an agreement with Appleto expand their long-standing technology collaboration through 2031 by entering into new multi-year long-term agreements for Broadcom to develop and supply a range of custom ASIC silicon products for use in multiple generations of Apple productsKosmosup 3% after providing a portfolio updateOpus Geneticsup 3% after reaching alignment with the FDA in a Type B Rare Disease Evidence Principles meeting on the design of its registrational Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating OPGx-LCA5Comcastup 1% after announcing Sky has agreed terms to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment from ITV plc for a total consideration of up to GBP 1.6BAlibabaup 1% after BloombergU.S. District Judge Eumi Lee has ordered the Pentagon to give Alibaba reprieve from a law that led to many lobbyists dropping it as a client while she considers the constitutionality of the measureLOWER -Datadogdown 4% after Bernstein downgraded the stock to Market PerformJ.B. Huntdown 1% after Morgan Stanley downgraded shares to Underweight