Will Apple Stall Market Rebound? & News From IBM, FB, SBUX

On today’s episode of the Zacks Friday Finish Line, Associate Stock Strategist Ryan McQueeney and Editor Maddy Johnson discuss IBM’s historic acquisition of Red Hat and recap earnings news from Facebook, General Electric, Starbucks, and Apple.

Make sure to subscribe and leave the show a rating on Apple Podcasts!

U.S. stocks were down in morning trading Friday, threatening to end a streak of three consecutive positive sessions which seemed to mark a bottom to a recent bout of selling.

This week’s positivity was spurred by some major M&A news from IBM (NYSE:IBM) , which is acquiring open source software firm Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) for $34 billion. The move not only underscores IBM’s ambitious cloud computing goals, but also makes several comparable tech companies look like interesting takeover targets heading into 2019.

There was also plenty of positive earnings news to go around, including some much-needed optimism from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) . The social media king actually saw mixed results in its most recent quarter, but Wall Street was more interested in its commentary about the company’s future, and that was received well.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) also managed to impress this week, reporting strong growth in its mobile ordering and loyalty programs, as well as robust comparable-store sales performances.

But it was not all great news on the earnings front, as General Electric (NYSE:GE) missed EPS estimates by a mile and cut its dividend down to just one penny per share. Moreover, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) guided on the light side for its upcoming holiday quarter, sending the stock sharply lower on Friday morning.

Investors betting on a bullish reaction to Apple’s earnings report have been left disappointed, and the bellwether tech stock stands to be a key reason for breaking Wall Street’s green streak.

Ryan and Maddy cover all of this news, sharing the key facts and their own perspectives, only on this week’s episode of the Friday Finish Line!

If you feel that we missed something, or if you want us to cover a different story, shoot us an email at podcast@zacks.com. Make sure to check out all of our other audio content at zacks.com/podcasts, and remember to subscribe and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts.

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