Shares in the Dutch semiconductor company were the number one trending ticker in pre-market trading as it reported better than expected fourth-quarter bookings, on strong demand for its advanced tools.
ASML suffered losses during a global tech sell-off earlier in the week after the rollout of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s R1 reasoning model, which claims to undercut OpenAI on both cost and performance.
"The growth in artificial intelligence is the key driver for growth in our industry," ASML's CEO, Christophe Fouquet, said in a statement.
ASML said that net bookings, a key indicator of order demand, came in at €7.09 (£5.93bn/$7.38bn).
That was up 169% from the €2.63bn ASML reported in the third quarter, and exceeded the €3.99bn expected by analysts polled by Visible Alpha, according to Reuters.
ASML's top customer, TSMC, manufactures most chips designed by Nvidia and the software firms.
ASML reported fourth quarter net income of €2.7bn on sales of €9.3bn, rising from €2.1bn of net income on sales of €7.5bn in the third quarter of 2024.
Shares in the Chinese e-commerce company rose 0.2% in pre-market trading after they finished the previous session 6.7% higher as the company released an AI model it claims surpasses DeepSeek-V3.
The new version of its Qwen models, Qwen2.5-VL, comes with improved image and video generation. It can analyse charts and graphics, extract data from invoice and form scans, and comprehend multiple-hour-long videos, the company claims. Also, it is able to recognise IPs from films and TV series.
"Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms ... almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B," Alibaba's cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official WeChat account, referring to OpenAI and Meta's most advanced open-source AI models.
Jefferies analyst Thomas Chong has reaffirmed his Buy rating on the stock, forecasting more than 60% growth potential.
The rally came after the company announced it had achieved a flawless score in the 2024 SE Labs Enterprise Advanced Security Ransomware Test, cementing its position as a leader in ransomware detection, protection, and accuracy.
CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform, which has AI-powered detection and response capabilities, demonstrated visibility and protection across the entire ransomware attack lifecycle.
The announcement has caught the attention of several major analyst firms. JMP Securities reaffirmed its Market Outperform rating, keeping a price target of $400. Truist Securities raised its target to $385, while RBC Capital Markets bumped its target to $420.
CrowdStrike has been on a strong upward trajectory, gaining 17.7% since the start of the year. The cybersecurity firm's stock hit a new 52-week high of $408.68 per share. Investors who purchased $1,000 worth of CrowdStrike shares five years ago would now see their investment grow to $6,919.
Shares in Starbucks were trending slightly higher in pre-market trading, up 0.4%, as investors processed the company's first-quarter fiscal year 2025 results, which showed declines across key metrics but still surpassed Wall Street’s expectations.
The Seattle-based coffee company posted revenue of $9.4bn for the quarter, flat year-over-year but ahead of the $9.32bn analysts had forecast. Earnings per share came in at $0.69, a 23% drop compared to the same period last year, though it beat the $0.66 expected by analysts.
This quarter marked the first full one under CEO Brian Niccol, who took over leadership on September 9.
"The first quarter in 2025 results met our expectations, clearly show[ed] some signs of progress ... we still have much work to do," Niccol told investors on an earnings call, with a positive response across all ages so far in its "Back to Starbucks" plan, which focuses on revitalising core coffee offerings, improving pricing strategies, and enhancing service speed.
Shares in UK retailer WH Smith surged by 6% after it revealed sales at its high street estate remain under pressure just days after the group confirmed talks to sell the 500-strong chain.
For the 21 weeks ending January 25, which included the crucial Christmas period, total high street sales fell by 6%, with like-for-like sales down 3%. Despite this drop, the company said the decline was in line with its expectations. Total revenue for the 21-week period ending January 25 rose by 4%.
The retailer, known for its high street presence, also confirmed over the weekend that it is in discussions to potentially offload its high street stores, focusing instead on expanding its larger travel business.
On a more positive note, WH Smith's travel stores — located in airports, railway stations, and hospitals — delivered a strong performance, with like-for-like sales rising 6% during the five-month period. This growth helped the company achieve an overall 3% increase in same-store revenues.
Revenue from WH Smith's Travel Essentials business, the fastest-growing segment of its North American division, saw 20% growth on a constant currency basis.
The group said the high street arm came out of the Christmas trading season with “a clean stock position and we are on track to deliver our targeted full-year cost savings of £11m”.
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