Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM)

TSM (TSM) stock jumped more than 5% in premarket trade on Thursday, buoyed by a record quarterly profit and expectations of robust revenue growth for the first quarter of 2025.

The company's CEO CC Wei said he thought the US controls on exporting chips was a manageable issue. He added that TSM is applying for special permits for clients that may be affected, according to a Reuters report. The chip giant's customers include the likes of Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA)

The results showed a 57% jump in net income to T$374.7bn ($11.4bn) for the last quarter of 2024, a record high for any quarter and in line with estimates. Revenue also climbed 39% compared with the same period a year earlier.

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Expectations are of similar revenue growth in the current quarter of about 37% to $25-25.8bn.

Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla (TSLA) stock headed higher on Wednesday, with shares closing up 8% after a price target boost from Barclays (BARC.L). Analysts at the bank boosted the target buy price to $325 from $270, citing market hype around autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and their total addressable market.

The moves higher come despite a lawsuit being brought against the company's CEO Elon Musk in the US. The suit claims the billionaire did not properly disclose his growing stake in X (formerly known as Twitter).

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Musk waited too long to disclose his stake, enabling him to underpay for shares by at least $150m (£123m), according to a Bloomberg report.

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Musk acquired Twitter, which he later renamed as X, in October 2022 for around $44bn.

"Because Musk failed to timely disclose his beneficial ownership, he was able to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices,” the SEC reportedly said in its civil suit.

"Investors who sold Twitter common stock during this period did so at artificially low prices and thus suffered substantial economic harm," the regulator added.

Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro reportedly said that this action was an "admission" that the SEC could not bring an "actual case".

Bank of America (BAC)

Bank of America (BAC) was the latest big bank to report results on Thursday, with its results pushing it slightly lower in premarket trade.

The bank said profit was higher for Q4 and predicted it would earn more net interest income in 2025.

It reported earnings per share of 82 cents, topping the consensus estimate of 77 cents.