NIKKEI 225
23,671.130.00(0.00%)HANG SENG
24,542.26+155.47(+0.64%)CRUDE OIL
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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)
216.15 +1.93 (0.90%)
After hours: 7:59PM EDT
| Previous close | 219.66 |
| Open | 220.41 |
| Bid | 216.10 x 900 |
| Ask | 216.15 x 800 |
| Day's range | 213.72 - 222.30 |
| 52-week range | 132.52 - 232.86 |
| Volume | 26,371,412 |
| Avg. volume | 33,841,051 |
| Market cap | 1.621T |
| Beta (5Y monthly) | 0.92 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 37.19 |
| EPS (TTM) | 5.76 |
| Earnings date | 27 Oct 2020 |
| Forward dividend & yield | 2.24 (1.02%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 18 Nov 2020 |
| 1y target est | 230.72 |
- Bloomberg
U.S. Charges Six Russian Agents for Hacking That Cost Billions
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. charged six current and former members of Russia’s military intelligence agency for allegedly carrying out some of the world’s most destructive hacking attacks from 2015 to 2019, including knocking out Ukraine’s power grid and causing almost $1 billion in damage to three American companies.The hackers allegedly carried out attacks against the 2017 elections in France and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, according to an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Monday.“According to the indictment, beginning in or around November 2015 and continuing until at least in or around October 2019, the defendants and their co-conspirators deployed destructive malware and took other disruptive actions, for the strategic benefit of Russia, through unauthorized access to victim computers,” the department said.Read the grand jury indictment unsealed on MondayThe hackers from the military intelligence unit known as GRU allegedly spread what is known as NotPetya malware, which damaged computers used for critical infrastructure, including impairing the administration of medical services by a hospital system in Pennsylvania.“The attack caused the unavailability of patient lists, patient history, physical examination files and laboratory records,” according to the department.The NotPetya attack also caused about $400 million in damages to a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. and more than $500 million in damages to a large U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer, which the indictment didn’t identify. Merck & Co. has been previously identified as one of the targets.None of the charges involved the current U.S. presidential campaign, although the FBI and other agencies say Russia continues trying to interfere in U.S. politics.“No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and fits of spite,” John Demers, head of the department’s national security division, told reporters during a news conference on Monday.Demers said the release of the indictment wasn’t particularly intended to send a message to Russia against interfering in the 2020 election. He said U.S. agencies haven’t seen evidence that hackers can compromise voting in this year’s election.“Americans should be confident that a vote cast for their candidate will be counted for that candidate,“ Demers said.The Justice Department also said the investigation was aided by social media companies Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., as well as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Cisco Systems Inc.‘Voodoo Bear’The hackers are part of a group known variously as “Sandworm Team” and “Voodoo Bear” among cybersecurity experts. The group’s espionage and sabotage hacking operations are “highly advanced” and consistent with “Russian economic and national objectives,” according to an analysis by the firm Crowdstrike Inc. The group has an interest in “targeting critical systems” and disrupting infrastructure, according to an analysis by the firm FireEye Inc.The timing of the indictment, weeks before the U.S. presidential election, is notable. A separate hacking unit that is associated with Russia’s GRU meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, and Microsoft Corp. recently found that group attempting to hack political targets ahead of the 2020 election.In addition, one of the defendants in the indictment unsealed on Monday was also charged in 2018 by the U.S. for hacking tied to the 2016 election. He conspired “to gain unauthorized access into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the administration of the 2016 U.S. elections,” according to the Justice Department.The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Russia is attempting to help President Donald Trump succeed and hurt his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. The U.S. also indicted hackers from GRU in October 2018, before the midterm elections. Russia denies any role.The U.K.’s Foreign Office said Monday that the GRU had conducted “cyber reconnaissance against officials and organizations” involved in the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games that were to take place in Tokyo over the summer. The games were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Foreign Office added that the GRU tried to make it look like its attacks on the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea was the work of North Korean and Chinese operatives. “The GRU’s actions against the Olympic and Paralympic Games are cynical and reckless. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms,” Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said. “The U.K. will continue to work with our allies to call out and counter future malicious cyber attacks.”(Updates with U.K. Foreign Office and Raab statements, in final two paragraphs.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Bloomberg
IBM Revenue Beats Estimates, Buoyed by Growth in Cloud Sales
(Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. reported third-quarter revenue that beat analysts’ forecasts, driven by gains in its cloud offerings, an area the company will focus on exclusively after spinning off legacy business units.The company, which had pulled its full-year forecast in April citing uncertainty from the coronavirus pandemic, declined to provide any specific guidance on Monday, sending shares down about 2.8% in extended trading. Earlier this month IBM announced plans to shed its division that manages corporate computer systems and go all-in on internet-based services and artificial intelligence to help revive fortunes at the 109-year-old company.After two years of declining or flat revenue, IBM is hiving off the unit that handles day-to-day infrastructure service operations and accounts for about a quarter of the company’s total sales. But that business has shrunk in recent years as customers have moved more of their operations to the cloud, where IBM competes with rivals such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Meanwhile, demand for cloud computing services has boomed as companies have shifted to remote work.Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna took over from Ginni Rometty in April and has moved quickly to cut thousands of jobs as many of IBM’s customers have pared investments and held off on big software deals during the pandemic. The splitting off of the services unit, which won’t be completed until next year, will let the company target hybrid-cloud software and services. In 2018, IBM spent $34 billion to buy Red Hat to further those efforts. Hybrid cloud refers to companies using a combination of their own servers and renting storage and computing power from large providers such as Amazon and Microsoft.“As we look forward, the case for hybrid cloud is clear,” Krishna said on a conference call with analysts. “It’s a tremendous opportunity valued at $1 trillion with most of the enterprise opportunity ahead of us.”Sales fell 2.6% to $17.6 billion for the three months ending Sept. 30, the Armonk, New York-based company said Monday in a statement. That was slightly better than the $17.5 billion analysts had forecast, on average. The revenue decline was driven by tech support units Global Business Services and Global Technology Services, where the business that will be spun off is housed, which reported decreases of 4.7% and 3.6%, respectively. Meanwhile total cloud revenue increased 19% to $6.0 billion, led by Red Hat, which saw a 17% bump in sales. IBM released preliminary results earlier this month when it announced the spinoff.“This is one of the last quarters where IBM’s lagging legacy infrastructure business will drag down performance, as those operations will be spun out to NewCo in 2021, with IBM instead focusing its attention and investment behind cloud and AI, its strongest performing areas,” said Nucleus Research analyst Daniel Elman, in a note before the results were released.Chief Financial Officer Jim Kavanaugh said the pandemic’s affects on the economy continue to damp demand. “The rate and pace of recovery remains uncertain and as a consequence, we have not seen a fundamental shift in overall demand levels,” he said on the call, adding that IBM has “healthy pipelines in cloud and data platforms” in the current quarter.Third-quarter earnings excluding some costs were $2.58 a share, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.55. Shares closed little changed at $125.52 Monday in New York and have declined 6.4% this year, compared with a 6% gain in the S&P 500 Index.(Updates with CEO comments in the fifth paragraph and CFO comments in the eighth.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Motley Fool
The Strangest Thing About the Nasdaq's Monday Drop
The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) index has been leading the stock markets higher through 2020, having set new records on several occasions. Pullbacks for the Nasdaq index haven't been uncommon over the course of the year, as investors have generally been ready to flinch at the first sign of bad news. To get a sense of it, you need to look at the largest and most important companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market and see what they have in common.
