US Stocks Rise as Major Indexes Look to Extend Winning Streaks

Palo Alto Networks Rises Ahead of Earnings Report

23 minutes ago

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is set to report results for its fiscal fourth quarter after markets close on Monday, with investors likely watching for a strong 2025 outlook and updates on its “platformization” strategy.

Analysts project revenue to grow to $2.16 billion from $1.95 billion a year ago, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Net income is expected to come in at $234.97 million, or 66 cents per share, a slight increase from the year-ago period but also a sequential drop.

Spending fatigue among Palo Alto Networks’ customers has been a major theme of the company’s results in recent quarters, signaling headwinds in the cybersecurity industry. Palo Alto Networks’ guidance has been used as an indicator for the sector.

Palo Alto Networks has been leaning into its platformization efforts, where it consolidates its cybersecurity services on its platform and bundles offers, a bid to become a one-stop shop and offset spending fatigue.

While Palo Alto Networks has indicated that platformization has been positively received by customers, the recent global outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike (CRWD) update could raise questions about the outlook for the market.

Palo Alto shares were up 2.2% Monday afternoon, trading near their highest level since February.

–Naomi Buchanan

AMD Expands Its Reach Into AI

2 hr 56 min ago

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) took another big step in expanding its reach into artificial intelligence (AI) with the purchase of data center infrastructure provider ZT Systems.

AMD said the cash-and-stock deal was valued at $4.9 billion, which includes a contingent payment of $400 million if certain milestones are reached after the close.

AMD CEO Lisa Su called the acquisition “the next major step in our long-term AI strategy to deliver leadership training and inferencing solutions that can be rapidly deployed at scale across cloud and enterprise customers.” Su said that adding ZT Systems “will significantly strengthen our data center AI systems and customer enablement capabilities.”

AMD shares were up nearly 2% in early trading Monday.

–Bill McColl

Futures Point to Flat Open for Major Indexes

4 hr 37 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were fractionally lower.

S&P 500 futures were up less than 0.1%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were also up less than 0.1%.