Just when bearishness reached its peak, Intel (INTC) gained 6.36% on Monday and will open up by at least 8% this morning. Before markets closed, Intel said that the U.S. Department of Defense would give it up to $3 billion in direct funding.
The funding is under the CHIPS and Science Act for the Secure Enclave program. Bears should never count INTC stock out of the race. In the PC sector, AMD failed to impress its fan base with new Ryzen 9000 series processors. That opens the gate for Intel to win back customers next month. In October, Intel launches the Arrow Lake Desktop.
Intel is scrapping the hyperthreading feature in chips. Instead, it will have performance and efficiency cores.
Microsoft (MSFT) is today’s top stock. The firm’s board approved a new stock buyback program. This is worth up to $60 billion. Additionally, it will pay a $0.83 a share dividend. This is a 10% increase over the previous quarter.
MS continues to invest in itself. It is buying hardware to strengthen and expand its AI infrastructure. Despite Azure cloud business levels slowing down, the firm is preparing for reaccelerated growth in the second half of FY 2025.
MSFT stock has a good chance of re-taking its $468.35 all-time high set recently in July 2024.
