{"id":54159,"date":"2025-10-07T08:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/market-movers-ibm-amd-surge-on-ai-deals-j-bofa-shifts-sector-outlook-mercedes-benz-sales-dip\/54159\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:38:46","slug":"market-movers-ibm-amd-surge-on-ai-deals-j-bofa-shifts-sector-outlook-mercedes-benz-sales-dip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/market-movers-ibm-amd-surge-on-ai-deals-j-bofa-shifts-sector-outlook-mercedes-benz-sales-dip\/54159\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Movers: IBM, AMD Surge on AI Deals; J&#038;J Reports Positive Drug Data; BofA Shifts Sector Outlook; Mercedes-Benz Sales Dip"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IBM<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/IBM\">IBM<\/a>) and <strong>Advanced Micro Devices<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMD\">AMD<\/a>) led <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/pre-market\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">pre-market<\/a> gains, with <strong>IBM<\/strong> rising <strong>4.3%<\/strong> on a strategic partnership with <strong>Anthropic<\/strong> and <strong>AMD<\/strong> surging <strong>4%<\/strong> after a <strong>Jefferies<\/strong> upgrade to a <strong>$300 price target<\/strong> following a significant <strong>OpenAI<\/strong> deal.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Johnson &amp; Johnson<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/JNJ\">JNJ<\/a>) announced positive Phase 2b study results for its investigational oral drug <strong>icotrokinra<\/strong> in ulcerative colitis, demonstrating a <strong>63.5% clinical response rate<\/strong> at the highest dose, and reaffirmed the known safety record of its drug <strong>Tremfya<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>BofA Global Research<\/strong> made notable sector adjustments, upgrading the <strong>Healthcare sector<\/strong> to <em>Overweight<\/em> from <em>Underweight<\/em> while simultaneously downgrading the <strong>Utilities sector<\/strong> to <em>Underweight<\/em> from <em>Overweight<\/em> and <strong>Consumer Discretionary<\/strong> to <em>Market Weight<\/em> from <em>Overweight<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mercedes-Benz Group AG<\/strong> reported a <strong>12% year-over-year decline<\/strong> in its Q3 group sales, with significant drops of <strong>17%<\/strong> in the U.S. and <strong>27%<\/strong> in China contributing to the overall decrease.<\/li>\n<li><strong>IREN Limited<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/IREN\">IREN<\/a>) saw its shares jump <strong>6.2%<\/strong> in <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/pre-market\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Premarket Movers\">pre-market trading<\/a> following the announcement of additional multi-year cloud services contracts for <strong>NVIDIA Blackwell GPU<\/strong> deployments, with annualized run-rate revenue potential now exceeding <strong>$500 million<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>Early trading activity is highlighted by significant movements in technology and pharmaceutical sectors, alongside key shifts in analyst sentiment and mixed global sales reports.<\/p>\n<h3>Tech Giants Rally on AI Partnerships and Upgrades<\/h3>\n<p><strong>International Business Machines<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/IBM\">IBM<\/a>) climbed <strong>4.3%<\/strong> in pre-market trading after announcing a strategic partnership with <strong>Anthropic<\/strong>, a leading AI safety and research company. The collaboration aims to integrate Anthropic&#39;s Claude large language models into <strong>IBM&#39;s<\/strong> software portfolio, promising measurable productivity gains and enhanced security for enterprise software development. Early internal testing by over 6,000 <strong>IBM<\/strong> adopters reported average productivity gains of <strong>45%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <strong>Advanced Micro Devices<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMD\">AMD<\/a>) surged <strong>4%<\/strong> following an upgrade from Jefferies to a &quot;Buy&quot; rating with a new price target of <strong>$300<\/strong>, up from <strong>$170<\/strong>. This upgrade comes after <strong>OpenAI<\/strong> revealed plans to purchase <strong>6 gigawatts<\/strong> of <strong>AMD<\/strong> equipment, a deal estimated to be worth <strong>$80-100 billion<\/strong> for the chipmaker. Analysts view this as strong validation of <strong>AMD&#39;s<\/strong> AI roadmap and the escalating demand for AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IREN Limited<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/IREN\">IREN<\/a>) also experienced a notable pre-market rise of <strong>6.2%<\/strong> after securing additional multi-year cloud services contracts for <strong>NVIDIA Blackwell GPU<\/strong> deployments. The company anticipates achieving over <strong>$500 million<\/strong> in annualized run-rate revenue from its 23,000 GPUs by the end of Q1 2026, with contracts already secured for 11,000 of these GPUs.<\/p>\n<h3>Pharma Sector Sees Positive Clinical Trial Results<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Johnson &amp; Johnson<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/JNJ\">JNJ<\/a>) reported positive topline results from its Phase 2b ANTHEM-UC study of <strong>icotrokinra<\/strong> (JNJ-2113), an investigational oral peptide for adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. The study met its primary endpoint of clinical response across all dose groups, with the highest dose achieving a <strong>63.5% response rate<\/strong> at Week 12 compared to <strong>27%<\/strong> for placebo. The drug also showed a favorable safety profile. Additionally, <strong>J&amp;J<\/strong> confirmed the known safety record of its drug <strong>Tremfya<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/TREMFYA\">TREMFYA<\/a>), with data from the ASTRO study reinforcing its established safety profile across multiple patient groups.<\/p>\n<h3>BofA Global Research Realigns Sector Ratings<\/h3>\n<p><strong>BofA Global Research<\/strong> announced significant changes to its sector ratings. The <strong>Healthcare sector<\/strong> was upgraded to <em>Overweight<\/em> from <em>Underweight<\/em>, indicating a more bullish outlook for the industry. Conversely, the <strong>Utilities sector<\/strong> was downgraded to <em>Underweight<\/em> from <em>Overweight<\/em>, and the <strong>Consumer Discretionary sector<\/strong> was moved to <em>Market Weight<\/em> from <em>Overweight<\/em>. These adjustments reflect evolving market conditions and analyst expectations for sector performance.<\/p>\n<h3>Constellation Brands Beats Earnings, Mercedes-Benz Sales Dip<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Constellation Brands<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/STZ\">STZ<\/a>) saw its shares rise <strong>3.3%<\/strong> in pre-market trading after reporting a beat on both its top and bottom lines. The beverage alcohol company&#39;s fiscal second-quarter adjusted earnings per share were <strong>$3.63<\/strong>, surpassing estimates of <strong>$3.38<\/strong>, despite a <strong>15% year-over-year decline<\/strong> in sales to <strong>$2.48 billion<\/strong>. Management noted that beer sales fell <strong>7%<\/strong> and wine and spirits sales fell <strong>65%<\/strong> in the fiscal second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, <strong>Mercedes-Benz Group AG<\/strong> reported a <strong>12% year-over-year decrease<\/strong> in its Q3 group sales, totaling <strong>525,300 units<\/strong>. The luxury automaker&#39;s car sales were down <strong>12%<\/strong> to <strong>441,500 units<\/strong>. Sales in the U.S. fell <strong>17%<\/strong> to <strong>70,800 units<\/strong>, and in China, sales slumped <strong>27%<\/strong> to <strong>125,100 units<\/strong>. However, sales in Europe showed a slight increase of <strong>2%<\/strong> to <strong>160,800 units<\/strong>, and battery electric vehicle (BEV) group sales rose <strong>9%<\/strong> to <strong>51,200 units<\/strong>. The company cited challenging market conditions in China and U.S. tariff impacts as contributing factors to the decline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways IBM (IBM) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) led pre-market gains, with IBM rising 4.3% on a strategic partnership 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