Bath & Body Works shares slide as mall staple’s guidance underwhelms investors

As investors react negatively to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s warning that the chipmaker’s turnaround effort will be a “multiyear journey,” that cautionary note is also a reminder that Advanced Micro Devices has more time to make hay while the sun shines.

AMD had been one of the companies with the most to lose should attempts by the government and Nvidia to prop up the beleaguered chipmaker bear fruit. In particular, Intel and AMD are locked in a fierce competition in the CPU market. During its earnings call on Thursday, Intel said that supply constraints were preventing the company from realizing strong demand.

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur thinks that gives AMD more room to continue to muscle in on Intel’s CPU turf.

“We still view Intel as being at risk of further share loss in its product businesses (particularly in server CPU given AMD’s strong product portfolio/roadmap and Intel’s supply constraints),” he wrote.

AMD is up nearly 3% as of 11:40 a.m. ET, working on its ninth straight day of gains. A positive close would match its longest winning streak since 2005.

Music streamer Spotify climbed about 3% on Friday following an upgrade to “buy” from “neutral” from Goldman Sachs.

The upgrade comes ahead of Spotify’s already announced US subscription price hike next month — its third since 2023. Goldman lowered its 12-month Spotify price target to $700 from $735.

“We are surprised how negative investor sentiment has turned with respect to [Spotify] on the back of the AI theme. In our opinion, we see SPOT as well-positioned to capitalize on/benefit from rising generative AI adoption,” Goldman said in its Friday note, adding that it’s watching how the rise of AI music platforms could impact Spotify and its music royalty payment structure.

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley published a survey that found up to 60% of Gen Z respondents listen to AI music, for an average of three hours per week. Last week, Bandcamp announced it would ban AI music on its platform.

US-traded ADRs of Nintendo are up more than 4% Friday morning as markets turn more optimistic on the gaming giant.

Following the worst November in 30 years for American gaming console unit sales, Circana on Thursday reported that Nintendo’s Switch 2 saw a rebound in December. According to analyst Mat Piscatella, the popular handheld console’s unit sales are pacing 35% ahead of Sony’s PlayStation 4 seven months after release.

Analysts at Jefferies and Wolfe Research highlighted the strength of the console in recent notes, with Wolfe upgrading the stock from “underperform” to “peer perform.” Wolfe said it largely maintains its unit sales estimate of 20.5 million Switch 2s in the fiscal year ending in March.

On Friday, Japan’s central bank raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast from 0.7% to 1%, also potentially boosting the country’s major companies like Nintendo.

The “will Xi, won’t Xi?” of Nvidia’s quest to send AI chips to China got some positive news, reversing a string of recent negative reports.

Per Bloomberg, Chinese officials told leading domestic tech champions including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance that they can progress in their preparations to import Nvidia’s H200 chips, and “are now cleared to discuss specifics such as the amounts they would require,” citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares are up 1.5% as of 8:06 a.m. ET.

The outlet had previously reported that China would begin to allow H200 imports for commercial use “as soon as this quarter.” However, that was followed by reports from The Information, the Financial Times, and Reuters that Chinese companies’ ability to access these AI chips would be limited and that suppliers had paused production following what was tantamount to an import ban.

The seemingly conflicting reports from various outlets reflect the tug-of-war within the Chinese policy apparatus, which aims to balance competing priorities: bolstering its AI capabilities (which argues for using the best technology available, even if that’s from foreign sources) and supporting the development of its domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry (which pushes in the opposite direction).