Disney Edges Lower; Cisco Surges; Alibaba Rallies

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Shares of the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) edged lower in premarket trading after the company reported sales that fell short of Wall Street estimates and said a slate of big-budget films, including a new Avatar picture, will weigh on results for the first quarter of its new fiscal year. Revenue for the fourth quarter was little changed at $22.5 billion, Disney said Thursday, falling below the $22.8 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings came to $1.11 a share in the period ended Sept. 27, excluding some items, beating estimates of $1.07. Disney’s entertainment division faces challenges early in the new fiscal year on three fronts: streaming, films and TV. The company predicts $375 million in operating income from online video in the first quarter. While that represents higher profit for the business, Wall Street was expecting more.
- Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) soared ahead of the US market open after the network-equipment giant boosted its 2026 forecast, showing progress in its effort to capture more artificial intelligence spending. The company, the top maker of machines that run computer networks and the internet, now expects sales of as much as $61 billion in the fiscal year ending in July. That’s about $1 billion more than it previously expected and higher than Wall Street estimates. Cisco also increased its earnings forecast, which similarly topped analysts’ predictions. The outlook sparked fresh optimism that Cisco can benefit from booming AI spending. The San Jose, California-based company is updating chips and networking gear to better connect server racks and data centers in order to handle complicated AI tasks.
- US listed shares of Alibaba (BABA) rallied in early trading after the Chinese tech giant announced it is preparing an overhaul of its main mobile AI app in coming months to help it more closely resemble OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a key step in a broader effort to catch rivals and eventually earn money off individual users. Alibaba plans to start by updating the existing “Tongyi” apps on iOS and Android and renaming them “Qwen,” after the company’s well-known AI model, people familiar with the matter said. It will then gradually add agentic-AI features to support shopping on platforms including the main Taobao marketplace in coming months, according to sources. The end goal is to try and make Qwen a fully functioning AI agent, the people said, a prime objective for the industry both in the US and China.

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