Intel Rallies, Viking Therapeutics Plunges, Home Depot Climbs

On this edition of Stock Movers:

- Intel (INTC) shares rallied today after SoftBank agreed to buy $2 billion of the chipmaker’s stock. Analysts see the news as a positive, but continue to see a number of questions surrounding the company’s prospects. Meantime, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump called for the ouster of Intel Corp.’s Lip-Bu Tan, the company’s chief executive officer has a shot at securing billions of dollars in fresh capital that could help him turn around the troubled US chipmaker. The Trump administration is in discussions to take a stake of about 10% in Intel, possibly by converting grants made to the company under the US Chips and Science Act into equity. That could allow Intel to tap about $10 billion in capital as Tan works out a strategy for revival.

- Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) shares plunged after the company released results from a mid-stage study of an experimental oral obesity pill that showed side effects caused about 28% of patients to drop out of the trial in just three months. That dashed speculation the oral treatment could compete with popular weight-loss injections from Eli Lilly & Co and Novo Nordisk A/S.

- Home Depot (HD) shares rose today after the company's sales returned to growth in the second quarter as shoppers invested in smaller projects, such as lighting and gardening. The world’s largest home-improvement retailer said comparable sales grew 1% in the quarter, modestly below what analysts had estimated but an improvement from a 3.3% slump a year ago. “These may be shallow gains, but they show a material strengthening over the last quarter and provide confidence that the slump in home improvement is finally over,” GlobalData analyst Neil Saunders wrote in a note.

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