Amidst a slight sales decline and adjusted earnings forecast for 2024, global pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer AG has announced a strategic move to reduce its workforce by 1500 positions, primarily in management. This downsizing initiative aims to achieve significant cost savings and streamline operations towards Bayer’s long-term goals.
Asian equity markets retreated on Thursday, weighed down by a sharp decline in tech stocks following disappointing earnings forecasts from Meta Platforms, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. The yen’s continued weakness, slipping past the critical 155-per-dollar mark for the first time since 1990, fueled concerns about potential intervention from Japanese authorities. The sell-off in tech stocks reverberated across the region, dragging down the MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan by 0.7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index suffered a 1.3% loss, while China’s CSI300 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indexes fell by 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.
JPMorgan analyst Cory Carpenter has upgraded Roblox shares from Neutral to Overweight, raising the price target from $41 to $48. The analyst cited the company’s consistent bookings growth, expecting first-quarter bookings to reach $927 million with a 20% year-on-year increase. Benchmark and Stifel have also maintained their Buy ratings on the stock with price targets of $50 and $53, respectively.
