Battalion Oil stock skyrockets after resolving production bottleneck

Investing.com -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American:GORO) stock surged 17.4% in premarket trading Monday after announcing it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Goldgroup Mining Inc. (TSX-V:GGA; OTC:GGAZF) in an all-stock transaction.

Under the terms of the deal, Gold Resource stockholders will receive 1.4476 common shares of Goldgroup for each share of Gold Resource stock, which will be adjusted to 0.3619 Goldgroup shares following a planned four-for-one share consolidation by Goldgroup prior to closing. The exchange ratio values Gold Resource at $2.25 per share, representing a 39% premium to its closing price on January 23, 2026.

The transaction values Gold Resource at approximately $372 million on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis. Upon completion, Gold Resource stockholders are expected to own approximately 40% of the combined company.

The merger will create a multi-mine producer with a portfolio including Gold Resource’s producing Don David Gold Mine and PEA-stage Back Forty Project, alongside Goldgroup’s producing Cerro Prieto Mine and recently acquired San Francisco Mine.

"Having successfully executed a turnaround at the Don David Gold Mine, the Company is positioned to expand production through the proposed transaction," stated Allen Palmiere, Gold Resource’s President and CEO. "The addition of the San Francisco Mine and the Cerro Prieto mine is expected to increase gold exposure and materially enhance cash generation through higher overall output."

The transaction, unanimously approved by both companies’ boards, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder approvals and regulatory clearances. The combined company’s board will include three directors selected by Goldgroup and two by Gold Resource, with Gold Resource’s executive management team anticipated to become officers of the combined entity.

Cormark Securities is acting as financial advisor to Gold Resource for the transaction.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com – Indonesia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Infrastructure and Agriculture sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Jakarta, the IDX Composite Index declined 0.07%.

The best performers of the session on the IDX Composite Index were Mitra Pedagang Indonesia PT Tbk (JK:MPIX), which rose 34.21% or 26.00 points to trade at 102.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Pelayaran Nasional Bina Buana Raya (JK:BBRM) added 31.91% or 60.00 points to end at 248.00 and Alakasa Industrindo Tbk (JK:ALKA) was up 24.75% or 125.00 points to 630.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Makmur Berkah Amanda Pt (JK:AMAN), which fell 15.00% or 48.00 points to trade at 272.00 at the close. Jasuindo Tiga Perkasa Tbk (JK:JTPE) declined 14.97% or 110.00 points to end at 625.00 and Pudjiadi Prestige Tbk (JK:PUDP) was down 14.87% or 87.00 points to 498.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Jakarta Stock Exchange by 449 to 278 and 115 ended unchanged.

Shares in Mitra Pedagang Indonesia PT Tbk (JK:MPIX) rose to 52-week highs; up 34.21% or 26.00 to 102.00. Shares in Alakasa Industrindo Tbk (JK:ALKA) rose to 52-week highs; up 24.75% or 125.00 to 630.00.

Crude oil for March delivery was down 0.13% or 0.08 to $60.99 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in April fell 0.12% or 0.08 to hit $64.99 a barrel, while the April Gold Futures contract rose 2.29% or 115.14 to trade at $5,132.14 a troy ounce.

USD/IDR was down 0.18% to 16,765.80, while AUD/IDR rose 0.17% to 11,601.59.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.41% at 97.00.

Investing.com -- Here are the biggest analyst moves in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) for this week.

Microsoft pullback opens up attractive entry point: Jefferies

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill said in a note this week that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) recent share-price pullback has opened up an appealing buying opportunity, pointing to the company’s backlog, AI partnerships and cloud momentum as key pillars of a strong multi-year growth outlook in large-cap technology.

Thill noted that the stock has fallen 18% since the first fiscal quarter (F1Q), despite Microsoft’s disclosure of $250 billion in commitments to OpenAI and $30 billion tied to Anthropic. He adds that the current valuation of “23x CY27 EPS” now sits below Amazon and Google “despite superior visibility."

The analyst argues that Microsoft’s record contractual commitments are the main reason to step in at current levels. He expects second-quarter remaining performance obligations to deliver “the largest sequential step-up ever,” driven by the OpenAI and Anthropic agreements.

Those deals, Thill said, reinforce “unprecedented multi-year demand visibility.”

Azure remains a key upside driver. Thill describes Azure demand as “supply-constrained, not demand-constrained,” with Microsoft planning to double its data-center footprint over the next two years.

The company has beaten its Azure revenue guidance for three consecutive quarters, and Thill believes execution on new capacity alone “could likely drive upside to both F2Q… and FY26 Azure consensus”

The analyst also highlighted accelerating AI monetization through Copilot and other first-party offerings. With Azure accounting for “30% of overall revenue,” sustained outperformance could lift overall revenue growth into the “high teens," he said. 

While he acknowledges ongoing capacity constraints and elevated capital spending, Thill believes Microsoft is positioned to deliver “meaningful upside to both top and bottom line” through fiscal 2026.

Analyst lifts Google stock to Strong Buy as ’AI stack shifts to high gear’

Earlier in the week, Raymond James upgraded Google owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to Strong Buy, arguing the company is moving into a phase where its AI stack is “shifting to high gear,” setting the stage for meaningful upward revisions to medium-term estimates.

Analyst Josh Beck said refreshed bottom-up work on Search and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) prompted him to raise 2026 and 2027 forecasts, with his 2027 revenue outlook now above broader Street expectations.

He said Alphabet is likely “entering a cycle of improving AI Stack narrative and upward revisions that could create one of the highest quality top-line AI acceleration stories in the public universe.”

Beck added that for 2026, the AI stack narrative and related estimate revisions should become the dominant performance drivers among mega-cap internet names, rather than a mean-reversion trade.

In Cloud, Beck models GCP revenue growth of 44% in 2026 and 36% in 2027, ahead of consensus. He points to strong contributions from infrastructure and platform services, supported by large-scale deployments of TPUs and GPUs and rising adoption of Gemini API and Vertex AI.

By the end of 2027, he estimates GCP could be generating roughly $25 billion of annualized revenue from TPUs, about $20 billion from GPUs, around $10 billion from Gemini API and roughly $2.5 billion from Vertex AI.

For Search, Beck forecasts revenue growth of 13% in both 2026 and 2027, above Street assumptions, as weakness in core search is offset by scaling adoption of AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini. He expects AI-driven queries to support stronger cost-per-click growth as context and conversion improve.

Stifel initiates Micron at Outperform on multi-year memory upturn

Brokerage firm Stifel initiated coverage of Micron Technology with an Outperform rating, saying the memory cycle is moving into a multi-year upturn supported by structural AI demand and persistently tight supply conditions.

The firm argues Micron is well positioned to benefit from rising average selling prices (ASPs) and a mix shift toward higher-margin products as memory becomes an increasingly critical constraint in AI systems.

“Access to memory has become a key bottleneck in AI racks/systems, increasing demand for more performant, higher bandwidth memory (HBM) solutions,” Stifel analysts said.

With supply expected to remain constrained into 2027, the broker sees a backdrop that supports sustained pricing strength and margin expansion. Against that backdrop, Stifel expects Micron to capitalize on “significant ASP growth and higher margin products,” forecasting non-GAAP EPS growth of more than 275% over the next two years.

HBM is seen as central to Micron’s growth outlook. Stifel said HBM has moved into sharper focus as AI models grow more complex and require faster access to larger data sets. As next-generation chips integrate more HBM, memory is becoming a larger component of total AI infrastructure spending.

As the number two player, Micron is expected to see HBM revenue rise 164% in fiscal 2026 and a further 40% in fiscal 2027, with DDR and QLC NAND also benefiting from AI-related demand, the firm noted. 

At the same time, Stifel flags several risks, including the potential return of Samsung as a more meaningful HBM competitor, heavy capital spending that could shift value toward equipment suppliers, a possible easing in DRAM supply-demand dynamics, and the risk that chipmakers design their own base logic dies.

On valuation, Stifel said Micron trades at about 9.7 times calendar 2026 earnings, modestly below historical averages.

“While valuation increasingly embeds significant growth expectations, we believe shares can continue to work on the back of a multiyear, AI-driven product cycle characterized by tight supply,” the firm wrote.

Arm selloff creates buying opportunity, Mizuho says

Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh believes investors should use the recent pullback in Arm Holdings shares to build positions, arguing the market has become too negative on handset demand.

Arm has fallen about 30% since November, even as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has gained roughly 10%. Rakesh said the concerns behind the move are “overdone,” adding that Mizuho would “be buyers of ARM on the ~30% pullback.”

The analyst said that Arm’s growth drivers extend well beyond smartphones. While royalty revenue is roughly 50% tied to mobile, he said it has “always outgrown handset” trends and is expected to grow between 7% and 31% annually from 2021 through 2027.

A key catalyst is the ongoing shift toward Arm’s v9 architecture, which carries “2x ASP/core at v9 vs. v8,” providing a structural uplift to royalties. Rakesh also pointed to rising interest in custom silicon, saying potential ASIC and CPU ramps in 2027 and 2028 could add “$1B+ top-line upside.”

The analyst pointed out opportunities tied to AI-focused custom chips, including a possible training and inference ASIC linked to OpenAI and SoftBank. That project alone, he wrote, “could conservatively drive ~$1B…into C27-28E.”

Beyond mobile, Arm is gaining traction in data centers as hyperscalers increasingly adopt its designs. Rakesh cited platforms such as AWS Graviton, Microsoft Cobalt, Meta’s planned CPU and Nvidia’s Grace and Vera as drivers of a “growing CSS customer base” and an improving royalty mix.

The analyst reiterated an Outperform rating and $190 price target, saying Arm remains “well positioned as the broadest global semiconductor platform.”

Morgan Stanley turns bullish on European semiconductors

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley upgraded the European semiconductor sector to Overweight this week. The Wall Street firm’s strategists believe the space offers an attractive setup for selective stock picking as diversification inflows build, valuation dynamics improve and semiconductor equipment names emerge as key beneficiaries of the next phase of the AI capex cycle.

The strategists said European equities are seeing rising diversification inflows while beginning to break out of a long-standing valuation discount versus the U.S. Within that backdrop, semiconductors stand out as a sector where bottom-up fundamentals are increasingly driving top-down performance.

Morgan Stanley said its preferred way to express this view remains analyst-led stock selection rather than broad factor exposure.

“While European equities already feel highly idiosyncratic, we see plenty more room for Europe’s stock-level dispersion to rise towards cycle highs,” the strategists wrote.

The upgrade is anchored in the semiconductor equipment segment. Morgan Stanley said ASML has been the dominant contributor to European Top Picks performance year to date, accounting for more than half of weighted gains. ASML also represents around 80% of the MSCI Europe Semis and Semicap sector.

Looking ahead, the bank said the key risk in the AI cycle is shifting away from demand and toward execution and transition. “For 2026, the risk in the AI capex cycle is execution & transition, not demand,” the strategists said, arguing this shift favors European semicap exposure, particularly companies linked to extreme ultraviolet lithography.

Morgan Stanley expects order intake in coming quarters to confirm higher foundry and memory capital spending into 2027, alongside better-than-feared demand from China.

From a strategy perspective, the strategists said they adjusted their sector model to reflect stronger earnings and price target revision breadth for European semiconductors, while neutralising factors such as accruals and reducing China exposure. These changes lifted the sector to second place in its internal rankings, just behind banks.

At the stock level, ASML and ASM International remain Morgan Stanley’s Top Picks, while BE Semiconductor Industries is also highlighted as an Overweight-rated beneficiary of the same themes.

Investing.com - Last October, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed to run for re-election this year, aiming for a fourth term in office.

Among his challenger in the ballot, which is set to take place on October 4 this year, will be Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro. The elder Bolsonaro -- a long-time ally of U.S. President Donald Trump -- is banned from seeking office as he serves a 27-year sentence at the Federal Police Superintendency in Brasilia for engaging in a failed coup attempt.

Lula was ahead of the Flavio Bolsonaro in voting intentions for the upcoming elections, a recent Quaest poll commissioned by the brokerage Genial and cited by Reuters showed.

The poll found that, in a first round scenario, Lula would have 36% of the vote, exceeding 23% for Flavio Bolsonaro and 9% for Sao Paolo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, Reuters reported.

With the elections in mind, investors appear to be pricing in a policy shift that could trigger a "structural" rebalancing from domestic consumption to investment, analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note. This trend, along with the start of an easing cycle by Brazil’s central bank in the first quarter, are seen as two main drivers of the "bull case" for Brazilian stocks this year.

"Equity multiple re-rating on the back of lower risk premiums, followed by earning growth reacceleration in 2027 support the path for equity gains," the analysts wrote.

They highlighted a range of "high-quality rate-sensitive financial services" stocks who could benefit from this outcome, including Nubank, XP Inc, BTG Pactual, as well as consumer names such as Mercadolibre and Cyrela.

On the other hand, the bear case for Brazilian stocks is characterized by "higher for longer" interest rates as a result of strong government spending throughout 2026 and "policy continuity that keeps fiscal uncertainty high," they said.

"Equity multiple compression coupled with a potential earnings recession in late 2026 and into 2027 pose material downside to equity markets," the analysts argued.

Against this backdrop, the analysts said they favor hard-currency earnings stocks like materials group Vale and industrials firm Embraer or defensive telecommunications companies such as TIM and Telefonica Brasil.

Still, the analysts warned that this possible rebalancing presents the "widest risk-reward" dilemma for traders.

In the bull case, Brazil’s main Ibovespa stock index is tipped to surge by 46% in Brazilian reals before the end of 2026, while bears see a 42% decline. The Morgan Stanley analysts forecast that the average could see a return of 21% or more.

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Consumer Services and Oil & Gas sectors led shares higher while losses in the Financials, Industrials and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.58%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.03%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 0.28%.

The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 3.28% or 14.81 points to trade at 465.95 at the close. Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) added 2.06% or 4.82 points to end at 239.16 and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) was up 1.53% or 2.83 points to 187.67 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which fell 3.75% or 35.77 points to trade at 918.88 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 3.37% or 21.87 points to end at 626.54 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was down 1.97% or 2.23 points to 110.98.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Live Nation Entertainment Inc (NYSE:LYV) which rose 6.39% to 146.97, Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) which was up 5.15% to settle at 81.62 and Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:GILD) which gained 3.65% to close at 135.93.

The worst performers were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) which was down 17.03% to 45.07 in late trade, Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE:COF) which lost 7.56% to settle at 217.30 and Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA) which was down 5.93% to 48.71 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Urban One Inc Class D (NASDAQ:UONEK) which rose 924.45% to 8.38, Movano Inc (NASDAQ:MOVE) which was up 141.56% to settle at 16.74 and Brand Engagement Network Inc (NASDAQ:BNAI) which gained 89.72% to close at 16.43.

The worst performers were Aptera Motors Corp (NASDAQ:SEV) which was down 37.76% to 1.50 in late trade, Erayak Power Solution Group Inc (NASDAQ:RAYA) which lost 35.16% to settle at 1.77 and OLB Group Inc (NASDAQ:OLB) which was down 31.86% to 0.59 at the close.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1690 to 1043 and 94 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2272 fell and 1102 advanced, while 176 ended unchanged.

Shares in Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:GILD) rose to all time highs; up 3.65% or 4.79 to 135.93. Shares in Aptera Motors Corp (NASDAQ:SEV) fell to all time lows; down 37.76% or 0.91 to 1.50. Shares in Erayak Power Solution Group Inc (NASDAQ:RAYA) fell to all time lows; down 35.16% or 0.96 to 1.77. Shares in Brand Engagement Network Inc (NASDAQ:BNAI) rose to 52-week highs; rising 89.72% or 7.77 to 16.43.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.88% to 16.09.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.39% or 68.49 to $4,981.89 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 3.20% or 1.90 to hit $61.26 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 3.25% or 2.08 to trade at $66.14 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.70% to 1.18, while USD/JPY fell 1.70% to 155.70.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.91% at 97.28.