AMD shares fell Tuesday after Microsoft said the chipmaker's fixes were causing some PCs to freeze. The computer maker halted rolling out the patches, which were a response to the Meltdown attack disclosed last week.
And Target raises its forecast for holiday quarter sales, sending shares to 52-week highs. The discount retailer said results for its full fiscal year would be better than originally expected.
But the holidays weren't happy for everyone. Urban Outfitters saw its shares plunge after forecasting a weaker than expected fourth quarter. And Under Armour got a downgrade from a top analyst, sending the stock down about 5 percent.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
