Editor's Note: The "This Week's Bull Stocks in Hong Kong and US Markets" column keeps up with market trends every week, reviewing the weekly performance of the Hong Kong and US stock markets. It helps investors identify hot sectors, strong individual stocks, and major news of the week, in order to find investment themes with potential for profit.
This week, the Dow Jones Index rose by 1.01% to 52,177.69 points; during the same period, the S&P 500 Index fell by 0.86% to 7,744.06 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell by 2.39% to 26,713.03 points.
Bending Spoons S . p.A ( BSP.US ) The stock has risen nearly 47% this week, and Berkshire Hathaway has increased its holdings twice in three months, driving up the stock price.
The announcement reveals that Berkshire will purchase 10 million newly issued common shares of the listed company at a price of $33 per share through a private placement, involving a total of $330 million. Including the $600 million Berkshire invested in Bending Spoons's US stock IPO in July this year, the shareholding ratio will rise to 4% after the completion of this latest transaction.
As a background, the core business model of Bending Spoons is to continuously acquire digital businesses with mature products and user bases, and then improve profitability through team reorganization, technical restructuring, product updates, and commercialization adjustments. Unlike the typical private equity model that seeks to exit after acquisition, the company's goal is to hold and operate these businesses in the long term. This includes note-taking app Evernote (the company's Chinese operations were spun off in 2018 to form Impress Notes), video platform Vimeo, file transfer tool WeTransfer, and professional mobile video recording app FiLMiC Pro. The imaging app Remini under this company even topped the list of free apps in China's App Store during the "May Day" holiday in 2024 thanks to its "clay filter" feature.
Ericsson ( ERIC.US ) has seen a weekly increase of over 12%, with demand for mobile networks picking up, and its financial report exceeded expectations.
Against a backdrop of challenging external environments and rising component costs, Ericsson achieved a 7% organic sales growth. At the same time, the company announced measures to simplify its operational structure, betting on AI to empower intelligent networks. Financial report data shows that Ericsson reported sales of 59.5 billion Swedish kronor this quarter, compared to 56.2 billion Swedish kronor in the same period last year, thanks to increased demand for mobile networks and further tightened cost control.
In addition, the company and Verizon ( VZ.US ) completed the first 6G pre-standard field call in the 7 GHz frequency band on a Verizon commercial network site in Concord, California.
Management emphasized that despite facing macroeconomic uncertainties and the rising costs of components caused by AI, the company has successfully maintained its profit margins through tactical business measures and strict cost control. AI technology is creating new opportunities for mobile networks, and the company's AI native link adaptation function based on custom silicon chips has been commercially deployed, improving spectrum efficiency by 10%. Analysts are mainly concerned about the potential dilution effect of component cost inflation on gross margins in 2027, the impact of satellite communications on terrestrial networks, the profitability path of the corporate business, and the commercialization progress of AI RAN. Management responded that cost pressures will ultimately need to be passed on to downstream customers through price increases, and 2027 will be a transitional period; at the same time, they are optimistic about the seamless connection and complementarity between satellite and terrestrial networks and are committed to accelerating the profitability of the corporate business.
eBay ( EBAY.US ) Up nearly 10% week-on-week, live streaming platform business takes off, listed as a preferred stock by Morgan Stanley.
Live e-commerce has been a key driver of the recent accelerated growth of GMV, contributing to about 40% of that growth. The growth of GMV in eBay exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic investors, and the market has struggled to determine the reasons for this. Morgan Stanley believes that the live sales market, valued at $27 billion, is a "missing piece of the puzzle," and estimates that it has driven more than 40% of the growth of eBay, and can provide sustainable momentum for its high double-digit compound annual growth rate.
Morgan Stanley has listed eBay as a preferred stock, raising its rating to “Preferred Buy” (from Top Pick). This is due to the growth brought about by live streaming being more sustainable than market expectations, and profit margins are now expected to have hit bottom. Analysts have raised their forecasts for GMV and EBIT for the years 2026-2030, and have increased the target price from $127 to $132. In a bullish scenario, the target price could reach $237.
Live streaming empowers the eBay ecosystem in four ways: 1) Direct sales through the eBay and Live platforms; 2) Live stream sellers purchase inventory from eBay; 3) Live stream buyers resell products on eBay (increasing circulation); 4) The discovery effect of live streaming drives traditional listing sales. It is estimated that live streaming-related GMV will reach $8.2 billion by 2026, of which eBay and Live direct GMV will account for approximately $2.1 billion.
On the other hand, the stocks that performed poorly this week are as follows:
Edit / Joe Liang
