Stockwinners Market Radar for August 05, 2018 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

19:30 EDT On The Fly: Top five weekend stock stories - Catch up on the weekend's top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Linde (LNEGY) and Praxair (PX) $42B merger is facing an unexpected hurdle from the U.S. antitrust regulator that could derail the deal, according to Bloomberg. The Federal Trade Commission indicated it wants the companies to sell more assets before it approves their deal, the report noted, adding that Linde highlighted a "higher likelihood" that the requirement may push total asset disposals to beyond the acceptable threshold outlined in the merger deal. 2. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A; BRK.B) reported second quarter operating earnings $6.89B versus $4.12B last year, and second quarter net earnings of $12B from $4.26B in the year-earlier period. At June 30, 2018, Berkshire's book value per Class A equivalent share was $217,677. Insurance float was approximately $116B at June 30, 2018, an increase of $2B since year-end 2017. 3. On Thursday, Apple (AAPL) became the first U.S. company to reach a market value of $1T and its shares traded at 15.8 times projected earnings for the next four quarters, which, according to FactSet, makes them only 5% less expensive than the broad S&P 500 index, Jack Hough wrote in this week's edition of Barron's. While shareholders might be tempted to take profits, they should hang on for more upside as investors are finally beginning to give it credit for more than its handset volumes and Apple compares well with the broad market on measures of risk, financial strength, and growth potential, he contended. It would not take much of one to send shares 20% higher over the next year, the report added. 4. Viacom (VIAB) owned Paramount's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" won the weekend's box office, ending its sophomore outing with $35M from 4,395 North American theaters. "Fallout" posted the lowest decline of any film in the series besides "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," which debuted over Christmas in 2011. The movie earned an A CinemaScore and sports a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score. 5. Synchrony Financial (SYF), Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Editas Medicine (EDIT), and Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) saw positive mentions in Barron's.

12:22 EDT TSMC provides update on impact of computer virus incident - In a statement, TSMC "provided an update on the company's computer virus outbreak on the evening of August 3, which affected a number of computer systems and fab tools in Taiwan. The degree of infection varied by fab. TSMC contained the problem and found a solution. As of 14:00 Taiwan time, about 80% of the company's impacted tools have been recovered, and the company expects full recovery on August 6. TSMC expects this incident to cause shipment delays and additional costs. We estimate the impact to third quarter revenue to be about three percent, and impact to gross margin to be about one percentage point. The company is confident shipments delayed in third quarter will be recovered in the fourth quarter 2018, and maintains its forecast of high single-digit revenue growth for 2018 in U.S. dollars given on July 19, 2018. Most of TSMC's customers have been notified of this event, and the company is working closely with customers on their wafer delivery schedule. The details will be communicated with each customer individually over the next few days. This virus outbreak occurred due to mis-operation during the software installation process for a new tool, which caused a virus to spread once the tool was connected to the company's computer network. Data integrity and confidential information was not compromised. TSMC has taken actions to close this security gap and further strengthen security measures."