Monday started the new week on a positive note, as the stock market once again recovered from early declines to post advances. The Dow Jones Industrials extended its string of record closes to 12 consecutive days in the wake of favorable comments from Warren Buffett about the valuation of the market. Moves within the Trump administration to transfer spending to the Defense Department also bolstered the overall market mood. In addition, good news from certain companies helped to sustain positive sentiment overall, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -0.10%), Windstream Holdings (WINMQ), and Gogo (GOGO 0.93%) were among the top performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.
AMD climbs to a 10-year high
Advanced Micro Devices' stock picked up 8%, reaching levels it hasn't seen in nearly a decade. Early reports of pre-order activity for AMD's new Ryzen central processing unit suggest it has been extremely strong, with some retailers having sold out of their allocations. The most powerful Ryzen 7 chip will be on sale starting this week, while slightly less powerful Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 models will get released over the course of 2017. Investors are growing increasingly confident that AMD can successfully compete against rival chipmaker Intel with Ryzen, and AMD's Polaris graphics products could also make the company more competitive against its key graphics rivals. With other chip offerings expected in 2017, investors believe that AMD CEO Lisa Su and her team of executives are making a difference and returning Advanced Micro Devices to relevance in the semiconductor industry.
Image source: AMD.
Windstream makes a connection
Windstream Holdings' shares climbed 8% after the company announced that it had completed its merger with EarthLink. The combination should produce more than $150 million in savings every year from operating and capital expenses, because the two companies should be able to share operations and get economies of scale within the first three years after the merger. That's $25 million more in annual savings than the company originally expected, but CEO Tony Thomas said that the bigger impact will be on the two companies' customers, who "will benefit from our expanded national fiber footprint and enhanced products and services, including [software-defined wide area networks], [unified communications as a service], network security, managed services, and cloud connectivity." EarthLink will have three directors on Windstream's 12-person board, and the combined company anticipates plenty of benefits going forward.
Gogo flies higher
Finally, shares of Gogo gained 15%. The provider of in-flight internet services reported its fourth-quarter financial results Monday morning, which included a 16% rise in revenue and a narrower net loss than in the year-earlier quarter. CEO Michael Small said that Gogo's 2Ku service offering "demonstrates industry-leading speed, coverage, and service availability," and Gogo has been adding new installations quickly enough that it now expects to post positive free cash flow by 2019, a year earlier than previously expected. Even in the short term, revenue growth of 12% to 17% in 2017 and adjusted pre-tax operating earnings of $60 million to $75 million were promising. Investors hope that Gogo can keep gaining altitude despite rising competition from satellite and other providers, and for now, those hopes appear to be panning out.
