Responding to a Yahoo Finance report claiming that Fitbit (FIT) has delayed its new smartwatch after several production missteps, SunTrust's Kunal Madhukar said the delay could compound the company's "challenges." The analyst explains that the stock's weakness today is likely because any delay would mean missing the "seasonally stronger" Q2 holiday/shopping events, and because a fall launch may coincide with Apple's (AAPL) next watch. Madhukar adds that competition from Android smartwatches is "getting stronger," adding that Fitbit's core fitness tracker business faces challenges that include market saturation, competition at the high end, and commoditized products at the low end. The analyst maintains a Hold rating and $7 price target on the stock while conceding that it could potentially re-rate if visibility improves.

Welcome to "Fly Insider," The Fly's weekly recap of notable insider stock transactionsNOTABLE INSIDER PURCHASES: Significant insider purchases reported in the prior week from April 15 through April 19 include:Chairman of Ashford (AINC) Montgomery Bennett purchased 200,000 shares of company stock at $4. 91 per share... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Apple quietly acquired Paris-based AI startup Datakalab on December 17, Challenges' David Pargamin reports. The terms of the transaction could not be learned, but European Commission has been notified of the deal, the author notes. Reference Link

Friday's total option volume of 56.7 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 6.01 million calls and 5.28 million puts. NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 50k Lyft (LYFT) May-24 20 calls, 44k Energy Transfer (ET) 4/26 weekly 16.5 calls, 43k Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Sep-24 41 calls, 23k Tesla (TSLA) 4/26 weekly 162.5 calls and 21k Papa John's (PZZA) Jun-24 57.5 puts.

"Box Office Battle" is The Fly's weekly roundup of what movies topped the weekend's box office. A24’s “Civil War”... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

The promise of AI has already driven a massive market rally. The irony is that Apple (AAPL), the company with more context about our lives than any other, has been left behind, Alex Eule writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Unlike Big Tech rivals Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL), or the start-up OpenAI, it has yet to create its own large-language model. The switch to AI, to be sure, is more complex than making a larger-screen phone. But Apple's dominance hasn't changed. And that puts it at the center of any shift - real or artificial, the author says. Reference Link