Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 and DJIA have returned to their flatlines, while the Nasdaq Composite (-0.4%) remains lower. 

ServiceNow (NOW 774.99, -90.07, -10.41%) is plunging lower following a report from Bloomberg that the company is in advanced discussions to acquire cybersecurity firm Armis for approximately $7.0 billion. The sell-off was exacerbated by a downgrade from KeyBanc Capital Markets, which moved its rating on ServiceNow to Underweight, citing "worrying trends in IT back-office employment data."

Meanwhile, Intel (INTC 37.77, -0.04, -0.11%) is in advanced discussions to acquire AI chip startup SambaNova Systems for approximately $1.6 billion, according to Bloomberg. The potential deal represents a strategic push by Intel to bolster its artificial intelligence capabilities amid intense competition from NVIDIA (NVDA 176.95, +1.93, +1.10%). SambaNova designs specialized AI hardware and software, most notably its Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit, which competes directly with NVIDIA's GPUs for AI inference and training workloads.