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Nia Warfield8/20/25

Estée Lauder delivers Q4 beat, but disappointing guidance sends shares sinking

Estée Lauder shares tumbled 9% in premarket trading Wednesday after the MAC and Bobbi Brown parent company matched Q4 estimates but painted a tougher outlook for profitability over the coming year.

Adjusted earnings per share for the three months ended June 30 came in at $0.09, in line with the Street’s estimates. Revenue dropped 12% to $3.41 billion, but still managed to top the $3.39 billion analysts forecast. While sales slipped in skin care, makeup, and hair care, fragrance was a bright spot: up 2% on strong demand for luxury lines like Le Labo and Jo Malone.

Looking ahead, Estée Lauder guided for full-year fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS between $1.90 and $2.10, well below the $2.20 analysts were banking on, with organic net sales growth of 0% to 3%. The beauty behemoth also said US tariffs are expected to clip profits by about $100 million this fiscal year.

Macro headwinds aren’t helping, either: sluggish Chinese travel retail, rising competition from Amazon and TikTok Shop, and muted demand in core categories like cosmetics and skin care are all dragging on momentum.

Prior to the earnings-induced drop, Estée Lauder shares were up 21% year to date.

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Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks rebound from yesterday’s sell-off but still post weekly losses

The rally was broad-based, with every sector ETF rising.

Chicago Bulls Dennis Rodman (91) and Michael Jordan (23) in action, rebounding vs Charlotte Hornets

How bitcoin’s moves show that the stock market is actually fueled by vibes

Bitcoin has been strongly correlated with the S&P 500; the low-volatility stocks within the S&P 500 have not.

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markets

Luke Kawa11/21/25

Nvidia spikes on report that the Trump administration is considering letting Nvidia sell its best Hopper chips to China

One big headline really can change price action.

Shares of Nvidia popped 2% after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is internally discussing the idea of letting Nvidia sell its H200 chips to China. These chips, unlike the H20, are not the nerfed versions that Nvidia designed specifically for sale to China, but rather are its best chips from its Hopper generation, which preceded Blackwell.

The president had mused about allowing Nvidia to sell Blackwell chips to China ahead of talks with Chinese President Xi in late October, but this item was reportedly axed from the agenda at the last minute, per The Wall Street Journal.

Nvidia’s success in 2025 has come despite, not because of, its China business. New export restrictions weighed on its ability to send H20 chips to the world’s second-largest economy. The company took a $4.5 billion impairment charge in its Q1 earnings related to this export ban, and said Q2 sales would have been $8 billion higher if these curbs were not in effect.

After Nvidia reached a deal with the Trump administration that restored its ability to ship that chip, China reportedly responded by banning its domestic technology companies from buying these semiconductors.

“Sizable purchase orders [for the H20] never materialized in the quarter due to geopolitical issues and the increasingly competitive market in China,” CFO Colette Kress said on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.

Ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report, this headline had hit the wires:

*TRUMP: IF NVIDIA’S HUANG IS HAPPY, I’M HAPPY

Well, the CEO didn’t seem too thrilled by the market’s reaction to the chip designer’s strong Q3 results. Perhaps this will cheer him up.

Pharmaceutical Company Eli Lilly Headquarters

Eli Lilly jumps into the tech-dominated $1 trillion club

Lilly is crossing $1 trillion in market cap just as Wall Street is getting jittery over a potential AI bubble.

J. Edward Moreno11/21/25

Max Knoblauch11/21/25

Airlines climb on falling oil prices as the US pushes for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal

Oil prices fell on Friday, with West Texas Intermediate crude futures down more than 2% amid a US push for a peace plan between Russia and Ukraine. The US has reportedly pitched a deal that would see Ukraine cede land to Russia and agree to never join NATO.

As the market repeatedly shows: what’s bad for crude is good for airlines, which stand to benefit from lower fuel costs. Shares of major US carriers are up on oil’s price action, with Southwest Airlines up more than 5% and the rest of the big four airlines — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines — up more than 3%.

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