Markets
Luke Kawa

Major US stock indexes go nowhere; small caps slump

The S&P 500 closed up 0.1% and the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.2% while the Russell 2000 hit a speed bump, falling 1.1% on the day. 

It was a relatively quiet session with total volumes off about 10% from their trailing one-month average as traders await a bevy of market-moving catalysts on deck. This week, we’ll get a ton of US labor market data, the Federal Reserve meets, and a significant chunk of the S&P 500 is due to report earnings, including Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Consumer discretionary was far and away the best-performing S&P sector ETF, up 1.7% thanks in large part to a 5.6% surge in shares of Tesla. Energy was at the bottom of the table as commodity prices hit their lowest level of 2024.

McDonald’s was a big gainer on earnings, up 3.7%  as investors warmed to its plan to refocus on value offerings after suffering a decline in same-store sales.

The slump in small caps was punctuated by a decline in smaller US financial institutions, with the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF off 2.1% in its worst day since late May.

More Markets

See all Markets
Toby Bochan, Luke Kawa
Market Wrap
7h
S&P 500 ends the week with record closing high

What’s up? Stocks up.

Caricature illustration depicting three French bulls in a field. 'Le Rire' magazine 1902.
markets
Luke Kawa

Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

Matt Phillips11h
J. Edward Moreno
12h
Grindr discloses buyout proposal at $18 per share

While two huge shareholders are hoping to buy out Grindr stock at a premium, it was above $20 as recently as July.

LGBTQ Dating App Grindr Goes Public On The NYSE
markets
Luke Kawa

Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.
©2025 Sherwood Media, LLC