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Tesla Musk Trump Feud Retail Dip Buying
The dip (Steve Russell/Getty Images)

Musk-Trump feud triggers wave of retail dip-buying

A wide range of retail favorites and meme-ish stocks soared Friday, as traders saw no reason for the dust-up between Elon Musk and Donald Trump to dissuade them from their favorite strategy.

Matt Phillips

Some of the most speculative parts of the stock market soared on Friday, as retail traders swamped the market in search of favorites beaten down by Thursday’s dust-up between Elon Musk and President Trump.

Unprofitable tech firms, crypto-adjacent stocks, retail faves, and meme standbys all outperformed broader indexes as everyman traders appeared to embrace a strategy they first adopted during the Covid market collapse of 2020.

Goldman Sachs’ themed “retail favorites” basket was up 2.1% shortly after 2 p.m. ET, outperforming the S&P and the Nasdaq. Large constituents like Tesla, Palantir, and Robinhood Markets posted impressive gains, but more speculative retail playthings like Rocket Lab, SoundHound AI, and IonQ did even better. (Sherwood News is an editorially independent subsidiary of Robinhood.)

Of course, it’s hard to say with absolute certainty that these gains are being driven solely by individual investors. Professional investors are also trading today.

But it would be consistent with the recent behavior of individual investors, who swallowed hard and snapped up shares of top stocks like Nvidia amid the market’s plunge in April, helping to both put a floor under prices and improve their lagging performance against the market.

For the record, despite their dedication to dip-buying, retail investors are still underperforming the market indexes, JPMorgan analysts say. In a note earlier this week, they estimated that retail portfolios were down 2.6% in 2025 through the end of May, while the S&P 500 had a gain of about 1% over that period.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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