markets

Matt Phillips8/26/25

Rocket Lab rises for fourth straight session

Retail favorite Rocket Lab is on track for its fourth straight gain Tuesday, riding a fresh wave of investor enthusiasm for the momentum stocks that have set the pace for the market since April.

Writing about such stocks is tricky. As is the case with Rocket Lab today, there’s often little “news” to explain a sudden price jag, which can force us market hacks into the always treacherous terrain of tea leaf reading.

But Rocket Lab’s recent run-up has seemed to coincide with the resurgence in this year’s enthusiasm for so-called momentum stocks that suddenly evaporated last week, as people began to worry about whether the Fed would cut rates in the face of persistently high inflation.

(Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech quickly dispelled those fears.)

Betting on momentum stocks — essentially, stocks that have been going up — has been a moneymaker since President Trump’s tariff announcement tanked the market in April.

Since the April 8 low, Goldman Sachs’ basket of “high beta momentum long” stocks — where Rocket Lab has one of the heaviest weightings, along with other winners this week, like SoFi Technologies — is up some 55%, outpacing a gain of about 29% for the overall market. So it seems like the betting on “big mo” will continue.

More Markets

See all Markets

markets

CrowdStrike beats on 3Q revenue and earnings

CrowdStrike eked out beats on both earnings and revenue for the third quarter, while also raising its full-year guidance.

The cybersecurity company reported earnings of $0.96 per share, beating analysts’ consensus of $0.94 per share.

The company saw $1.23 billion in sales for the quarter, up 22% year on year, beating analysts’ expectation of $1.21 billion in sales. The company reported a net loss of about $34 million.

Subscription revenue was $1.17 billion, up 21% year on year.

Shares were little changed in after-hours trading. The stock is up nearly 50% since the start of the year.

The company’s annual recurring revenue reached $4.92 billion as of Oct. 31, up 23% year on year. The analyst consensus was $4.895 billion.

The company raised its fiscal year 2026 guidance for revenue to between $4.8 billion to $4.81 billion (previously $4.75 billion to $4.81 billion), and upped its outlook for adjusted earnings per share to a range of $3.70 to $3.72 (previously $3.60 to $3.72).

Burt Podbere, CrowdStrike’s CFO wrote in the press release:

“We delivered outstanding third quarter results, exceeding expectations across all guided metrics. Total revenue growth accelerated to 22% year-over-year, and we delivered record cash flow from operations of $398 million and record Q3 free cash flow of $296 million. We are capitalizing on the AI-driven demand environment as customers consolidate on the Falcon platform, driving our pipeline to an all-time high. ”

markets

Marvell Technology falls after posting small beat in Q3, in-line guidance for Q4

Marvell Technology is falling in after hours trading after the chip company posted Q3 results modestly ahead of estimates with a Q4 outlook in line with analysts’ expectations.

Net revenue: $2.075 billion (estimate: $2.06 billion)

Adjusted earnings per share: $0.76 (estimate: $0.74)

For Q4, management offered guidance for net revenues to come in at $2.2 billion (+/- 5%) with adjusted EPS of $0.79 (+/- $0.05). That’s virtually bang in line with Wall Street’s call for $2.19 billion and $0.79, respectively.

Along with these results, Marvell announced plans to buy Celestial AI, a company that uses light to move data between chips, for at least $3.25 billion in cash and stock. The purchase price could go up by as much as $2.25 billion if Celestial AI’s cumulative revenues reach at least $2 billion by the end of Marvell’s fiscal 2029 (roughly speaking, calendar year 2028).

The chip stock has been on a solid run recently, thanks in large part to a wave of investor enthusiasm over custom chips spurred by the launch of Google’s Gemini 3. Marvell works with Amazon as a co-designing partner for its custom chips, including providing connectivity infrastructure for the Trainium 3 model which was publicly launched on Tuesday.

That being said, Marvell has been one of the worst chip stocks this year, down about 15% year-to-date ahead of these results.

Tasha Matsumoto

Megacap tech drives stocks higher; bitcoin rebounds

Speculative stocks and bitcoin rebounded as traders’ risk appetite resumed.

Dennis Rodman (R) of the Chicago Bulls grabs a rebound from Karl Malone (L) of the Utah Jazz 01 June during the second half of game one of the NBA Finals at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

markets

Matt Phillips2h

Morgan Stanley upgrades Tempus AI to “overweight”

Morgan Stanley analysts gave Tempus AI an “overweight” rating — essentially a “buy” — and a raised their price target to $85 from $80, writing in a note published late Monday that despite being “a relatively new player, the company has already established itself as one of the top providers of precision oncology testing.”

As part of their reasoning, analysts spotlighted faster-than-expected growth in Tempus’ hereditary cancer risk-testing business, which it acquired through the purchase of Ambry Genetics in a deal that closed earlier this year.

Morgan Stanley also suggested there could be upside in Tempus’ relatively small data and services unit, which sells de-identified patient data pulled from its testing archive for use in pharmaceutical drug trials and other applications.

Despite being consistently unprofitable since its IPO last year, Tempus has been winning over Wall Street analysts.

Of the 17 covering the stock, 10 have “buy” ratings — or their equivalent — on Tempus, up from six in June.

Tempus has seen its share price more than double this year.

Wall Street 2026 outlook and S&P 500 forecasts (binoculars)

Wall Street has great expectations for the next year in the stock market

Stock watchers are pretty bullish about the coming year — as they typically are — with eyes on the Fed and whether the AI boom will still have legs. BofA is a little skeptical.

Matt Phillips4h

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