Markets
Luke Kawa

S&P 500 closes at another record high, but everyone’s watching the meme stocks

The S&P 500 inched up less than 0.1% to close at a fresh record, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.5%, and the Russell 2000 led the way with a 0.8% advance.

Tech was the source of weakness on Tuesday, the only S&P 500 sector ETF to decline. Healthcare, real estate, materials, industrials, and consumer discretionary all rose more than 1%.

But many of the intriguing stories of the day were in the names outside the benchmark US stock index.

Kohl’s doubled in the first few minutes of trading in a seeming r/WallStreetBets-inspired meme stock short squeeze before being halted for volatility and finishing up 37%.

Opendoor was up more than 20% early in the session but finished down 10% as the bullish flows that have fueled the stock’s surge became more balanced.

Lucid rose double digits after announcing that owners of its Air sedan would be able to access Tesla’s charging network before the month is out.

Healthcare company IQVIA was the best performer in the S&P 500 after posting stronger-than-expected earnings along with guidance that was better than anticipated. Another company that specializes in clinical trials, Medpace, rocketed higher on an earnings beat and improved guidance.

Lockheed Martin, on the other hand, slumped double digits on a Q2 earnings miss. Philip Morris International also tumbled despite raising its profit guidance and reporting better-than-expected earnings, as this news also came along with its first quarterly decline in Zyn shipments. Another earnings-linked sell-off came from General Motors, which reiterated guidance for a tariff hit of up to $5 billion this year.

Coca-Cola dipped despite beating on earnings and adjusted operating profits as the beverage seller suffered a decline in volumes sold. Oh, and cane sugar Coke is coming this fall as an extra offering.

Oscar Health rose 8% despite shifting its guidance to an operating loss of $250 million this year versus its prior expectation of a $250 million profit, as the company suffers from the same challenges to the ACA marketplace as Centene.

Chatter about another potential railway merger influenced stocks, even as Warren Buffett himself threw cold water on the reports, sending CSX and Norfolk Southern up more than 1%.

More Markets

See all Markets
Tasha Matsumoto
1h
Tech drags down stocks; gold and silver plummet

Gold and silver sank amid Trump’s plans to nominate reputed inflation hawk Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair.

Public sculptures along the Clear Creek Trail in downtown Golden, Colorado.
Ben Walsh, Luke Kawa

Gold and silver plunge, suffering their worst losses since the 1980s

Gold and silver suffered their worst losses in decades on Friday, with the iShares Silver Trust falling more than 30% at one point during afternoon trading before recovering slightly.

After recently crossing $5,000 per ounce for the first time, gold’s dip was relatively muted compared to silver’s rout, but nevertheless eye-watering for a traditional safe haven asset. At one point, gold’s intraday dip exceeded 10%, its worst intraday drop since the 1980s and surpassing its declines seen during the 2008 financial crisis, per Bloomberg.

Silver’s drop was its worst in percentage terms since 1980.

Gold, and particularly silver, have been pushed higher recently by a storm of retail trader enthusiasm for the metals, as well as more traditional drivers of precious metals such as geopolitical risks and concerns over a fall in the dollar’s value due to trade wars and possibly waning central bank independence.

Leveraged ETFs that hold gold and silver futures have become increasingly popular trading vehicles amid the parabolic moves in precious metals prices, and likely contributed to the magnitude of the unwind today.

Case in point: look at silver futures for delivery in March. That’s the dominant contract held by the ProShares Ultra Silver ETF, which offers exposure to 2x the daily move in the shiny metal. Volumes exploded (and the contract rebounded modestly) right around 1:25 p.m. ET, which is when silver futures settled and around the time the ETF performed its daily rebalancing (which in this case, involved massive selling).

Max Knoblauch

Gaming stocks plunge following release of Google’s AI tool that can create playable, copyrighted worlds

Shares of major gaming companies are plunging on Friday as investors get a deeper look at the capabilities of Google’s new generative-AI prototype, Project Genie.

The tool allows users to “create and explore infinitely diverse worlds” with a text or image prompt. Users have already exposed its ability to realistically recreate knockoffs of copyrighted games from Nintendo and other gaming companies.

As users experiment with recreations of game worlds like Take-Two’s “Grand Theft Auto 6,” shares of major gaming companies are sinking. Unity Software, the maker of the popular Unity game engine, is down over 25%, while gaming platform Roblox is down about 9%.

Collision 2019 - Day One

D-Wave Quantum CEO on what’s next after the most eventful month in the company’s history

“If 2025 was the international year of quantum, 2026 is the international year of D-Wave Quantum,” said CEO Dr. Alan Baratz.

Luke Kawa7h
markets
Matt Phillips

SoFi bests Wall Street’s Q4 expectations, shares rise

SoFi Technologies reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and earnings-per-share numbers Friday before market open, sending the shares higher in the premarket. 

The online lender reported: 

  • Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.13 vs. the $0.12 consensus estimate collected by FactSet.

  • Adjusted revenue of $1.01 billion in Q4 vs. the Wall Street forecast for $977.4 million.

  • Q1 2026 adjusted net revenue guidance of approximately $1.04 billion vs. the $1.04 billion consensus expectation, according to FactSet.

SoFi shares rallied roughly 70% last year, as the company’s growing menu of financial products — including trading, wealth management, mortgages, credit cards, and cryptocurrency trading — showed signs of gaining traction beyond its traditional base of student borrowers. But the stock has stumbled in early 2026, falling nearly 7% in January through Thursday’s close, though most of that slump seems to have been reversed this morning.

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.
©2026 Sherwood Media, LLC