S&P 500 dips as Fed Chair warns on inflation risks
The S&P 500 fell into the red and never made it back to positive territory after Fed Chair Jay Powell warned of more tariff-induced pressure on inflation to come, causing traders to price in lower odds of interest rate cuts. The benchmark US stock index fell 0.1%, the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.2%, and the Russell 2000 slumped 0.5%.
Materials, energy, and real estate were the worst-performing S&P 500 sector ETFs, while utilities, communications services, and tech were the lone sectors to gain on the day.
Humana rose more than 12% after the health insurance company topped Q2 estimates and raised its full-year outlook. Big decliners included mining giant Freeport-McMoran, which tumbled after the Trump administration announced tariffs on imports of processed copper products, but excluded ore and cathodes.
Elsewhere…
Wingstop shares soared 26% after the chicken chain posted better-than-expected Q2 sales and profit — and opened a record 129 net new stores last quarter.
Peloton shares climbed 18% after UBS slapped a “buy” rating on the stock, citing recent subscription price hikes and early signs that user declines may be leveling off.
Marvell Technology rose 7% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $80 from $73 while keeping its “equal weight” rating.
Electronic Arts shares jumped 5.7% after Wedbush Securities said in a note that the Madden NFL parent company was set to outpace the rest of the video game market through its fiscal year 2027.
Shares of Nvidia and Broadcom rose 2% and 1.7%, respectively, after a Morgan Stanley analyst raised his price targets on the chipmakers to $200 from $170 for Nvidia and to $338 from $270 for Broadcom.
VF shares rallied 2.7% after the parent of Vans, Timberland, and The North Face reported a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss and showed early signs of a potential turnaround.
Avis shares tanked 15% following a disappointing second-quarter earnings report. (Fun fact: renting a car costs about 40% more than it did a decade ago).
Adidas shares sank 11% after the shoemaker posted lower-than-expected sales in the second quarter and warned of the impacts of US tariffs for the second half of the year.
Mondelez fell 6.6% after the Oreo parent beat Q2 expectations but stuck with a muted full-year outlook, as it faces historically high cocoa prices and slow demand in North America.
SoFi Technologies dropped 2.3% after it announced plans to sell $1.5 billion of stock, giving up gains after the company topped Q2 earnings expectations and hiked its full-year revenue guidance on Tuesday.
