Brown bear on a rock

S&P 500 falls as rate-cut optimism fizzles

The S&P 500 gave up early gains to close down 0.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 eked out a 0.1% advance and the Russell 2000 outperformed, rising 0.5%.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

An initial burst of optimism over a soft US jobs report making a Federal Reserve rate cut this month a foregone conclusion didn’t last long.

The S&P 500 gave up early gains to close down 0.3%. The Nasdaq 100 eked out a 0.1% advance and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 0.5% rise, though both indexes finished well off their highs of the day.

Real estate was the best-performing S&P sector ETF while financials and energy each fell more than 1%.

The day’s bright spots were led by Broadcom, which rose 9.4% after the chipmaker beat top- and bottom-line estimates for Q3 and said its 2026 AI revenue outlook will “improve significantly” with OpenAI reportedly booked as a new customer. At the same time, Nvidia and No. 3 US chip player Advanced Micro Devices were down 2.7% and 6.6%, respectively, as their rival’s gain was their pain. Elsewhere...

Lululemon stretched 18.6% lower after the athleisure giant topped Q2 estimates but massively slashed its full-year outlook.

Kenvue sank 9.2% following a WSJ report that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will tie autism to prenatal use of Tylenol.

Palantir shares were slightly bruised by the momentum-driven sell-off, falling about 2%, with its slide pushing the price well below the 50-day moving average.

Robinhood, and Interactive Brokers tumbled amid a broad reversal in momentum stocks.

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

Tesla jumped more than 3% after the company proposed an unprecedented roughly $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, according to proxy filings.

Lucid surged nearly 14% following six days of losses after headlines misidentified Cantor Fitzgerald’s lower split-adjusted price target as a good thing.

Salesforce shares rebounded 2.8%, after slipping Thursday, following the tech company’s better-than-expected fiscal Q2 earnings results.

Luke Kawa

Robinhood, AppLovin, and Emcor pop on announcement of addition to S&P 500

Shares of Robinhood Markets, AppLovin, and Emcor are all rallying in post-market trading on Friday upon news that they’re being added to the S&P 500.

Shares of the brokerage popped 7.2%, the adtech company rose 7.8%, and the construction company was up a more modest 2.7% in the minutes following the announcement.

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

Strategy, another stock rumored to be in the running for inclusion in the benchmark US stock index that has been passed over, sank 2.5% in postmarket trading.

Nia Warfield

Kenvue plunges after reports suggest RFK Jr. may try to link prenatal Tylenol use to autism

Kenvue sank 15% Friday after a WSJ report said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may attempt to link prenatal Tylenol use to autism in an upcoming government report.

Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol and formerly a division of Johnson & Johnson prior to a 2023 spin-out, pushed back, saying the science shows “no causal link” between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, and pointed to FDA and medical groups that agree on the drug’s safety.

The FDA itself has found no “clear evidence” of harm but advises pregnant women to consult providers before taking OTC meds.

The report is also expected to float a folate-derived therapy as a potential treatment.

Tylenol is just the latest well-established medication to face scrutiny under Kennedy, who has already stirred controversy by reshaping vaccine policy and amplifying doubts about mRNA shots.

Kenvue shares are now down over 18% year-to-date.

RFK Jr., HHS to Link Autism to Tylenol Use in Pregnancy and Folate Deficiencies

The FDA itself has found no “clear evidence” of harm but advises pregnant women to consult providers before taking OTC meds.

The report is also expected to float a folate-derived therapy as a potential treatment.

Tylenol is just the latest well-established medication to face scrutiny under Kennedy, who has already stirred controversy by reshaping vaccine policy and amplifying doubts about mRNA shots.

Kenvue shares are now down over 18% year-to-date.

Max Knoblauch

Lucid surges following 6 days of losses after headlines misidentify Cantor Fitzgerald’s lower split-adjusted price target as a good thing

It’s been a shortened week, but still a rough one for Lucid. Investor blowback to the luxury EV maker’s 1-for-10 reverse stock split has sent shares to all time lows this week.

After six straight days of closing lower, Wall Street appears to have decided enough is enough and is loading up on Lucid shares on Friday, sending them up 13% in recent trading. As of 2:10pm eastern, Lucid trading volumes were at more than 240% of their 30 day average.

Some of the move could be attributed to traders reading headlines that don’t take into consideration Lucid’s reverse split. Cantor Fitzgerald on Friday slapped a new price target on Lucid of $20, compared to its previous target of $3. Some news outlets (not us!) presented that as an increase. The problem: With the 1-for-10 reverse split in effect, a comparable price target would have been $30. The new $20 target is actually... a cut.

Matt Phillips

Palantir slips under 50-day moving average, amid momo reversal

What goes up, doesn’t always keep going up.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp PLTR insane valuation

Matt Phillips

Momentum stocks reverse, weighing on US markets

Momentum stocks dragged the market lower Friday, with stocks like Palantir Technologies, SoundHound AI, Rocket Lab, Robinhood Markets, and GE Vernova continuing a recent slide.

(Robinhood Markets, Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.)

The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF opened 1% higher and built on those gains before reversing hard early in the session to trade 1% lower as of 11 a.m. ET.

If it closes at these levels, this fund that holds US stocks with the best risk-adjusted trailing returns will have completed a so-called “bearish engulfing candle pattern.” As the name suggests is, this is considered to be a negative technical signal that occurs when, the day after a security rises, it ends up opening above the previous day’s closing price and closes below the previous day’s opening price.