Markets
Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa
7/18/25

S&P 500 goes nowhere with earnings season set to pick up steam

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 ended fractionally lower while the Russell 2000 fell 0.6% in a ho-hum end to the week.

Volatility seems to have gone on vacation for the summer. The S&P 500 has traded in a weekly range of less than 2% in each of the past three weeks, the first time it’s done that this year.

Utilities was the only S&P 500 sector ETF to end with a gain of more than 1%; energy, healthcare, and communications services were the biggest decliners.

Gains were led by Invesco, which jumped 15% after the investment management firm told the SEC that it’s seeking permission from owners of its Invesco QQQ Trust to change the fund structure. Elevance Health was among the decliners, falling 8% after disappointing Q2 results and signaling uncertainty around the future of ACA enrollment. Centene and Molina Healthcare also dropped 4% and 10%, respectively.

Charles Schwab shares rose about 3%, hitting a record high, after relentless retail trading activity throughout the tariff-infused volatile second quarter helped drive better-than-expected results.

Both Coinbase and Robinhood reached record highs after the House passed two critical crypto legislative bills focused on stablecoins and market structure oversight.

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

Shares of online real estate company Opendoor were up 36%, continuing its rally after call volumes set a new daily record for the fourth straight session, nearly eclipsing 1 million.

Tiny AI company Blaize jumped more than 50% after announcing a $120 million deal to deploy its platform in Asia “for smart city applications.”

Netflix shares fell 5% a day after reporting a Q2 beat and receiving a wave of analyst price target hikes, as investors reacted to the company’s warning that second-half margins would be lower than the first half.

Sarepta shares sank 36% after reports that the FDA plans to halt all shipments of the company’s top-selling drug following a second patient death link to its experimental gene therapy. 

Exxon shares fell 3.5% after rival Chevron won a ruling that gives the company access to one of the world’s fastest-growing offshore oil regions, allowing Chevron to close its $53 billion acquisition of Hess. Chevron shares dipped down less than 1%.

Talen Energy, a power provider for hire with a focus on selling juice to the booming AI data center industry, jumped nearly 25% after announcing the purchase of two gas-fired power plants.

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Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa
2h
S&P 500 closes at record as tech heavyweights flex (besides Apple)

The Magnificent 7 did the heavy lifting, performing better than any S&P 500 sector ETF on Tuesday.

Bull by the horns
markets
Matt Phillips
3h

Oracle rips as backlog builds, but company misses on top and bottom lines

Oracle shares shot higher after-hours as the company reported a growing backlog, even though its fiscal Q1 results fell slightly short of expectations. The company reported:

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $1.47 vs. expectations of $1.48.

  • Revenue of $14.93 billion vs. expectations of $15.04 billion.

Shares were up 21% in after-hours trading, which is a pretty crazy stock move for a company with a market cap of more than $675 billion.

The market was likely impressed by a giant build in the company’s “remaining performance obligations,” or RPO, which is how the company measures the value of signed cloud computing deals that haven’t yet been reported as revenue. In a statement, CEO Safra Catz said: 

“We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1. This resulted in RPO contract backlog increasing 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter — and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

Oracle Announces Fiscal Year 2026 First Quarter Financial Results

Oracle Announces Fiscal Year 2026 First Quarter Financial Results

The market was likely impressed by a giant build in the company’s “remaining performance obligations,” or RPO, which is how the company measures the value of signed cloud computing deals that haven’t yet been reported as revenue. In a statement, CEO Safra Catz said: 

“We signed four multi-billion-dollar contracts with three different customers in Q1. This resulted in RPO contract backlog increasing 359% to $455 billion. It was an astonishing quarter — and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build. Over the next few months, we expect to sign-up several additional multi-billion-dollar customers and RPO is likely to exceed half-a-trillion dollars.”

markets
Matt Phillips
3h

Robinhood rides index inclusion rally to record close

Robinhood Markets notched a new closing high Tuesday, as the crypto, stock, and options brokerage continued to ride a rally set off by the announcement that it would be added to the S&P 500 Index.

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

Robinhood appears to be benefiting from the so-called inclusion effect, a market phenomenon where companies that are added to major market indexes can see a price move as index funds — whose holdings must mirror the membership of the index — rush to buy the stock.

For what it’s worth, it seems like Robinhood will upon entry (effective prior to the market open on September 22) be the top-performing member of the index, as its roughly 220% gain this year is more or less double that of the current leader, Seagate Technology Holdings.

markets
Luke Kawa
3h

GameStop posts impressive Q2 results with big sales beat

Don’t call it a comeback!

GameStop is jumping aftermarket as the video games and collectibles retailer posted an impressive set of second-quarter results.

  • Net sales: $972 million (estimate $823 million).

  • Adjusted diluted earnings per share: $0.25 (estimate $0.16).

Note: these consensus estimates, compiled by Bloomberg, are from only two analysts.

The sales beat is particularly noteworthy, as the company had already done an exemplary job of expense control to help protect its bottom line. Revenues were up more than 20% versus the year-ago quarter, the biggest annual jump in sales since the company (and the world) was emerging from the pandemic in 2021.

The options market implies a move of plus or minus about 9.4% on earnings.

For a while, GameStop’s ability to generate positive net income was purely a function of the interest earnings on its substantial cash hoard. But now, GameStop has strung together five consecutive quarters of positive operating cash flows for the first time in its history!

This was the quarter when the company began to act on its bitcoin treasury strategy, raising money through the sale of convertible notes and using some proceeds to purchase the crypto asset.

Because of how much market value has been ascribed to potential for GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen to use its significant cash holdings to transform the company, the prospect of converting cash into bitcoin initially did not sit too well with investors following the announcement of this new strategic push in March.

Shares of the once-upon-a-time meme stock really didn’t get too much love during retail frenzies earlier in the summer, and were down about 25% year to date heading into this release.

As of the close of the quarter, its bitcoin holdings were valued at $528.6 million.

Western Digital Seagate Technology Rise to top of S&P 500

Data storage is so hot right now

A rapid turnaround in profitability helps explain how Seagate Technology and Western Digital have clawed to the top of the S&P 500 this year.

Matt Phillips5h

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