Markets
Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa
7/24/25

S&P 500 inches up, Nasdaq 100 gains to book record closing highs

The S&P 500 traded in positive territory all day and managed to eke out another record close, though the advance was nothing to write home about. The Nasdaq 100 gained 0.3% to close at a record along with the benchmark US stock index, while the Russell 2000 sank 1.4%.

Consumer discretionary was the worst-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, weighed down by Tesla, which fell 8% after CEO Elon Musk pondered the company’s challenges on its Q2 earnings call (including developing full self-driving software as well as tariff and supply chain headwinds). In fact, energy, tech, and communications services were the only sector ETFs with a positive showing on the session.

Gains were led by West Pharmaceutical, with shares up about 23% in its best day ever after the company, which makes tiny rubber components used for GLP-1 pens, crushed Wall Street estimates thanks to soaring weight-loss drug demand. LKQ Corp. led declines, falling nearly 18% after the automotive scrapyard owner reported Q2 profits that fell short of Wall Street expectations and revised its full-year profit guidance lower. Elsewhere...

T-Mobile shares jumped about 6% as Wall Street digested the wireless giant’s better-than-expected Q2 earnings results after the bell Wednesday, along with a fresh upgrade to its full-year forecast.

ServiceNow shares rose 4% after the cloud software company posted strong Q2 results and its CEO said the company would slow hiring for its “soul-crushing” roles.

Chipotle shares tumbled 13% after the burrito biggie posted its second straight quarter of same-store sales declines, also missing the Street’s estimates.

American Airlines’ tumble neared double digits after the company slashed its full-year earnings outlook, projecting an up to $0.20 loss for the year — worse than the Street’s expectations and American’s previous outlook.

Southwest plunged 11% after posting disappointing Q2 results Wednesday and despite the airline’s projections of earning over $350 million in bag fee revenue for the full year.

IBM shares dropped nearly 8% after the company reported Q2 earnings that beat on the top and bottom lines, but posted weaker-than-expected growth in its important software division.

Mattel shares sank over 16% after the toy maker posted mixed second-quarter results, as demand picked up overseas but wasn’t enough to completely offset declines in North America. 

Outside of earnings...

American Eagle shares rose 4%, finishing way off its premarket highs after a new campaign starring actress Sydney Sweeney sparked fresh retail buzz, landing the stock on r/WallStreetBets’ trending list.

UnitedHealth shares dipped almost 5% after the insurance giant said it was responding to requests from the Department of Justice regarding its Medicare Advantage business practices.

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern were down 4.5% and less than 1%, respectively, as the two rail giants confirmed that they have, in fact, been involved in talks about combining their companies.

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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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