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S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 post record closing highs as nearly everything rallies

The benchmark US stock index ended up 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.8% gain.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

9/11/25 4:31PM

Some disappointing US economic data didn’t stop the buying on Thursday.

A jump in initial jobless claims and slightly firmer-than-expected inflation were easy hurdles for bulls, who sent the overwhelming majority of the S&P 500 upward on Thursday.

The benchmark US stock index ended up 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.8% gain.

The number of advancers in the S&P 500 outnumbered decliners by 372, the most positive tilt since May 27.

Six S&P 500 sector ETFs rose more than 1%, with materials leading the way higher. Energy was the lone sector ETF in the red, and just barely at that.

Gains on the day were led by Warner Bros. Discovery, which soared almost 29% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Skydance was preparing an all-cash takeover bid for the media juggernaut. Declines were led by Oracle, which fell 6.3% — not a huge deal given the stock had a massive run on Wednesday after the cloud giant unveiled its massive multiyear sales pipeline. Elsewhere...

Opendoor Technologies spiked nearly 79% after the online real estate company announced that cofounders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu were being added to its board of directors, with Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian joining to be its new CEO.

Tempus AI rose 13.7% after the diagnostics company announced FDA clearance for a new AI-enabled tool to analyze cardiac imagery from MRIs.

Micron jumped 7.5% after Citi boosted its price target to $175 from $150.

Centene soared 9.1% after the health insurer reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance ahead of the Deutsche Bank 2025 Healthcare Summit this week and offered positive commentary on Medicare enrollee trends.

Shares of Jeep and Dodge maker Stellantis climbed 9.5% after new CEO Antonio Filosa gave upbeat comments at a European auto conference.

Duolingo rose 8.2% after an analyst note painted a more optimistic picture of the gamified language-learning company despite a lack of fresh news.

Hims & Hers gained 8.3% after the telehealth company announced that it had expanded into testosterone treatments on Wednesday.

Delta Air Lines dipped 1.6% even after the airline boosted its third-quarter sales forecast.

Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks eke out gains on hopes for a path forward for reopening the Strait of Hormuz

Stocks rebounded on news that Iran is drafting a protocol with Oman to “monitor transit” through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

Matt Phillips11h

AI server cluster maker Penguin Solutions takes flight

Small-cap AI server cluster maker Penguin Solutions surged Thursday after posting better-than-expected Q2 revenue and profit numbers Wednesday after the close, along with an increase in full-year sales and profit guidance.

The company, which was known as Smart Global Holdings until July 2024, has positioned itself as a provider of “end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions.”

Its Advanced Computing division designs and sells computers, cabling, and cooling systems, the server racks and clusters of racks AI data centers need. Its other main division sells flash and DRAM memory products.

It’s a pretty small company, with a fully diluted market cap of just over $1 billion and roughly 2,900 employees, according to FactSet.

The stock is volatile. Penguin dove during last year’s tariff tantrum that followed “Liberation Day” in April. Then it turned tail and doubled through early October amid a surge of call options activity, which tends to reflect retail interest. From the October peak, it then plunged by about 50%, before Thursday’s renaissance.

For what it’s worth, call options activity in Penguin is pretty busy today, too — relatively speaking — with roughly 2,625 traded as of 1:15 p.m. ET. That’s the most since early January, when the company last reported quarterly numbers. The average volume over the previous 25 trading sessions is about 325 calls a day, FactSet data shows.

Penguin Solutions Stock Takes Off On AI Bolstered Outlook

The company, which was known as Smart Global Holdings until July 2024, has positioned itself as a provider of “end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions.”

It’s a pretty small company, with a fully diluted market cap of just over $1 billion and roughly 2,900 employees, according to FactSet.

Luke Kawa14h

Momentum returns to optics stocks as the release valve for AI optimism

Potentially imminent end to the war? Buy optics stocks.

Maybe not? Buy optics stocks anyway.

Effectively all the juice left in the AI trade is coming from optics (and memory) stocks. And the latter group is taking a bit of a breather today while the former continues to surge.

Shares of Ciena Corp., Lumentum, and Coherent are building on recent big gains and among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 near midday, while Applied Optoelectronics is also surging on Thursday.

These companies all provide solutions that help information move around in data centers, and thus are key beneficiaries of the aggressive capex plans of hyperscalers. Nvidia has invested $2 billion apiece in Coherent and Lumentum in deals that also include purchase commitments.

Matt Phillips14h

Space stocks rip during a topsy-turvy day for the equity market

Satellite-services-from-space stocks surged Thursday after reports that Amazon is in talks to buy Globalstar, which provides voice and connectivity services from its satellite network. It also can’t hurt that the general mood around space is ebullient, following the successful launch of Artemis II on Thursday.

Planet Labs and ViaSat also soared on the news.

The gains for EchoStar — seen as a backdoor play at pre-IPO SpaceX exposure — and Rocket Lab were more muted, perhaps because a deep-pocketed competitor like Jeff Bezos getting serious about space services could complicate the plans of the two largest commercial space launch companies.

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the dominant provider of such services, and the early rumors on the company’s planned IPO — expected to be the largest ever — suggest the market is very excited about the prospects for the industry.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

Globalstar surges after FT reports that Amazon is in talks to buy the satellite group

Rocket Lab and SpaceX see launch services as key to their aspirations of being major providers of voice and data services from low-Earth orbit satellites.

Elsewhere in the space stock world, Intuitive Machines — a maker of space infrastructure that provides services to NASA for lunar missions — also rose.

Hyunsoo Rim, David Crowther

Can Sandisk do the double?

15h

The S&P 500 just had its worst quarter in years. Here are the biggest winners and losers.

Sandisk and energy stocks soared while software names sank amid a broad sell-off in tech stocks.

Balancing balls of different sizes on pink seesaws creating equilibrium