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S&P 500’s losing streak extends to three

The longest run in the red for the benchmark US stock index in over a month.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% on Thursday, marking its third straight day in the red for the first time in over a month. The Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.4% and the Russell 2000 fell 1%.

Every S&P 500 sector ETF finished in the red aside from energy, with consumer discretionary and healthcare faring the worst.

Bright spots on the day were led by Intel, which rose 8.8% following a Bloomberg report that the chipmaker approached Apple about a possible investment as it seeks to revive its business. Declines were led by CarMax, which sank 20% after the used vehicle retailer missed Wall Street’s estimates for the second quarter. Elsewhere…

Amazon ticked 0.9% lower after agreeing to pay $2.5 billion to settle a case by the Federal Trade Commission that alleged the retailer tricked people into signing up for Prime and made it hard to cancel.

Quantum stocks including IonQ, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantum Computing sputtered after nearly doubling thanks to the US government calling the technology an R&D priority for fiscal 2026.

Stitch Fix sank nearly 17% after the personal styling platform topped the Street’s Q4 expectations but tepid guidance and declining customer numbers disappointed investors.

Oklo dove 9.2% after an SEC filing showed company director Michael Klein sold some $6.7 million in stock.

Cipher Mining fell nearly 18% after initially popping, following news that Google was taking a 5.4% equity stake in the data center company.

Shares of retail darling Opendoor Technologies jumped over 10% after proprietary trading firm Jane Street revealed a 5.9% stake in the company in a new filing.

BYD leapt 2.5% after the Chinese EV maker outsold Tesla in the EU again in August. Tesla fell 4.4%.

Duolingo popped 4.2% after the language-learning app regained some attention among options-trading retail investors.

Hertz ticked up 0.9% after the company announced an upsized $375 million exchangeable senior notes offering, an increase from the previously announced offering size of $250 million.

Luke Kawa5h

Retail traders are dumping Bloom Energy after near 300% rally, says JPMorgan

Retail traders are swarming for the exits in fuel cell company Bloom Energy, causing what was once a near 300% year-to-date rally to sour.

JPMorgan strategists led by Arun Jain flagged that Bloom’s net imbalance — the balance of buying versus selling among retail traders — was exceptionally negative as of 11 a.m. ET, even worse than during its double-digit drop on Wednesday.

The fuel cell company, which counts Oracle among its customers, eclipsed a market cap in excess of $20 billion earlier this week despite generating less than $2 billion in sales over the past year.

Wall Street began to sound some alarm bells about the extent of Bloom’s run this week, with Jefferies downgrading its rating for the stock to “underperform” from “hold” on Wednesday while Bank of America analysts wrote, “We are still not buying into BE’s AI hype.”

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J. Edward Moreno6h

Matt Phillips7h

Duolingo rises as executives talk up China opportunity

Duolingo posted a solid gain Thursday, the latest in a series of relatively light-on-news moves in the stock this month as it has regained some attention among options-trading retail investors.

There was a story in China’s official China Daily where executives laid out their plans for the language-learning app’s push into the People’s Republic, which has been a focus of Wall Street analysts on recent post-earnings conference calls.

China, where the company began doing business in 2018, is Duolingo’s fastest-growing market for its language-learning app. It’s also the largest source of test takers for its Duolingo English Test proficiency exam business, a recent focus for management spotlighted in its recent Duocon product announcements.

It’s hard to say if the China Daily story is the reason for today’s upswing in the stock, but given the necessities of working within a country controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, a relatively favorable story appearing in its international propaganda organ suggests a relatively healthy working relationship is developing there.

Duolingo to expand local team, products

Matt Phillips9h

Oklo dives after insider sale

Oklo dove Thursday after an SEC filing showed company director Michael Klein sold some $6.7 million in stock in transactions that, importantly, were not part of a pre-set insider sales plan.

Wall Street analysts forecast that the nuclear power startup will make losses for years to come. But the company’s ties to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who served as Oklo’s chairman until April, have helped make the stock a favorite of retail traders and a popular momentum play.

Even after today’s stumble, it’s up more than 400% this year and nearly 1,300% over the past 12 months.

Luke Kawa

Quantum stocks sputter after nearly doubling thanks to the US government calling the technology an R&D priority

The happiest words for an emergent technology: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Scholz Inaugurates Europe's First IBM Quantum Data Center