markets

2/28/25

A positive Friday? S&P 500 looks to snap Trump 2.0 market trend

With the S&P 500 flipping from early losses to a 0.5% advance on Friday, one of the Trump 2.0 market patterns may now be snapped.

TGIF has not been a phrase traders have been uttering this year. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the S&P 500 has traded down on every Friday. It’s been the worst session of the week over this period.

One would be tempted to point to price action like this as screaming “policy risk” — the idea that traders might take some chips off the table on Friday, fearing that potential measures taken by the new administration (particularly related to trade) could be negative for stocks. This kind of trading pattern often shows up during times of particularly high geopolitical tensions.

However, while there have been many plans to impose tariffs, there hasn’t been much follow-through yet. And if this were the story, we’d expect to see down Fridays and positive Mondays, a relief rally as the weekend concerns are unwound. This hasn’t been the case.

But Mondays, of course, are somewhat skewed by having a very low sample, even considering this short time frame (just four sessions since the inauguration, thanks to holidays), and January 27, the day of the DeepSeek-induced market freak-out, having fallen on a Monday.

This weekly trading pattern has not gone unnoticed, and as can be common with market trends or coincidences, just as they start to be more commonly appreciated, they stop working.

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Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

S&P 500 goes nowhere, Nasdaq 100 hits another record, small-caps tumble

Warner Bros. Discovery led gains for the second day in a row, and only three S&P 500 sector ETFs finished in the green.

Horse Ranch In Zhangye

markets

9/12/25

Rocket lab soars to new record close amid rally for retail faves

Rocket Lab ripped by roughly 10% Friday to close at a new all-time high, riding an upturn of retail enthusiasm for a coterie of tech-themed favorites, even as the broader market was more or less flat on the day.

Goldman Sachs’ basket of “retail favorites” — its heaviest weights are Reddit, AppLovin, and Tempus AI — was the second-biggest gainer among the company’s flagship US equity baskets on Friday, rising about 1.6%. The S&P was almost dead flat.

It’s not Rocket Lab’s first retail rodeo, as the money-losing company has more than doubled this year and is up nearly 700% over the last 12 months.

Oracle Wall Street Revisions

Analysts revise up anything and everything they thought about Oracle

After the company’s bombshell earnings this week, Wall Street thinks Oracle’s trajectory has changed.

Matt Phillips9/12/25

markets

9/12/25

Six Flags pops after reiterating its guidance as theme park attendance rebounds

Six Flags shares rose more than 7% today after the company reported a rebound in attendance and early season pass sales heading into the fall. The nine-week period ended August 31 saw 17.8 million guests, up about 2% from the same stretch last year, with stronger momentum in the final four weeks.

More importantly, Six Flags reaffirmed its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance of $860 million to $910 million, showing confidence that its cost and operations strategy can stay strong for the duration of the year. Riding that wave, Six Flags also said early 2026 season pass unit sales are pacing ahead of last year, and average season pass prices are up about 3%.

The good vibes come despite a drop in in-park per-capita spending, especially from admissions, where promotions and changes to attendance mix (which parks or days guests visit) have weighed. Earlier this week, the amusement giant signed a new agreement that extended its position as the exclusive amusement park partner for Peanuts™ in North America through 2030.

Despite the rally, Six Flags shares are down about 52% year to date.

markets

9/12/25

Rivian turns red on the year, squeezed by a recall and the looming end of the EV tax credit

Shares of EV maker Rivian are down more than 5% on Friday following the company’s recall of 24,214 vehicles due to a software issue. The stock move erases Rivian’s year-to-date gain and turns the company negative on the year.

Rivian’s 2025 model year R1S and R1T are affected by the defect, which was identified after a vehicle’s hands-free highway assist software failed to identify another vehicle on the road, causing a low-speed collision. Rivian said it’s released an over-the-air update to fix the issue.

The recall marks Rivian’s fifth this year, affecting nearly 70,000 of its vehicles.

Rivian’s shares are down more than 20% from their 2025 high, which came prior to the passage of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Through the legislation, the $7,500 EV tax credit is set to expire at the end of the month.

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