Markets
Yiwen Lu

US stocks post biggest weekly gains of 2024

The S&P 500 closed up 0.5% on Friday and ended the week with a 4% gain, bouncing back from its worst week of 2024 to deliver its best one. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5%, driving the weekly gain to 5.9%, also its best of 2024. Small caps, which are often more sensitive to interest rate changes, outperformed the broader market, as Russell 2000 advanced 2.5%.

There were growing hopes among traders that the Federal Open Market Committee would deliver a half-point interest rate cut next week. The likelihood of such a move climbed to 47%, according to CME FedWatch. This was up from 14% on Wednesday. Yields on two-year Treasury dropped, while the US dollar fell. 

All S&P sector ETFs advanced. Utilities took the lead and added 1.4%; it is also the best-performing major sector so far this year, with a 24% gain.

Most S&P 500 stocks rose. Warner Bros. Discovery extended Thursday’s gain and increased 10.8%, while Etsy was up 7.6%. The Biden administration earlier took steps to curb a tariff loophole that were often seen benefitting Chinese e-commerce companies. Adobe, on the other hand, lost 8.5% after a disappointing sales outlook. 

In other news, Trump Media & Technology Group closed up 11.8% after Trump said that he had no plans to sell his stake on Friday when a lockup period expires as soon as next week. Shares of Trump’s media company fell sharply this week after Tuesday’s presidential debate.

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Palantir tumbles after delivering spectacular results

Palantir’s exceptional earnings receive ugly reaction

The valuation agita hitting high-flying stocks overshadowed the AI and intelligence software company’s blowout quarterly update.

Matt Phillips11m
markets
Luke Kawa

Fermi secures preliminary approval for a low-emissions natural gas plant to meet AI power demands

Power provider Fermi said it has received preliminary approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the planned 6 gigawatts of natural gas generation that’s part of its “Project Matador” to meet the ever-growing power demands of the AI boom.

“At Fermi, our private grid model ensures that the growing demand for AI is met privately,” Fermi America CEO and cofounder Toby Neugebauer said.

Final approval is still subject to a formal meeting and public comment.

The initial gas generators are already en route to the campus, with plans to have these installed and online in 2026, Fermi said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently remarked that “the ability to get the builds done fast enough close to power” is the biggest constraint he faces, just ahead of an announced deal with IREN to purchase power-secured cloud computing capacity.

markets
Luke Kawa

The negative reaction after Palantir’s earnings is spreading to other volatile retail favorites

Palantir is the poster child for a richly valued, retail darling, megacap momentum stock. It’s going down on largely good news, and that’s cascading to hit smaller, volatile segments of the market also beloved by the retail community.

Goldman Sachs baskets that track retail favorites and nonprofitable tech stocks are down more than 2% and 3% as of 9:43 a.m. ET, respectively, while the Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF is also off more than 2%.

Long Island highway patrol officer using radar to check speed

Stocks are getting speed checked

A retail favorite failing to build momentum even when it “deserves” to, the most important part of the stock market being told it’s overheating, and the heads of banks warning of a broader pullback.

Luke Kawa4h
markets
Tom Jones

Spotify notches another quarter of strong active user growth and improved profitability

Spotify shares are up 3.25% as of 6:45 a.m. ET as investors digest the streaming giant’s Q3 earnings, in which the company reported that it added more than 70 million monthly active users, posted revenues that were up 7% from last year, and improved profitability.

Total revenues climbed to €4.27 billion, or around $4.91 billion, for the quarter, while net income came in at €899 million ($1.03 billion), which translated into adjusted earnings per share of €3.28 — ahead of the ~€1.96 that analysts had expected, per FactSet figures cited by The Wall Street Journal. Spotify now counts a whopping 713 million monthly active users, including 281 million premium subscribers, compared to 640 million and 252 million, respectively, on the same quarter last year.

The boosted figures come on the back of a host of new features that the streaming platform’s introduced, such as “lossless listening,” playlist mixing controls, and direct messages. The company is now forecasting that its total monthly active users will climb to 745 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

With the latest gains today, Spotify is now up ~48% year to date, even as cofounder Daniel Ek announced in September that he’d be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, almost 20 years on from the company’s inception.

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