Markets
Yiwen Lu

US stocks rebound as tech stocks rally

The S&P 500 finished Tuesday up 1%, rebounding from its worst session in over a month on Monday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed the market and rose 1.6%, while the Russell 2000 gained a modest 0.1%.

The rally was led by big tech. The technology sector ETF was the best performer of the day, up 1.9%. All Magnificent Seven stocks advanced, and Nvidia surged 4%, logging its fifth straight session of gains. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF rose 1.7% as Wall Street continued to place bullish bets on AI.

While the rest of the market cheered, energy, the only sector that gained over the past week, slid 2.6%. 

Energy joined oil futures in losses. The November WTI crude settled down 4.6% on Tuesday, after rising for five sessions in a row due to the tension in the Middle East. This came as militant group Hezbollah endorsed Lebanon’s ceasefire efforts with Israel. The global benchmark, December Brent crude, dropped 4.6% as well. However, both benchmarks were still up more than 8% so far this month. 

Treasury yields changed little as rate cuts expectations stabilized. Traders are still overwhelmingly pricing in a 86.7% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut during the Federal Reserve’s November meeting, slightly up from Monday. 

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

SoftBank rallies on OpenAI and SB Energy IPO plans; its Japanese-traded stock notches best day since 2000

SoftBank shares skyrocketed in Tokyo trading, notching their biggest daily gain since 2000, boosted by news about planned IPOs at OpenAI, in which SoftBank has a sizable stake, and SoftBank’s own SB Energy unit. ADRs of SoftBank traded in the US rallied, too.

OpenAI is accelerating the timeline to its public debut, preparing to confidentially file its IPO prospectus with regulators as early as Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. That could set the stage for a highly anticipated public listing as early as September.

SoftBank has systematically expanded its financial exposure to OpenAI, securing a highly valuable stake in the company. As of the fiscal year-end, SoftBank’s cumulative investment in OpenAI totaled $34.6 billion, with a fair value of $79.6 billion, and cumulative investment gains totaled $45 billion, according to a SoftBank filing.

For SoftBank, a successful public debut is critical to demonstrating that OpenAI can protect its market position amid intense industry pressure. Investors have grown increasingly anxious that OpenAI is losing ground to competitors like Anthropic, which is currently in talks for a funding round that could push its own valuation past that of OpenAI.

Adding to the upward momentum, SB Energy, the digital infrastructure and clean energy development firm co-owned by SoftBank and Ares Management, confirmed its own confidential draft registration filing for a major US public listing.

This multipronged IPO pipeline has boosted investors’ confidence in billionaire founder Masayoshi Son’s high-conviction AI thesis, showcasing a road map for SoftBank to transition its paper gains into potential liquidity. SoftBank’s stock is up 37% so far this year.

markets

Nio posts better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and forecasts strong Q2 sales

Chinese EV maker Nio posted Q1 results before markets opened on Thursday, reporting earnings that beat expectations and strong sales guidance for the second quarter. Shares of the company climbed more than 4% in premarket trading.

For the first quarter, Nio reported:

  • Adjusted earnings of $0.00 per share, compared to the $0.05 loss per share that Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

  • $3.7 billion in revenue, compared to the $3.74 billion consensus estimate.

  • 83,465 vehicle deliveries, slightly exceeding its own forecast of between 80,000 and 83,000.

For Q2, Nio guided for deliveries of between 110,000 and 115,000, compared to estimates of 113,807. The company expects second-quarter revenues to come in between $4.75 billion and $4.99 billion, while analysts are forecasting $4.6 billion.

The Chinese auto industry has seen a surge in exports so far this year, as companies make efforts to combat declining domestic sales. Nio, which is still relatively new to overseas operations, has plans to ship “several thousand” EVs overseas this year.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.