US stocks shake off geopolitical flare-up to finish flat

US stocks slumped in the morning after Ukraine’s missile strikes on Russia, but managed to pare those losses by the close. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 barely broke even, while the Nasdaq 100 posted a small loss.

Healthcare was the best-performing S&P sector ETF, shaking off losses of 6% since the week of the election with a 1.2% advance. Energy stocks were a beneficiary of rising geopolitical tensions in Eurasia, even as crude oil retreated.

Most Magnificent 7 stocks cooled off after Tuesday’s big gains, with Nvidia down 0.8% ahead of its much-anticipated earnings report.

Target suffered a massive 21% loss after reporting lower-than-expected earnings, a decline in sales, and cutting its full-year guidance.

Qualcomm slumped 6.3% on the heels of an investor presentation where its top-line growth outlook failed to impress.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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US job growth falls far short of estimates in June; unemployment rate unexpectedly dips to 4.2%

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Meta surges on report it’s starting a cloud business to sell excess AI compute

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