12/18/24

Stocks crater as Federal Reserve’s inflation concern swells

The S&P 500 fell 3% — its second-worst day of 2024. The Nasdaq 100 slumped 3.6% and the Russell 2000 cratered 4.4%, its biggest loss this year.

The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF closed below its November 5 level, erasing all of its postelection gains, as did small caps.

Day 13 in a row of breadth is bad, but this time even worse: the S&P 500’s advance-decline line was extremely negative. The number of falling stocks outnumbered those that rose by 464, the lowest reading this year.

The options market thought this would be the sleepiest Federal Reserve meeting of the year, and boy was it wrong. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 were comfortably in the green ahead of the central bank’s rate decision. The Fed’s projections showed heightened concern about inflation risk given recent readings that have surprised to the upside as well as potential policies that might be pursued by the incoming Trump administration.

The median monetary policymaker thinks two interest-rate cuts would be appropriate in 2025; the market swung even more dramatically and now is pricing in only one 25-basis point reduction.

Some lowlights among individual stocks: Tesla fell 8.3%, Broadcom retreated by 6.9%, and GameStop was down 8.5%.

Jabil Circuit managed to book a strong 7.3% gain on the heels of its quarterly results and upgraded sales forecast.

Quantum Computing was one of the other rare Fed-proof stocks out there: shares were up about 40% heading into the announcement, and finished even higher than that.

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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

9h

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 Phillips11h

markets

12h

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

13h

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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