Stocks stall, small-caps tumble on hot inflation print

Roblox fell more than 5% on Friday morning as bearish options market bets against the company outweighed bullish ones by about three to one in early trading.

This would mark the most bearish tilt for its put/call ratio since 2022, and is fueling the largest intraday drop for the stock since August, when the company was rocked by child safety lawsuits.

Put options with a strike price of $130 that expire today have the most open interest and highest daily volume. They’ve swung from being out of the money to well in the money based on the price action so far on Friday.

Investors appear to be less optimistic about the gaming platform following an M Science report from analyst Corey Barrett that asserts that US bookings growth has “decelerated sharply” recently, slowing to the low 30% range down from the mid- to high 50% range in July.

GameStop is lower in early trading after filing paperwork that lays the foundation for the video game and collectibles retailer to raise money “from time to time” through the sale of stock, debt, and related securities.

Importantly, this filing does not include a specific intention to issue stock and dilute shareholders imminently, but merely provides management with the ability to do so at their discretion. The potential for future dilution may be front of mind for investors this morning, however, given the shares' dip.

The filing says that unless stated differently in a specific fundraising endeavor, management plans to use any proceeds that may be received in the future “for general corporate purposes, including making investments in a manner consistent with our investment policy and potential acquisitions. If we decide to use the net proceeds from a particular offering of securities for a specific purpose, we will describe that in the related prospectus supplement.”

Given GameStop’s history, which has been punctuated by a some huge spikes during which the company has been able to successfully raise money, it would be irresponsible to not have a standing shelf registration that lets management raise capital during periods of unbridled enthusiasm.

The new NGC2 platform, the Army’s next-gen battlefield communications network built by Anduril Industries, Palantir, and others, is full of “fundamental security” problems and should be considered “very high risk,” per an Army memo cited by Reuters.

Anduril and Palantir have both secured Pentagon contracts in recent months, with the former having promised faster, cheaper, and more advanced solutions than traditional defense suppliers. In July, Anduril won a $100 million contract to build a prototype of NGC2 alongside Palantir and several smaller contractors.

However, in an internal memo, the Army’s CTO warned the prototype version could allow adversaries to gain “persistent undetectable access,” with the memo explaining, “We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure.”

Still, the Army’s chief information officer, Leonel Garciga, told Reuters that the memo was part of a process to “triage” vulnerabilities and address them.

Applied Materials is down 3% in early trading after the semiconductor machinery maker said revenues could take a $600 million hit in the next fiscal year, on the back of widening chip export restrictions.

Per the company’s regulatory filling, net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 will take a $110 million dent, while annual sales next year would be reduced by “approximately $600 million.” Applied Material’s fiscal 2026 runs through next October.

In a move to restrict the development of China’s domestic chip industry, the Commerce Department started to prevent sanctioned companies from using affiliates to access restricted US goods. On Monday, the blacklist was widened to include majority-owned subsidiaries of listed companies.

“We doubt AMAT will be the only US semicap player impacted here,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon cautioned, while noting that other players in the industry have not offered any commentary on this subject.

China is the top market for Applied Materials and others in the wafer fab equipment industry.

In its most recent quarter, 35% of AMAT’s net revenues were generated by sales to China. For peers Lam Research and KLA Corp, those shares stood at 34% and 33%, respectively, for the year ending in June.