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Interest rates spike and stocks decline on Wednesday May 21 2025
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getting “yippy”

The US bond market is tanking the stock market

The S&P 500 slumped more than 1% on Wednesday afternoon.

Matt Phillips

After clawing within spitting distance of positive territory in the morning, stocks sputtered hard early this afternoon, with the S&P 500 (and SPDR S&P 500 ETF) tumbling to losses of more than 1% on the day.

The sell-off coincided with a sharp rise in long-term yields on US government bonds, which spiked on news that a government auction of some $16 billion in 20-year Treasury securities was a bit of a dud, pushing yields on 20s above 5%, triggering a similar move in the more widely watched 10-year note and 30-year bond.

Here’s a slow-motion replay:

With Republicans and President Trump pushing hard on a “big, beautiful bill” that’s all but certain to explode the deficit, some analysts have spotlighted the surge in rates in bonds as a potential problem area for the stock market. The surge in bond yields is also a global phenomenon: Japanese 30-year bond yields are at a record high and UK 30-year bond yields aren’t too far off their highest levels since the late ’90s.

You’ll remember that spiking bond yields seemed to contribute to the general sense of chaos during the tariff-related tumble in the market back in April.

In fact, the market for US government debt was one of the main markets “getting yippy” that prompted Trump to temporarily pause his tariff plan.

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What to look for in Oracle’s Q3 earnings

On Tuesday, Oracle will announce its third-quarter earnings, and all eyes are on the company’s massive AI data center build-out. Last month, the company told investors that it plans to raise $45 billion to $50 billion to fund its ambitious capex plans.

With so much new spending, the company is reportedly looking to make steep job cuts —  thousands of positions across the company — and may be freezing hiring in its cloud division.

Shares of Oracle are down by more than 20% since the start of the year. The stock is down about 56% from its 52-week high of $345.72.

The company’s big bet on AI is causing some concerns among investors, and Oracle has recently seen a wave of lowered price targets from analysts:

  • Jefferies: to $320 from $400.

  • Scotiabank: to $215 from $220.

  • Deutsche Bank: to $300 from $375.

  • Baird: to $200 from $300.

On Friday, shares dropped sharply on reports that OpenAI had pulled out of a planned expansion of the Stargate data center in Abilene, Texas. But OpenAI has since clarified that the decision to back out of plans for the expansion was just the result of shifting capacity to other data center sites under construction.

The company will announce its earnings after market close on Tuesday.

FactSet’s survey of analysts shows they expect earnings per share of $1.70 and revenue of $16.9 billion for Oracle’s third quarter. Cloud revenue is expected to be $8.76 billion, and all eyes will be on Oracle’s capex, which is expected to be $14 billion.

Joby, Archer, and Beta climb following their inclusion in the Trump administration’s air taxi pilot program

Shares of air taxi makers Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, and Beta Technologies are climbing in Monday afternoon trading following the Department of Transportation’s announcement of their inclusion in the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.

Archer and Joby, which announced their plans to participate in the program back in September, each climbed more than 4% on Monday, while Beta surged more than 12%. Boeing’s air taxi subsidiary, Wisk, was also named in the DOT’s announcement.

The DOT and FAA selected eight projects spanning 26 states to speed up the development of “advanced air mobility.” Operations will begin this summer. According to an Archer press release, the program could mark “a major step toward bringing electric air taxis to market in the United States.”

“These partnerships will help us better understand how to safely and efficiently integrate these aircraft into the National Airspace System,” FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau said. “The program will provide valuable operational experience that will inform the standards needed to enable safe Advanced Air Mobility operations.”

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As the S&P 500 announces new members, index investors could get exposure to SpaceX

Here’s something kind of strange.

If all goes as planned, investors in the most basic kind of investment available — your plain-vanilla, low-cost S&P 500 Index fund, such as SPDR S&P 500 ETF — will soon get a form of pre-IPO exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, one of most sought-after stakes in the private markets.

That’s because one of the new companies that will be added to the S&P 500 (via additions announced on Friday) is EchoStar, the indebted satellite services company that owns Dish Network.

EchoStar — which along with Vertiv Holdings, Lumentum, and Coherent will go into the index on March 23 — is also set to become a not insignificant owner of class A common stock in SpaceX.

SpaceX is said to be targeting an over $1 trillion valuation for an IPO this June. EchoStar has struck deals for shares that would give it a roughly 2.8% stake in SpaceX, analysts say.

SpaceX sold that stake to pay EchoStar for part of the roughly $20 billion cost of prized spectrum assets. The company first struck a spectrum deal with SpaceX in September, before it expanded in November. Investors have since seemed to view the company as a way to gain backdoor exposure to Musk’s hot, privately held space company.

That excitement continues, but it should be noted that even though EchoStar struck a deal for SpaceX shares, company officials say that stock is not yet in its coffers and it won’t be until its SpaceX deals close.

Speaking to analysts after the company’s earnings call on March 2, EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan said:

“Until the closing, we dont have actually the — that SpaceXs equity. So that is not something that we can make any plans on till we actually get the equity. We have a right to it, but we dont have the — we actually dont have that equity yet. So well see how that plays out.”

No closing date was offered when the initial deal with SpaceX was announced in September, with EchoStar releases saying only the “closing of the proposed transaction will occur after all required regulatory approvals are received and other closing conditions are satisfied.”

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