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Luke Kawa

There’s a full-blown meltdown in the AI boom’s supporting cast of speculative, volatile stocks

Nvidia’s results weren’t good enough to help the chip designer, but the reaction has been so much worse for other parts of the AI trade. The meltdown in the AI boom’s supporting cast of more speculative, volatile stocks is deepening sharply on Friday:

  • Bitcoin miners turned data center providers Cipher Digital and IREN are in a world where the market seems to have soured on everything they’re associated with. Shares of both have tumbled more than 7% on the day.

  • Neoclouds CoreWeave and Nebius are both off about 5% or more. The former is now 66% off its record closing high, while the latter is in a 40% drawdown.

  • Nuclear energy firm Oklo is down 8%, and has lost over half its value since mid-October. Its trailing price-to-sales ratio remains aggressively unchanged through this rout (because it is a zero-revenues company).

  • The Bloom (Energy) is off the rose, with the fuel cell company off more than 40% from its peak. Shares of Bloom Energy are cratering amid bearish options activity, with its put/call ratio at a four-month high as of 10:55 a.m. ET.

The rollover in these speculative pockets of the market (as well as Bitcoin!) starting in October seems to have presaged the current bout of pain for major US indexes.

To repeat myself, when the question of, “Oracle will be able to pay me back, right?” enters your mind, that’s probably not consistent with a world where smaller companies on the outskirts of the AI ecosystem can continuously be bid up to the moon.

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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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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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