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US stocks dip as traders take risk off the table ahead of inflation report

The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.4%, and the Russell 2000 declined 0.1% on Monday.

Luke Kawa

US stocks ended Monday near session lows as traders scaled back risk ahead of inflation data due out Tuesday morning.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.4%, and the Russell 2000 declined 0.1%.

Energy and tech were the two worst-performing S&P 500 sector ETFs, while communication services and consumer discretionary stocks posted solid gains on the day.

News out of CNBC that the US-China trade truce has been formally extended for another 90 days did little to move markets, as this outcome had been well telegraphed in advance.

Tesla was far and away the best performer among the Magnificent 7 cohort after CEO Elon Musk said the company’s robotaxi offering would be publicly available next month. GM also rose on reports that it was getting back into the autonomous vehicles game.

Nvidia and AMD were little changed on news that they had received export licenses to send AI chips to China once again in exchange for sending 15% of revenues generated from those processors to the US government.

Micron rallied as management told the world that it’s doing way better than anticipated this quarter, boosting its revenue and adjusted earnings-per-share guidance to levels above what any Wall Street analyst had been forecasting.

Weed stocks like Tilray, Cronos Group, Canopy Growth, and SNDL soared after The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump is considering reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

Paramount Skydance struck a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal for the US streaming and broadcast rights for UFC, sending its shares lower and those of UFC owner TKO up double digits, the best advance of any S&P 500 component on Monday.

Retail darling SoundHound AI’s hot run following earnings continued, with shares surging amid a bevy of bullish options bets.

Elsewhere in retail favorites, AMC rose after the theater chain reported better-than-expected second-quarter results that included a 150% year-on-year rise in adjusted EBITDA.

e.l.f. Beauty jumped after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating to “buy” and raised its price target following last week’s earnings results.

Clover Health popped double digits on news that its cofounder bought nearly $1 million in company stock.

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Broadcom jumps after locking down Google as a customer for future generations of TPUs

Shares of Broadcom rose more than 3% in postmarket trading on Monday after its most important customer doubled down on the custom chip specialist’s ability to produce its most valuable commodity.

In a filing, Broadcom said that it entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of TPUs (custom AI accelerator chips) as well as a supply assurance agreement for networking and other equipment “through up to 2031.”

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon indicated that Broadcom’s investor relations team told him that Google’s long-term agreement “has revenue commitments that go along with it through the timeline.”

Gemini 3 launched to rave reviews in November. The model was trained on TPUs co-developed by Broadcom and Google.

The same Monday filing showed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027, powered by the TPUs co-designed by the custom chip specialist and the search giant.

Bernstein’s Rasgon added that Broadcom’s team suggested these 3.5 gigawatts are “only part of a larger partnership over time.” He thinks Broadcom’s fiscal year 2027 guidance for AI revenues of $100 billion “is looking increasingly light” thanks to this news.

For what it’s worth, the enhanced pact with Anthropic hinges upon the firm’s ability to afford AI compute. But based on the insane trajectory of its run-rate revenue that may not be a big hurdle to clear.

“Broadcom’s expanded agreements with Google and Anthropic add rare multi-year visibility, reinforcing a $40-$50 billion AI revenue opportunity tied to Anthropic’s 3.5 gigawatt deployment starting in 2027, while building on the previously disclosed 1GW ($10 billion) starting in 2H,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Kunjan Sobhani and Oscar Hernandez Tejada.

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Health insurers surge after Medicare agrees to pay 2.48% more in 2027, a bigger-than-expected boost

Health insurance stocks are surging after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans to boost Medicare Advantage and Part D payments by 2.48% in calendar year 2027.

The likes of CVS, Humana, UnitedHealth, Molina Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Elevance Health are gaining in postmarket trading.

Wall Street analysts had anticipated that rates for 2027 would go up between roughly 1% and 1.5%.

These stocks had gotten crushed in late January when the Trump administration proposed relatively flat federal payment rates.

Insurance companies that provide government-sponsored plans, like Medicare Advantage, faced headwinds from higher-than-expected costs in 2025.

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Iran war winners Dow, LyondellBasell downgraded by Bank of America

Dow, Inc. and LyondellBasell — two petrochemicals stocks that surged as markets priced in shortages due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — should decline as investors focus on the long-term outlook for normalized petrochemical prices once the war resolves, Bank of America analysts wrote in a note downgrading the two stocks Monday.

BofA moved its rating on the shares from “neutral” to “underperform,” writing:

“Over time, as chemical markets normalize, we expect 1) investor focus to shiſt back to ‘normal’ or ‘sustainable’ earnings profiles and 2) the conflict to resolve without material asset rationalization, both of which likely bias shares lower over the next twelve months.”

Analysts also lowered their stance on another petrochemicals and building materials stock, Westlake, to “neutral” from “buy.”

While cutting those ratings, BofA actually raised its more near-term price targets for the shares. It upped LyondellBasell to $68 from $55, and Dow to $35 from $31.

But those price targets still imply declines of more than 10% compared to where both shares were trading late Monday morning. Both stocks are up roughly 30% since the start of the Iran war.

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