Markets
Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa
8/6/25

US stocks power higher on Apple’s US investment plans, solid corporate earnings

Tuesday’s drop was just another opportunity to buy the dip.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and the Nasdaq 100 outperformed with a 1.3% advance, while the Russell 2000 once again bucked the trend, dropping 0.2%.

The day got off to a strong start when the White House touted an additional $100 billion in domestic investment from Apple ahead of the market open, which fueled the iPhone maker’s 5% rise on Wednesday.

The S&P sector ETFs for consumer discretionary, consumer staples, and tech all rose at least 1%. On the other side of the spectrum, materials and healthcare were down more than 1%.

Gains were led by Arista Networks, which rose 17% after delivering stellar earnings after the close on Tuesday and enjoyed a host of price target hikes across Wall Street thereafter. Declines were led in part by AMD, which fell 6% after the chip company delivered a modest bottom-line miss and a big beat on sales for the second quarter.

Elsewhere…

Shopify soared 22% after the e-commerce giant missed Q2 revenue estimates but said it expects revenue to grow at a mid- to high 20s percentage rate.

Match Group rose double digits after the Tinder and Hinge parent topped analysts’ revenue estimates after the bell Tuesday and told Wall Street to expect more of the same in Q3.

McDonald’s rose nearly 3% after the Big Mac maker posted a US sales rebound in the second quarter — a comeback after a rough start to the year.

IonQ finished virtually flat ahead of earnings tech juggernaut Amazon reporting that it held 854,207 shares of the quantum computing stock at the end of Q2.

Power producer and energy trader NRG dove double digits after adjusted earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations and GAAP results swung to a surprise loss.

Disney shares fell 2.7% even as the media giant beat Q3 estimates, raised its full-year outlook, and reportedly struck a $1.6 billion streaming deal between ESPN and WWE. Shares of TKO, which owns WWE, dropped 5%.

Astera Labs surged nearly 30% after the chips, boards, and integrated circuit maker delivered strong top- and bottom-line Q2 results after the bell Tuesday.

Uber closed flat even after the ride-hailing giant posted upbeat second-quarter results and unveiled a beefy new stock buyback plan.

Shares of Super Micro Computer tumbled 18% after disappointing fourth-quarter results, which saw the server company whiff on sales and earnings.

Rivian shares dipped 4% after the EV maker topped revenue estimates for the second quarter but losses came in higher than expected. Meanwhile, Lucid shares fell 10% after the luxury EV maker also saw Q2 losses pile up.

Snap’s stock plunged 17% after the social media company narrowly missed earnings expectations and ad revenue slowed.

Oscar Health managed to rise almost 4% despite the health insurance company reporting earnings that missed estimates, even after giving investors a look under the hood last month.

Novo Nordisk slipped nearly 4% after it reported growing sales of its blockbuster GLP-1 drugs but reiterated that knockoffs were eating at its weight-loss business.

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markets
Matt Phillips

Palantir continues its recent bull run as BofA analyst hikes target to $215

Palantir was less than 3% from its all-time closing high price in early trading Tuesday, with shares continuing a run that has carried them up nearly 20% since a recent low on September 5.

There’s no major news on the stock, but the defense and AI software company did collect a price target hike from Bank of America’s analysts. They slapped a $215 price objective on the shares, a roughly 18% premium to where the stock currently trades and the highest among the published price targets tracked by FactSet.

In their note, BofA’s analysts focused on the company’s usage of “forward deployed engineers” or FDEs, Palantir software workers who collaborate closely with clients to help organize, refine, structure, and connect the various pipelines of data that companies want to work with Palantir’s AI software. (I recently wrote a bit about them here.)

BofA’s stock scribes wrote:

“We see the AI FDEs as an accelerator of growth. By successfully implementing these breakthrough capabilities inhouse, the company will benefit from increased demand, scalability and empowered engineers that can focus on the most complex problems. We think more customers will be attracted to buy Palantir’s operating system (vs build their own) to accelerate the implementation of AI agents that extend their own unique abilities and core expertise. Additionally, these AI FDEs will allow Palantir engineers and the customers themselves to continue to create new use cases.”

In their note, BofA’s analysts focused on the company’s usage of “forward deployed engineers” or FDEs, Palantir software workers who collaborate closely with clients to help organize, refine, structure, and connect the various pipelines of data that companies want to work with Palantir’s AI software. (I recently wrote a bit about them here.)

BofA’s stock scribes wrote:

“We see the AI FDEs as an accelerator of growth. By successfully implementing these breakthrough capabilities inhouse, the company will benefit from increased demand, scalability and empowered engineers that can focus on the most complex problems. We think more customers will be attracted to buy Palantir’s operating system (vs build their own) to accelerate the implementation of AI agents that extend their own unique abilities and core expertise. Additionally, these AI FDEs will allow Palantir engineers and the customers themselves to continue to create new use cases.”

markets
Luke Kawa

Bank of America explains why Nvidia almost has to invest in OpenAI and Intel

Nvidia is in the business of giving tech bigwigs the tools to try to create God, and in the process, the chip designer has made more money than God.

Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya believes the company is poised to generate hundreds of billions in free cash flow over the next few years as it benefits from the AI boom. Management has to do something with all that money, which helps explain recent investments in OpenAI and Intel, in his view.

“Unlike the old days, investing in other public assets has become difficult given lack of strategic fit and the burdensome regulatory process,” he wrote. “Hence the only other alternative (beyond returning to investors) is to invest in the ecosystem to expand the size of the addressable opportunity that could multiply future benefits, or accelerate time to market for new products, and/or for geopolitical benefits (such as recent INTC investment).”

Investing in its customers is just another way of investing in its own success. And investing in the likes of Intel is a way to add some depth to its product shelf, and perhaps curry some political favor in the process.

Nvidia has been doing this up and down the supply chain, with investments in Applied Digital, Arm Holdings, CoreWeave (which is acquiring Core Scientific), and Nebius Group.

To re-up my previous thoughts on Nvidia’s “House of GPUs,” this degree of implicit vertical integration and platform deepening can be best understood as CEO Jensen Huang trying to ensure that all the possible near-term demand for AI that can be met is met through Nvidia, one way or another.

And accelerating time to market may not be the most desired outcome; as long as Nvidia’s offerings continue to be considered market-leading, advancing too quickly may effectively short-circuit the length of product cycles.

markets
Matt Phillips

SoundHound AI soars on deal to power Red Lobster phone orders

SoundHound AI jumped Tuesday after announcing a partnership with Red Lobster for an AI-powered phone ordering agent for takeout that will roll out across all the seafood chain’s locations.

The stock, which was a big favorite of retail shareholders last year when it delivered gains of 835%, has had a far rougher 2025. It was down as much as 60% back in April, but has clawed back to cut its year-to-date loss to roughly 7%.

Red Lobster Partners With SoundHound AI To Power Phone Ordering Across All Locations - SoundHound AI

Red Lobster Partners With SoundHound AI To Power Phone Ordering Across All Locations - SoundHound AI
markets
Matt Phillips

Firefly Aerospace dives after first earnings report

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based midcap builder of space launch vehicles, dove in early trading Tuesday after posting its first quarterly report since its August IPO.

Results were worse than expected. Sales dropped 26% to $15.5 million. And the company posted an adjusted loss per share of $5.78, compared to a loss of $4.60 per share last year.

Firefly Aerospace shares tumble after it posts widening loss, declining revenue

Firefly Aerospace shares tumble after it posts widening loss, declining revenue

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