Markets
Luke Kawa

US stocks slip

The S&P 500 dipped 0.2%, the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3%, and the Russell 2000 gave back 0.6% on Thursday.

Utilities, energy, financials, and healthcare were the S&P 500 sector ETFs that gained on the day; tech, materials, and industrials led the way down.

Accenture and Gartner were the two largest decliners in the benchmark US stock index as the federal government’s campaign to cut spending weighs on their sales outlooks.

Even as Nvidia rallied, the stock suffered from its first “dark cross” (the 50-day moving average falling below the 200-day) since 2022.

Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, posted earnings and guidance in line with expectations. In an environment where consumer-oriented stocks have been delivering mostly bad news, it was enough to fuel a big rally for the stock.

Cava benefited from an upgrade to a buy rating from JPMorgan, which sees it as an attractive long-term holding.

Intel dipped after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the chip designer has not been part of any push to buy the US semi producer.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

Bullish options flows boost Rivian

EV maker Rivian is up nearly 5% on Monday afternoon as bullish options flows lift the stock ahead of its third-quarter earnings, set to drop next week.

According to Bloomberg, Rivian call options traded outnumber put options more than 5 to 1, for a put/call ratio of less than 0.2 as of 2:38 p.m. ET. That’s significantly less than the 20-day average p/c of 0.4. More than 116,000 call options have changed hands, more than 60% above the full-day average over the past 20 days.

Rivian’s upcoming earnings will measure the automaker’s sales ahead of the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit. Since September, Rivian has performed two rounds of layoffs as it seeks to cut costs amid the end of regulatory credits and ahead of next year’s lower-cost SUV launch.

markets

Palantir inks defense deal with Poland, touches new intraday high

Palantir Technologies touched a new intraday high of $192.83 early Monday, as the company rode the China trade truce rally in AI tech stocks and retail favorites.

Palantir also signed a new deal to supply the government of Poland with data, AI, and cybersecurity software, according to Bloomberg.

Polish Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp signed the letter of intent on the deal, about which few details were released. Polish officials did signal that they were interested in Palantir software systems for “battlefield management” and logistics. Up more than 150% this year, Palantir reports Q3 earnings on November 3.

Polish Minister of Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp signed the letter of intent on the deal, about which few details were released. Polish officials did signal that they were interested in Palantir software systems for “battlefield management” and logistics. Up more than 150% this year, Palantir reports Q3 earnings on November 3.

markets

Intellia tanks as it pauses late-stage CRISPR gene-editing trials after one patient was hospitalized

Intellia dropped sharply on Monday after it announced that it’s pausing two late-stage CRISPR gene-editing trials because one patient was hospitalized with liver damage.

Intellia had also disclosed in May that a patient had experienced elevated liver enzymes. The news is a major setback for the company, which currently has no products on the market and is working on a one-time treatment for heart and nerve conditions.

The news dragged down other companies working on CRISPR treatments, including Beam Therapeutics Inc, Crispr Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, and Prime Medicine.

markets

Gold craters as retail traders pull money from commodity ETFs

As its fierce rally begins to fade, it looks like retail traders are waving au revoir to gold.

JPMorgan strategist Arun Jain noted that retail traders have pulled about $120 million from commodity ETFs as of 11 a.m. ET on Monday, a level that stands in the 0.4th percentile relative to its one-year average. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF is down 2.8% as of 11:53 a.m. ET after suffering its worst loss since April 2013 last Tuesday. That day, retail had pulled just $50 million from commodity ETFs by 11 a.m.

The five-session average daily flows into the product hit an all-time high of nearly $1.1 billion last Monday as gold and silver had effectively become the new meme stocks, displaying strong momentum and heavy options activity.

markets

POET Technologies tumbles after announcing $150 million share offering to two new fundamental investment managers

POET Technologies is tumbling after announcing that it’s selling 20.7 million shares to raise approximately $150 million in an oversubscribed registered direct offering “by two new fundamental investors.”

Its prior $75 million raise through the sale of stock and warrants earlier this month is widely presumed to have been to MMCAP International, which was already its largest shareholder.

“We’ve been very pleased with the level of interest in POET by investors of all types — retail, institutional,” POET Executive Chairman and CEO Dr. Suresh Venkatesan recently told Sherwood News, saying that the company’s focus this year is to make sure that “the technology that we’re developing is truly manufacturable at scale and at wafer scale.”

The optical communications company has enjoyed elevated interest from retail investors recently as the AI boom raises the demand for data to be transferred as quickly and efficiently as possible. Last week, POET announced a $5 million order for its optical engines from a “leading systems integrator.”

Per the press release, POET “intends to use the net proceeds from this investment for corporate development, including targeted acquisitions, scaling up of R&D, acceleration of the light source business, expanding operations, and general working capital.”

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.