12/27/24

US stocks slump in tech-centric sell-off

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% while the Nasdaq 100 gave back 1.4% and Russell 2000 was down 1.6% on Friday.

The S&P 500 sectors home to the Magnificent 7 — consumer discretionary, tech, and communication services — fared the worst. Every member of that group was down on the day. Meanwhile, Super Micro Computer, Tesla, Palantir Technologies, and Vistra were at the bottom of the S&P 500’s leaderboard.

Netflix fell (despite a riveting Beyoncé NFL halftime show on Christmas Day) amid less-than-stellar reviews of the second season of “Squid Game,” which was released on Thursday.

Quantum-computing upstart Rigetti Computing was one of the top 10 most heavily traded securities in the US, and the only one of that group that rose on Friday.

Quantum-Si — which, despite the name, is not a quantum-computing company — soared.

Ten-year Treasury yields ended the day at the highest closing level since early May.

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Luke Kawa, Nia Warfield

US stocks drop for second straight day

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 each gave back 0.3% while the Russell 2000 underperformed with a 0.9% drop.

Matt Phillips8h

Momentum stocks sputter, weighing on markets

Risky momentum stocks that retail traders piled into this year sputtered on Wednesday, throwing a bit of sand in the market rally.

Recent retail favorites like Rocket Lab, Hims & Hers, Palantir, Oklo, and SoundHound AI — all members of Goldman Sachs’ thematic basket of “high beta momentum stocks” — were in the red on the day, with little specific company news, suggesting the pullback is more about the market rethinking a broad-based trade rather than expressing specific concerns about individual companies.

Shortly before 1 p.m. ET, the iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF was down 0.7%, its worst day since late August.

Why is momentum suddenly sputtering? That’s the tricky bit.

The current crop of momentum stocks tends to be stocks with very high valuation ratios, suggesting that the traders buying them are betting their earnings will come far in the future rather than any time soon. (That is, of course, if they’re not just buying them based on the fact that they’ve gone up a lot.) But it’s impossible to say exactly why the momentum trade is fizzling a bit today.

It could be that after a giant romp — Rocket Lab, for example, is up almost 50% over the last three months — these stocks just need a breather.

Luke Kawa

11h

Wall Street analysts love Micron’s earnings. The market already loved them too much ahead of time.

A “sell the news” event.

People interact at the Micron booth at the 3rd China...

J. Edward Moreno12h

Canopy rallies after CEO stock purchase

Canopy Growth rallied on Wednesday after its CEO, Luc Mongeau, disclosed an unplanned stock purchase on Tuesday.

Mongeau, who joined Canopy from Mars in January, bought 27,469 shares at CA$1.84. The buy is worth about US$36,259.

It has been a tumultuous time for cannabis stocks, as the market in Canada (where Canopy is located) stagnates and cannabis reform in the US has yet to move forward.

Matt Phillips12h

Robinhood, new S&P 500 leader, the subject of favorable analyst chatter

Robinhood Markets briefly touched a new all-time intraday high in early trading after the newly minted — and now top-performing — member of the the S&P 500 received some favorable write-ups from Wall Street analysts.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions. I own stock as part of my compensation.)

Piper Sandler analysts highlighted momentum in the company’s prediction markets business thanks to the rollout of contracts on college and profession football, noting that the event contracts business was running at a $200 million annualized rate so far in September. They raised their price target on the shares to $140 from $120.

“Prediction Markets (aka event contracts) present significant upside opportunity for Robinhood,” Piper Sandler’s Patrick Moley wrote.

Elsewhere, Citi analysts raised their Q3 and full-year 2025 estimates and upped their price target on the shares to $135, but kept a “neutral” rating on the stock.

“While HOOD continues to see solid momentum across the platform, we believe the stock is pricing in much of the growth potential in our view. Given current valuations and where we are in the retail cycle (closer to the highs than the lows from an activity perspective from our viewpoint), we prefer to wait for a more reasonable entry point at present.”

The stock has clearly had a heck of a run.

Through yesterday’s close, Robinhood was up nearly 240% in 2025. Since it was added to the S&P 500 on Monday, it’s now the top performer among the blue chips, trouncing previous leaders Seagate Technology Holdings and Palantir.

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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.