Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa5/28/25

US stocks slump to lows late in session after reports of fresh semiconductor curbs on China

A listless day for US stocks turned into a bit of a sell-off late in the session after a report that the White House told chip software companies to halt sales to clients in China.

The S&P 500 closed down 0.6%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 0.5%, and the Russell 2000 fell 1.1%.

Every S&P 500 sector fell outside of real estate, which was flat. Materials and energy were the worst performers.

Cadence and Synopsys slid about 11% on the report regarding chip software design sales to China, while Nvidia erased its pre-earnings gains. On the flip side, Fair Isaac and Warner Bros. Discovery were among the day’s top S&P 500 gainers. Elsewhere…

Abercrombie & Fitch soared as much as 30% after posting strong Q1 results, but the Zillennial-favorite retailer cut its full-year outlook and flagged $50 million in tariff-related costs.

Air taxi maker Joby Aviation also saw its stock surge 28% after announcing a $250 million investment from the world’s largest automaker, Toyota.

Shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods ticked up nearly 2% after the sportswear retailer topped Q1 estimates and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

Stellantis shares fell 3% after the world’s No. 4 biggest automaker named ex-Jeep boss Antonio Filosa as its new CEO, as sales continue to slow in the US.

Shares of Rocket Lab jumped as much as 5%, before closing largely flat, after Stifel analysts upped their price targets on the stock and competitor SpaceX suffered its latest failure.

More Markets

See all Markets

Palantir tumbles after delivering spectacular results

Palantir’s exceptional earnings receive ugly reaction

The valuation agita hitting high-flying stocks overshadowed the AI and intelligence software company’s blowout quarterly update.

Matt Phillips4h

markets

Fermi secures preliminary approval for a low-emissions natural gas plant to meet AI power demands

Power provider Fermi said it has received preliminary approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the planned 6 gigawatts of natural gas generation that’s part of its “Project Matador” to meet the ever-growing power demands of the AI boom.

“At Fermi, our private grid model ensures that the growing demand for AI is met privately,” Fermi America CEO and cofounder Toby Neugebauer said.

Final approval is still subject to a formal meeting and public comment.

The initial gas generators are already en route to the campus, with plans to have these installed and online in 2026, Fermi said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently remarked that “the ability to get the builds done fast enough close to power” is the biggest constraint he faces, just ahead of an announced deal with IREN to purchase power-secured cloud computing capacity.

markets

The negative reaction after Palantir’s earnings is spreading to other volatile retail favorites

Palantir is the poster child for a richly valued, retail darling, megacap momentum stock. It’s going down on largely good news, and that’s cascading to hit smaller, volatile segments of the market also beloved by the retail community.

Fuel cell company Bloom Energy and no-revenues nuclear company Oklo are both off about 5% or more in early trading.
Neoclouds Nebius and CoreWeave are facing significant selling pressure.
The quantum space is getting rocked, with D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti, IonQ, and Quantum Computing all down between 3% and 5% as of 9:42 a.m. ET.
Other story stocks deep in the red include SoundHound AI, Rocket Lab, and Opendoor Technologies.

Goldman Sachs baskets that track retail favorites and nonprofitable tech stocks are down more than 2% and 3% as of 9:43 a.m. ET, respectively, while the Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF is also off more than 2%.

Long Island highway patrol officer using radar to check speed

Stocks are getting speed checked

A retail favorite failing to build momentum even when it “deserves” to, the most important part of the stock market being told it’s overheating, and the heads of banks warning of a broader pullback.

markets

Spotify notches another quarter of strong active user growth and improved profitability

Spotify shares are up 3.25% as of 6:45 a.m. ET as investors digest the streaming giant’s Q3 earnings, in which the company reported that it added more than 70 million monthly active users, posted revenues that were up 7% from last year, and improved profitability.

Total revenues climbed to €4.27 billion, or around $4.91 billion, for the quarter, while net income came in at €899 million ($1.03 billion), which translated into adjusted earnings per share of €3.28 — ahead of the ~€1.96 that analysts had expected, per FactSet figures cited by The Wall Street Journal. Spotify now counts a whopping 713 million monthly active users, including 281 million premium subscribers, compared to 640 million and 252 million, respectively, on the same quarter last year.

The boosted figures come on the back of a host of new features that the streaming platform’s introduced, such as “lossless listening,” playlist mixing controls, and direct messages. The company is now forecasting that its total monthly active users will climb to 745 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

With the latest gains today, Spotify is now up ~48% year to date, even as cofounder Daniel Ek announced in September that he’d be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, almost 20 years on from the company’s inception.

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.

©2025 Sherwood Media, LLC