Stock Indexes End Lower for Second Straight Session; Tech Giants Fall Again, Energy Sector Outperforms

Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Wednesday

8 minutes ago

Decliners

• Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) shares tumbled 17%, more than any other stock in the S&P 500 on, after the mining giant lowered its forecasts for quarterly copper and gold sales. Issues at Freeport’s Indonesia unit weighed on its outlook; .the company declared force majeure at its Grasberg mine after a mud flow partially blocked access to the underground facility, resulting in fatal injuries to two workers.
• Shares of Axon Enterprise (AXON) fell 10% after the provider of less-lethal weapons and other law enforcement technology announced the acquisition of Prepared, an emergency communications platform powered by artificial intelligence. Needham analysts reiterated their “buy” rating on Axon stock but noted the complexities involved in a potential return to the computer-aided dispatch market. Piper Sandler initiated coverage of Axon stock with a bullish “overweight” rating.

Advancers

• Xcel Energy (XEL) said it agreed to settle litigation related to the devastating 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado. Although the electric utility reaffirmed its belief that its equipment did not cause the fire, it will pay roughly $640 million to settle lawsuits involving more than 4,000 plaintiffs who sued for damages. Xcel Energy shares rose 6.7%, logging the benchmark index’s top performance in the midweek trading session.
• Shares of health insurer Centene (CNC) gained 5.8%. Centene’s managed health subsidiary Meridian Health of Illinois said it paid providers $15 million in value-based care incentives for improving health outcomes for its Medicaid members. Reductions in emergency room visits and inpatient readmissions under this initiative bode well for Centene’s goal of reining in medical costs.
• Intel (INTC) stock jumped 6.4%, lifted by an afternoon report from  Bloomberg that the company had discussed Apple (AAPL) buying a stake. The latest move higher for shares of the chipmaking giant also came after Micron Technology (MU) raised its outlook for PCs and traditional servers, two of Intel’s key markets. Intel stock has gained more than 25% over the past month amid a string of high-profile investments from the U.S. government, SoftBank (SFTBY), and Nvidia (NVDA)

–Michael Bromberg

Does Powell Think ‘Irrational Exuberance’ is Back?

32 minutes ago

The present AI frenzy is often compared with the Dotcom Bubble of the 1990s, a parallel that some investors think was invoked, intentionally or not, by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday. 

“Equity prices are fairly highly valued,” said Powell when asked during an appearance in Rhode Island about the Fed’s risk tolerance. Nonetheless, “it’s not a time of elevated financial stability risk,” Powell said. 

Powell’s comment spoke to a lingering fear on Wall Street that the big tech stocks powering equity indexes to record highs are trading at unsustainable valuations. And some market watchers, including Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, heard in Powell’s comments echoes of a previous Fed chair’s ominous assessment of stock prices. 

Powell “triggered our contrary instincts with that last statement,” wrote Yardeni in a note on Tuesday, according to CNBC. “Financial crises tend to be Black Swans, i.e., events that occur unexpectedly, especially when irrational exuberance is widespread and intensifying,” he added.

The term “irrational exuberance” harkens back to 1996, when Fed Chair Alan Greenspan asked, “How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions?”

Greenspan’s question was a nod to the Dotcom Bubble of the late 1990s, when speculative fervor sent tech stocks soaring despite slim or non-existent profits. The bubble grew for years after Greenspan’s comments, and ultimately popped in early 2000 after Greenspan’s Fed raised interest rates to prevent the economy from overheating.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Why Sandisk Bulls Are Becoming Even More Bullish After Micron’s Results

1 hr 50 min ago

Demand for more memory capacity at artificial intelligence data centers and positive signals from Micron Technology’s quarterly results are fueling growing expectations for Sandisk’s stock.

Citi analysts boosted their price target for drive maker Sandisk (SNDK) by over 50% to $125 from $80 on Wednesday, citing “further-improving industry fundamentals” after memory chip maker Micron Technology (MU) posted record quarterly sales driven by gains from its data center business.

The analysts added they see better margins from Sandisk thanks in part to higher prices, after the company recently hiked prices for its flash memory products.

Bank of America also lifted its target to $125 from $59 earlier this week, pointing to tightening market conditions as demand continues to outpace supply. Both analysts called the stock a “buy.”

Read the full article here.

–Bill McColl

UniQure Stock Triples on Trial Results for Huntington’s Disease Treatment

2 hr 57 min ago

Shares of uniQure (QURE) skyrocketed 235% Wednesday after the gene therapy firm released positive trial results for its experimental treatment for Huntington’s disease.

The Phase I/II trial “met its prespecified primary endpoint, with high-dose AMT-130 demonstrating a statistically significant slowing of disease progression as measured by the composite Unified Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale (cUHDRS) at 36 months compared to a propensity score-matched external control,” uniQure said.

UniQure shares had been down about 23% this year entering Wednesday.

Here’s Where OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank Are Building 5 New Data Centers

3 hr 30 min ago

More data centers to power artificial intelligence are coming to the U.S. as part of the government’s half-trillion-dollar Stargate AI infrastructure plan announced in January.

AI giant OpenAI, cloud software maker Oracle (ORCL), and Japanese tech firm SoftBank are expanding their partnership in Stargate, announcing plans to build five new AI data centers.

OpenAI said that it and Oracle will open sites in Shackelford County, Texas, and Doña Ana County, N.M., as well as a yet-to-be-named location in the Midwest. In addition, OpenAI and SoftBank will work together on opening centers in Lordstown, Ohio, and Milam County, Texas.

OpenAI noted that with these new centers, along with its current one in Abilene, Texas, and ongoing projects with cloud computing provider CoreWeave (CRWV), Stargate is “on a clear path to securing the full $500 billion, 10-gigawatt commitment we announced in January by the end of 2025, ahead of schedule.” 

CEO Sam Altman said that AI can only fulfill its promise “if we build the compute to power it.” He added that the companies are “making historic progress” on that in their efforts with Stargate.

–Bill McColl

Intel Shares Surge on Day Tech Sector Struggles

4 hr 12 min ago

Technology stocks may be struggling overall Wednesday, but not Intel (INTC).

The chipmaker’s shares continued their surge, rising about 5.5% to place among the top gainers in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 Technology Sector fell 0.7%, the third-worst performance among the 11 industries tracked by the benchmark index.

Intel shares have jumped about 55% in 2025, aided in recent weeks by the U.S. government’s taking a 10% stake in the company, a $5 billion investment by Nvidia, and a forecast calling for a cut in expenses.

Americans With Student Debt Are Cutting Household Spending to Make Loan Payments

5 hr 7 min ago

Student loan borrowers are cutting back spending in order to restart loan payments, according to new data. Most are successfully managing their loans, but more borrowers than usual are struggling.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Education paused all student loan payments. When payments restarted in October 2023, according to research from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System released earlier this month, the typical student loan borrower trimmed an estimated $12.20 from their weekly spending per $10,000 of student debt they held.

That suggests that the median borrower, who has a balance of about $25,000 in student loans, has cut back their yearly spending by $1,590 to resume their payments.

The majority of borrowers who resumed repayments have been able to manage the hit to their budget. Of the 18.8 million borrowers currently in repayment, nearly 13 million are in good standing. About a quarter of student loan borrowers recently surveyed by think tank Data for Progress said they expect to pay off their student debt by next year.

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Possible US Stake in GM Partner Lithium Americas Sparks Stock Surge

5 hr 36 min ago

Lithium Americas (LAC) shares skyrocketed Wednesday after a report that the Trump administration is looking to take as much as a 10% stake in the lithium project developer.

The company’s stock was recently up more than 90%. Shares of General Motors (GM), which is partnering with Lithium Americas to build the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada, also gained.

Reuters quoted a White House spokesperson as saying President Donald Trump supports the project, which is seen as key to boosting domestic lithium production. The mineral is an important component of rechargeable batteries, and U.S. officials have expressed concern about China being the major supplier.

Thacker Pass, expected to open in 2028, is expected to be the largest supplier of lithium in the Western Hemisphere.

The Department of Energy approved a $2.26 billion loan to develop Thacker Pass at the end of the Biden administration. Reuters said Lithium Americas was scheduled to take the first tranche earlier this month, but Trump officials moved to renegotiate the agreement over fears the company wouldn’t be able to repay the money because of low lithium prices. 

The administration has already invested in other companies it sees as critical to U.S. national security, notably Intel (INTC) and MP Materials (MP).

Read the full article here.

–Bill McColl

Adobe Shares Fall as Morgan Stanley Downgrades Stock to ‘Equal-Weight’

6 hr 25 min ago

Shares of Adobe (ADBE) fell about 3.5% in late-morning trading after Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded the stock to “equal-weight” from “overweight.”

Saying they were “haunted by what we don’t know,” the analysts wrote in a note to clients that “decelerating Digital Media ARR has driven outsized concern on ADBE’s ability to prove GenAI net expansive to its total opportunity.”

Including today’s decline, shares of Adobe are down more than 20% this year.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Drops on Lowered Q3 Sales Outlook

7 hr 20 min ago

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 Wednesday morning, with shares down more than 10%.

The Phoenix-based miner said it now expects fiscal third-quarter sales “approximately 4% lower for copper and approximately 6% lower for gold than July 2025 estimates.”

Freeport also gave an update to a previously disclosed “mud rush incident” in Indonesia, saying its PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) unit “located two team members who were regrettably fatally injured,” and that five people remain missing. The company said about “800,000 metric tons of wet material entered the mine and traveled rapidly to multiple mine levels, including the service level of the mine where the missing team members were conducting development activities.”

Micron Levels to Watch After Memory Chip Maker Reports Strong Earnings

7 hr 36 min ago

Micron (MU) shares slipped 2% Wednesday morning even though the memory chip maker posted better-than-expected quarterly results and issued a rosy forecast amid surging AI-related demand.

The company said late Tuesday it expects to generate fiscal first-quarter revenue of $12.20 billion to $12.80 billion. The midpoint of that range comes in well ahead of the $11.94 billion expected by analysts, with the guidance driven by booming demand for the company’s high-bandwidth memory chips and favorable pricing dynamics.

After finding support near the 50-day moving average, Micron shares trended sharply higher before consolidating in a pennant pattern over the past week.

While this month’s strong uptrend has coincided with the relative strength index crossing into overbought territory, the indicator remains below its June peak, signaling that the stock has further room to climb.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Alibaba Shares Jump on Plan to Boost AI Spending Beyond $53B

7 hr 58 min ago

China’s top tech firm is spending even more than it originally planned on AI, turning up the heat on U.S. chip giants like Nvidia (NVDA) in the race to dominate the technology.

Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA) CEO Eddie Wu reportedly said Wednesday that the Chinese company has raised its AI budget to more than the $53 billion three-year outlay it announced in February.

The spending plan marks the latest push by a tech firm to invest big in AI, the technology that has fueled U.S. stock markets to hit record highs. Nvidia said earlier this week it plans to invest up to $100 billion in ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

“We are vigorously advancing a three-year, 380 billion [yuan] AI infrastructure initiative with plans to sustain and further increase our investment according to our strategic vision in anticipation of the [artificial superintelligence] era,” Wu said at Alibaba Cloud’s annual flagship technology conference, according to CNBC. 

Wu has said he sees companies globally spending around $4 trillion globally on AI over the next five years, and “Alibaba needs to keep up,” Bloomberg said. Alibaba didn’t immediately respond to Investopedia’s request for further comment.

Read the full article here.

–Nisha Gopalan

Costco’s Earnings Are Coming Up. Analysts Like the Stock, But Expect Volatility Ahead.

8 hr 29 min ago

Costco shares may be in for a bout of volatility some analysts think could give investors a chance to snag a stock poised to deliver “sustainable” results.

Costco Wholesale (COST) is slated to report fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell Thursday.

The update comes after someinvestors were shakenin the spring by signs that sales growth had decelerated. Sales rose less—on a year-over-year basis—in the third quarter than they did in the second, and some monthly sales reports suggested that momentum was slowing.

Those concerns may have weighed on a stock that generally rose between March lows and June before retreating again. More fluctuations may be ahead, Oppenheimer said, but that need not be a source of anxiety,

“We would continue to take advantage of a likely volatile trade amidst very difficult upcoming [year-over-year] compares in the non-foods category and likely nearer-term [earnings per share] headwinds,” analysts wrote in a recent research note.

Annual comparisons may be influenced by Costco’s recent expansion of warehouse hours for executive members, Oppenheimer said. People stocking up on goods ahead of a port strike last fall may also be a factor, Citi said.

Read the full article here.

–Sarina Trangle

Nike’s 2025 Comeback: How the Sneaker Stock Is Approaching Break-Even

9 hr 27 min ago

Nike has just about done it. 

By that, we mean neither teamed up with a Kardashian nor reworked the brand’s legendary tagline—though that stuff is happening too. We’re talking about the sneaker and athleticwear company’s shares, which finished 2024 above $75 apiece and closed below $54 in April, have almost round-tripped, finishing Tuesday just under $71. 

They’re still more than a third below where they ended 2023, recalling the steep drop that led to the replacement of Nike’s (NKE) CEO with Elliott Hill, the current chief, and well off 2021’s record highs. But there’s optimism behind the shares that has some analysts looking toward triple-digit prices for the stock for the first time since March 2024.

Hill was brought back after a bad fiscal fourth quarter and downbeat outlook had investors fleeing the iconic company’s stock. Investors, it now appears, have bought back in ahead of another quarterly update set for next week.3

Wall Street analysts, too, are increasingly on board. Their mean price target, recently above $80, is only a 13% premium to Tuesday’s close, and more now say things have improved. 

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison

Stock Futures Point Higher, Led by Tech Shares

10 hr 32 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up fractionally.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.3%.