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Market Wrap

Markets rally as SCOTUS looks likely to weigh against tariffs and hope rises for end to US government shutdown

Markets bounced back from a rough Tuesday to finish higher on Wednesday.

US stocks regained momentum on Wednesday as the Supreme Court weighed Trump’s tariffs, sending a bevy of tariff-sensitive stocks higher. The president also signaled heightened urgency to end the US government shutdown, buoying the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 to solid gains, while the Russell 2000 outperformed.

Stocks that moved higher:

Google rose on the news that Apple will pay it $1 billion a year to use the search giant’s AI model for Siri.
Rivian had its best day since January following the EV maker hyping its next SUV during its earnings call.
Airlines took flight on hopes that the US government shutdown might soon be over, lifting Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and American Airlines.
Qualcomm erased Tuesday’s losses and then some just a few hours before the company was slated to release quarterly results.
Nebius gained after launching a Token Factory platform to offer access to inference compute using open-source models, adding breadth to the AI boom.
AMD turned losses into gains Wednesday after reporting a Q3 top- and bottom-line beat and Q4 sales guidance ahead of estimates aftermarket on Tuesday.

Stocks that moved lower:

Axon dropped after it reported earnings after the bell on Tuesday that widely missed expectations. The company, which was once a top Trump trade, blamed tariffs for a large part of the earnings miss.
Pinterest sank after reporting weak revenue guidance and adjusted earnings per share that missed analyst estimates by 10%.
Super Micro Computer plunged as Wall Street hated its trade-off of profitability for sales after its fiscal Q1 earnings report. Management delivered a much better Q2 sales outlook than analysts had anticipated, but also weaker-than-expected guidance for earnings per share.
Live Nation continued to fall on Wednesday after reporting earnings that bombed with investors after-hours on Tuesday, widely missing EPS estimates.
Arista Networks dove following its earnings report after the bell on Tuesday, as while it beat on earnings, its forward guidance disappointed.

Jon Keegan2h

Snap shoots up 25% on $400 million deal with Perplexity, strong earnings

Snap shares shot up as much as 25% in after-hours trading on the release of third-quarter earnings that beat estimates, as well as the announcement of a big deal with AI startup Perplexity to integrate its “conversational AI search” into Snap products.

Some highlights:

Revenue came in at $1.51 billion, up 10% year on year (compared to Wall Street’s estimate of $1.49 billion).
Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million (estimate: $124 million).
Global monthly active users hit 943 million, up 7% year on year.
Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million “over one year, through a combination of cash and equity, as we achieve global rollout” of its conversational search engine within Snapchat.

The company also announced a $500 million stock buyback program.

Snap shares rocket 25% on strong forecast, $400 million Perplexity deal

Some highlights:

Revenue came in at $1.51 billion, up 10% year on year (compared to Wall Street’s estimate of $1.49 billion).
Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million (estimate: $124 million).
Global monthly active users hit 943 million, up 7% year on year.
Perplexity will pay Snap $400 million “over one year, through a combination of cash and equity, as we achieve global rollout” of its conversational search engine within Snapchat.

The company also announced a $500 million stock buyback program.

Duolingo dives on Q3 user growth miss, uninspiring guidance

Duolingo has run into stiff headwinds this year.

Matt Phillips2h

Luke Kawa2h

Nvidia slumps as Jensen Huang warns that China “will win” the AI race versus the US

Nvidia tumbled late in the session Wednesday after the Financial Times released an article in which CEO Jensen Huang says that “China is going to win the AI race” because it has a more favorable regulatory environment and cheaper access to power.

Reading between the lines here, I’d say the main takeaway for traders is what’s left unsaid at the end of this sentence: “China is going to win the AI race” — without having access to Nvidia’s flagship processors, or even wanting its nerfed chips!

Not exactly a signal that Nvidia’s hardware is as all-important and synonymous with success in AI as its stock price and revenue trajectory would suggest it is!

President Trump didn’t discuss Blackwell chips with Chinese President Xi at last week’s meeting, being convinced by advisers to keep that off the table. And while Nvidia has the all-clear to sell its H20 chips to China again, China’s internet regulator apparently instructed its leading tech companies not to buy them, preferring to bolster its domestic capabilities.

Max Knoblauch2h

Lucid dips as it lowers its full-year production forecast

Shares of Lucid are down more than 4% in after-hours trading on Wednesday following the luxury EV maker’s third-quarter earnings results.

Lucid, which delivered 47% more vehicles in Q3 than in the same period last year, posted an adjusted loss per share of $2.65, compared to the $2.29 loss per share Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet expected.

The company also:

Booked $336.6 million in revenue, up 68% from last year and above the consensus estimate of $349.5 million.
Updated its full-year production outlook to 18,000 vehicles, the bottom of its previous range of between 18,000 and 20,000 vehicles. Wall Street expected the company to build 18,940 vehicles on the year.

Lucid shares sold off heavily during Q3 as the company executed a 1-for-10 reverse stock split that took effect in early September. The stock remains lower compared to its highs earlier this year and is down more than 40% year to date as of Wednesday’s close. That’s significantly underperforming larger rivals like Rivian and Tesla.

J. Edward Moreno2h

Lyft posts earnings miss, but bookings top estimates

Lyft reported third-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street’s estimates, but bookings topped expectations.

Shares were recently up 2.3% in after-hours trading.

The company reported earnings per share of $0.11, compared to the $0.24 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. Gross bookings came in at $4.8 billion, slightly more than the $4.7 billion the Street was expecting. It reported revenue of $1.7 billion, in line with analyst expectations.

Lyft’s top competitor, Uber, reported revenue numbers on Tuesday that beat expectations, though its stock still took a dip on the news.