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S&P 500 falls as rate cut optimism fizzles

The S&P 500 gave up early gains to close down 0.3% while the Nasdaq 100 eked out a 0.1% advance and the Russell 2000 outperformed, rising 0.5%.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

9/5/25 4:53PM

An initial burst of optimism over a soft US jobs report making a Federal Reserve rate cut this month a foregone conclusion didn’t last long.

The S&P 500 gave up early gains to close down 0.3%. The Nasdaq 100 eked out a 0.1% advance, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 0.5% rise, though both indexes finished well off their highs of the day.

Real estate was the best-performing S&P sector ETF, while financials and energy each fell more than 1%.

The day’s bright spots were led by Broadcom, which rose 9.4% after the chipmaker beat top- and bottom-line estimates for Q3 and said its 2026 AI revenue outlook will “improve significantly” with OpenAI reportedly booked as a new customer. At the same time, Nvidia and No. 3 US chip player Advanced Micro Devices were down 2.7% and 6.6%, respectively, as their rival’s gain was their pain. Elsewhere...

Lululemon stretched 18.6% lower after the athleisure giant topped Q2 estimates but massively slashed its full-year outlook.

Kenvue sank 9.2% following a Wall Street Journal report that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will likely tie autism to prenatal use of Tylenol.

Palantir shares were slightly bruised by the momentum-driven sell-off, falling about 2%, with its slide pushing the price well below the 50-day moving average.

Robinhood and Interactive Brokers tumbled amid a broad reversal in momentum stocks.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Tesla jumped more than 3% after the company proposed an unprecedented roughly $1 trillion pay package for CEO Elon Musk, proxy filings show.

Lucid surged nearly 14% following six days of losses after headlines misidentified Cantor Fitzgerald’s lower split-adjusted price target as a good thing.

Salesforce shares rebounded 2.8% after slipping Thursday following the tech company’s better-than-expected fiscal Q2 earnings results.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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US job growth falls far short of estimates in June; unemployment rate unexpectedly dips to 4.2%

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Meta surges on report it’s starting a cloud business to sell excess AI compute

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).
Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

S&P 500 falls as rate cut optimism fizzles

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

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