markets

Claire Yubin Oh4/29/26

Starbucks beats Q2 estimates, raises 2026 guidance

Starbucks shares ticked up as much as 6% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the coffee chain raised its full-year outlook and reported its second consecutive quarter of traffic growth.

CEO Brian Niccol, who joined from Chipotle in a high-profile deal in 2024, commented that the latest quarter “marked the turn in our turnaround as our Back to Starbucks plan drove both top- and bottom-line growth.”

During his tenure, Niccol has focused on addressing a range of customer complaints to improve the chain’s performance, from long waits to a lack of seating. And in its first positive quarter of same-store sales since the start of 2024, same-store sales jumped 7.1% in North American stores and 2.6% internationally for the quarter that ended March 29, driven by higher customer traffic, per the company’s press release. In North America, that blew past consensus expectations for 4% growth.

For the fiscal full year, Starbucks now expects its global and US same-store sales to increase by at least 5%, up from its previous guidance of 3% growth. The company also hiked its adjusted earnings-per-share outlook to a range of $2.25 to $2.45 from $2.15 to $2.40 per share. Niccol also noted that while higher gas prices have yet to change the behavior of Starbucks customers, the higher full-year guidance came with caution about the uncertainty and inflationary consequences of the war.

For the fiscal full year, Starbucks now expects its global and US same-store sales to increase by at least 5%, up from its previous guidance of 3% growth. The company also hiked its adjusted earnings-per-share outlook to a range of $2.25 to $2.45 from $2.15 to $2.40 per share. Niccol also noted that while higher gas prices have yet to change the behavior of Starbucks customers, the higher full-year guidance came with caution about the uncertainty and inflationary consequences of the war.

More Markets

See all Markets

markets

AMD shares climb on double Citi upgrade to “buy” with $575 price target

AMD’s shares are rising in premarket trading following a double upgrade from Citi. Citi analyst Atif Malik raised AMD’s investment rating to “buy” from “neutral” and boosted the bank’s 12-month price target to $575 from $460 per share, per Barron’s.

Malik argued that the broader market currently misprices AMD by looking at it primarily as a CPU producer, underestimating its massive GPU potential. Citi says that AMD is uniquely “poised to win the lion’s share” of Meta’s customized graphics chip business. Meta is leaning into AMD’s custom MI450 chips, which deliver a lower total cost of ownership compared to buying traditional off-the-shelf merchant hardware, according to Investing.com.

Citi highlighted a massive multiyear deal between the two tech giants involving a 160 million-share common stock warrant. As the first phase ramps up through 2027, Citi expects each gigawatt of data center infrastructure to translate into roughly $15 billion in revenue. Consequently, Citi hiked its 2027 AMD AI sales forecast to $33 billion (up 137% year over year) and projects GPU sales to reach $50.8 billion by 2028.

CEO Lisa Su recently delivered an optimistic demand forecast, predicting that the global market for CPUs will grow by more than 35% annually over the next five years. The chipmaker delivered a robust Q1 earnings report back in May that beat Wall Street expectations across key data center segments.

markets

Claire Yubin Oh7h

Astera Labs, CoreWeave, Nebius, Rocket Lab, Teradyne rise on Nasdaq 100 Index inclusion announcement

Tech stocks Astera Labs, CoreWeave, Nebius, Rocket Lab, and Teradyne have risen as much as 8.9% in premarket trading on Friday, thanks in part to Nasdaq’s announcement that the five companies will join its flagship Nasdaq 100 Index starting June 22.

As part of the index operator’s quarterly rebalance, which affects some $1.4 trillion in assets within the Nasdaq 100 ecosystem, the companies will replace Charter, Zscaler, Cognizant, Insmed, and Verisk — relatively slow-growth legacy businesses that have lingered around the bottom of the index in market cap terms of late. Most of those stocks slipped slightly on the news.

With CoreWeave and Nebius as two of the major players in the neocloud space, and Astera Labs and Teradyne specializing in making AI hardware and semiconductors, the latest additions reflect how the index is upping its exposure to the AI infrastructure stack. Back in December, Nasdaq also added AI data storage names Seagate Technology Holdings and Western Digital, as well as AI server manager Monolithic Power Systems, as part of its quarterly rebalance.

markets

Adobe beats on Q2 earnings, revenue; CFO to step down

Adobe reported fiscal Q2 results Thursday, beating analysts’ estimates for revenue and earnings, as its stock plumbed its lowest levels since 2019.

For Q2 2026, the creative software company posted:

Revenues of $6.62 billion (estimate: $6.45 billion).
Adjusted earnings per share of $5.96 (estimate: $5.82).
Annual recurring revenue of $27.1 billion (estimate: $26.6 billion).
Subscription revenue of $6.42 billion (estimate: $6.27 billion).
Remaining performance obligations of $22.27 billion (estimate: $21.86 billion).

The company also said its CFO, Dan Durn, would step down next week “to pursue a new professional opportunity.” And it boosted its full-year guidance for earnings and revenue.

Shares fell 5.5% in after-hours trading.

Adobe is feeling the pressure from AI, as the April release of Anthropic’s Claude Design threatens the company’s core design software business. Shares have tanked lately, with the stock down by nearly half over the past 12 months, putting it at levels not seen in years.

Last quarter, Adobe announced that CEO Shantanu Narayen, who had been at the company for 18 years, would be leaving after his successor was appointed. Today, Adobe announced that CFO Dan Durn would also be leaving the company — this month.

Adobe announced a $25 billion stock buyback in April, which gave the stock a boost. The company said it repurchased about 8.5 million shares during the quarter.

In a press release, Narayen said:

“Adobe delivered record revenue of $6.62 billion in Q2 reflecting strong AI-driven demand across our customer groups and we are raising our full-year fiscal 2026 revenue and non-GAAP EPS targets on the strength of that performance.”

Tasha Matsumoto

Stocks climb, oil drops as Trump calls off strikes on Iran

President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was calling off impending air strikes against Iran and told reporters in the Oval Office that the US and Iran will sign a peace deal soon. Oil plunged on the news.

Portrait of bull

markets

Max Knoblauch22h

Trump says he’s called off impending strikes on Iran, sending stocks higher and oil plunging

President Trump on Thursday afternoon said he is calling off upcoming planned strikes on Iran. In a Truth Social post, Trump said “discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

Stocks broadly popped, with the S&P 500 moving from roughly flat to up 1.4% on the day, and oil plunged on the news.

“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others. The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” the president added.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures are down 3% on Thursday afternoon, dropping sharply following the post.

Oil-sensitive stocks reacted accordingly, with airlines including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Air, and Frontier all climbing significantly. Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean similarly jumped.

Freight companies including UPS, FedEx, XPO, and Old Dominion Freight were also up on oil’s movement.

Oil-adjacent companies including Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and Occidental Petroleum dipped.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries 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, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.

©2026 Sherwood Media, LLC