Markets

Stocks close higher after another solid week of earnings

Stocks rebounded on Friday, with all three major indexes closing the week in the green after a slew of second-quarter earnings results. The S&P 500 rose 0.78%, the Nasdaq 100 jumped 0.95% to close at a new record, and the Russell 2000 climbed 0.17%.

Nearly every major S&P sector ETF traded higher, led by tech, healthcare, and financials. Real estate, utilities, and industrials were the day’s only laggards.

Gains were led by Gilead Sciences, which jumped 8% after the company reported earnings and revenue results that exceeded Wall Street expectations. Meanwhile, declines were led by The Trade Desk, which fell 39%.

DoorDash dropped 4% after investors took profits from the company’s recent earnings-related rally. Elsewhere…

Shares of Block fell 4.5% after the the fintech business and Cash App parent company’s revenue fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

Instacart shares jumped 3.7% after the company posted better-than-expected results for the second quarter and gave a rosy outlook for third-quarter profitability.

Rocket Lab shares jumped as much as 7% before paring gains after the retail favorite reported Q2 numbers and lifted its Q3 revenue guidance after the bell Thursday.

Expedia shares jumped 4% after the travel company topped second-quarter estimates and raised its full-year forecast as bookings pick up abroad.

Tesla shares were up 2.3% after CEO Elon Musk ordered the company to disband its Dojo supercomputer team, which had been designing and using its D1 chips to train its self‑driving and AI models.

Palantir shares climbed 2.6%, closing at a new record high after its Monday earnings report seemed to meet the Street's sky-high expectations for the second quarter.

Similarly, Robinhood Markets rose 3%, etching a new all-time high closing price as bullish earnings season vibes continued to push prices for a range of tradable assets higher.

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

Sweetgreen shares fell 23% after the cult favorite salad chain missed Q2 estimates and cut its full-year revenue forecast for the second quarter in a row.

Under Armour shares fell 18% after the athletic apparel giant reported results for its fiscal first quarter of 2026 that were in line with expectations, but issued a gloomy outlook for Q2.

Grindr shares fell 12% after the dating app reported earnings and revenue results after the bell Thursday that missed Wall Street expectations. The stock is still up 60% over the past year.

Pinterest shares sank another 10% after the social media company beat on revenue but fell short on adjusted earnings per share.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent of top US sports betting company FanDuel, slumped 8% despite reporting better-than-expected Q2 numbers and bumping its full-year guidance.

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Report: Boeing could unveil 500-jet order from China during Trump’s visit later this month

Shares of Boeing are up nearly 4% on Friday afternoon, following a Bloomberg report that the company could be close to finalizing a deal to sell 500 planes to China.

The deal was first reported in August and would be one of Boeing’s largest ever.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

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Why software shares are withstanding the war jitters

The outbreak of the war in Iran has clearly rattled investors and created a few clear winners — mostly energy stocks — and losers — consumer staples, airlines, and, well, more or else everything else.

But there is one interesting outlier to that Manichaean market dynamic.

Software shares — often the same companies that the market was giving up for dead just a few weeks ago due to overexpectations of an AI-driven disruption — have been holding up remarkably well.

These companies, including Intuit, ServiceNow, Datadog, Snowflake, IBM, Workday, and Oracle, have actually had a pretty decent run since the war started with a combined US-Israeli attack on Iran last weekend.

A new note from RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria suggests this isn’t just a fluke. Looking at the performance of software stocks during periods of geopolitical stress and market volatility over the last 10 and 25 years, his team found that software shares appear fairly well insulated when these broader shocks hit. RBC wrote:

“The defensive nature of SaaS models and the mission-critical nature of many core software systems at the enterprise level (e.g., in the absence of mass layoffs that may create seat-based headwinds, geopolitical uncertainty and/or market volatility typically will not cause an enterprise CIO to consider ripping out their ERP, CRM, Cyber systems, etc.”

I briefly got Jaluria on the phone yesterday, and he explained a bit more about why he thinks investors might see software as a decent place to hide out from the current chaos.

“With everything in the Middle East, you have to think about not just oil and gas input prices but also supply chains,” he said. “With software, you’re not really thinking about that.”

In other words, there is no equivalent of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz that software investors have to worry about.

Others suggested that the near-term profitability of these giant software companies — aside from concerns about potential long-term disruption from AI — may look different in the face of the economic uncertainty that seems to be growing with the war, especially after a sell-off that has left them relatively attractively valued.

Mark Moerdler, who covers software stocks for Bernstein Research, says that while the AI worries are clearly real, software companies continue to be highly productive cash cows.

“Everyone is afraid that AI is a massive disruptor, and all these articles you read talk about AI as massive disruptor or the world is ending or whatever,” he said. “You don’t see it in the fundamental numbers of the companies I cover. They are delivering GAAP profits, free cash flow, and they’re good investment ideas.”

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