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Bull by the horns
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Bulls on parade

Three major US stock indexes post record closing highs on the same day for the first time since November 2021

Tech was far and away the best-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, while consumer staples was at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all posted fresh closing highs on Thursday.

The benchmark US stock index ended 0.5% higher, the Nasdaq 100 rallied 1%, and the Russell 2000 far outperformed with a 2.5% advance. Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel, and small-cap stocks love Federal Reserve rate cuts.

The record close for the small-cap Russell 2000 was its first since November 2021, which means it’s also the first time in nearly four years that all three major indexes closed at fresh peaks on the same day.

Tech was far and away the best-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, while consumer staples was at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Gains on the day were led by Intel, which jumped 22.8%, its biggest one-day advance since 1987, after Nvidia said it would buy $5 billion worth of Intel stock as part of a broader partnership to codevelop data center and PC products. The news was a blow to Advanced Micro Devices, which was down big early but recovered to finish off just 0.8%. Elsewhere…

Declines were led in part by Darden Restaurants, which fell 7.7% after the Olive Garden and LongHorn parent company’s Q1 results came in lighter than expected.

CrowdStrike shares popped 12.8% after the company said it expects fiscal year 2027 net new annual recurring revenues to grow more than 20% — topping the Street’s estimates.

Abercrombie & Fitch leapt 5.3% after BTIG initiated coverage on the stock with a “buy” rating and set a $120 price target as brand momentum for the Y2K retailer heats up.

Novo Nordisk jumped 6.3% after the Danish GLP-1 trailblazer released two positive study results, including one for its oral semaglutide treatment (“Wegovy in a pill”).

Uber ticked 1.9% higher after the company announced a new partnership with drone operator Flytrex to begin testing an autonomous delivery-by-air system by the end of the year.

IonQ shares rose 2.1% after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy “to advance the development and deployment of quantum technologies in space.” Quantum peer Rigetti Computing jumped 12.5% on its $5.8 million contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

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Opendoor surges on bullish options bets as traders look to potential real estate tokenization

Opendoor Technologies is surging on Friday amid bullish options bets and social media posts referencing unconfirmed rumors about the company.

The stock moved higher in the premarket session after the soft inflation report boosted stocks and briefly pushed long-term bond yields lower (positive for a real estate company). But the real gains came after the opening bell rang and options demand picked up.

As of 12:11 p.m. ET, roughly 664,000 call options have changed hands versus a 10-day average of about 364,000 for a full session.

What seems to be galvanizing members of the “$OPEN Army” is the potential for the company to pursue the tokenization of real-world assets, with Robinhood often bandied about as a potential partner in this endeavor.

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

Opendoor bulls have often pointed to signs that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev appears to be fond of the company, from what appeared on-screen during a demo of a social trading feature at HOOD’s conference in Las Vegas in September to offering support to Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian in setting up an opportunity for retail shareholders to ask questions during the online real estate company’s next earnings call.

Opendoor is currently in a quiet period ahead of earnings, which restricts what type of announcements a company can make.

The call options seeing the most demand expire this Friday with strike prices of $8, $8.50, and $9.

Intel Earnings Researchers

Wall Street analysts see some issues with Intel’s earnings

Even with the US government as a partial owner, Intel’s turnaround has a long way to go.

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Beyond Meat gains amid slightly better-than-expected Q3 sales, positive commentary on legal issues

Shares of Beyond Meat built on their premarket gains after the plant-based meat seller reported preliminary Q3 sales a bit ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, before paring this advance after the market opened.

For the three months ended September 27, management said net revenue would be approximately $70 million. That’s in line with their guidance range of $68 million to $73 million, but Wall Street was expecting sales to skew toward the lower end of that range, at $68.7 million.

However, its anticipated gross margin of 10% to 11% is lower than analysts had been expecting (13.8%). That’s still the case even adjusting for expenses related to its downsizing of operations in China, which would have left margins around 12% to 13%, per Beyond.

Perhaps more importantly, the company provided positive commentary regarding arbitration discussions with a former co-manufacturer that appear to bring it closer to a resolution while limiting potential damages:

“As previously disclosed, in March 2024, a former co-manufacturer brought an action against the Company in a confidential arbitration proceeding claiming that the Company inappropriately terminated its agreement with the co-manufacturer and claimed damages of at least $73.0 million. On September 15, 2025, the arbitrator issued an interim award (the ‘Interim Award’) and found that the Company had a valid basis to terminate the agreement with the Manufacturer. The details of the Interim Award are confidential, and a final arbitration award has not been issued. Additional proceedings will be held to determine the award of attorneys’ fees, prejudgment interest and costs, if any, before a final arbitration award will be issued. On September 25, 2025, the Manufacturer filed a request with the arbitrator to re-open the arbitration hearing. On September 29, 2025, the Company opposed this request. On October 20, 2025, the arbitrator denied the Manufacturer’s request.”

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