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United Airlines falls on mixed Q2 numbers and lowered full-year outlook

You might want to buckle your safety belt.

7/16/25 3:27PM

United Airlines shares fell 1.5% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the second-largest US airline topped Q2 earnings estimates but fell short on revenue and slashed its full-year guidance.

The company posted adjusted Q2 earnings per share of $3.87, beating forecasts for $3.81. Quarterly revenue came in at $15.2 billion, below the FactSet consensus view for $15.36 billion. Importantly, United Airlines lowered its previous full-year EPS guidance of between $11.50 and $13.50 to a new range of $9.00 to $11.00. (It had also given a “recessionary environment” guidance last quarter of $7.00 to $9.00.)

United had been one of the hardest-hit companies in an airline sector that got battered early in the year as investors weighed the impact of trade uncertainty on consumer sentiment. As of early April, the stock was down more than 40% for the year. But the economy has proven resilient, and airline stocks have rallied significantly. United was down about 9% on the year before this afternoon’s report.

The company has even been able to fly past turmoil related to the short-staffing of air traffic controllers at its Newark hub in May.

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“Pokemon” trading cards skyrocketing in value and GameStop’s collectibles business taking off are two sides of the same coin

The Wall Street Journal’s fantastic piece “The Hot Investment With a 3,000% Return? Pokémon Cards” includes this vignette:

“...the cards caught fire among amateur investors during the pandemic. As some investors banded together to spark the GameStop meme stock mania, a more fringe group of traders, also stuck at home and armed with cash from government stimulus, began scooping up Pokémon cards.”

And the connection between “Pokemon” cards and the video game retailer is in fact even closer than that:

GameStop’s collectibles business played a big role in why it smashed Q2 revenue expectations! Sales in this segment exceeded $227 million, while the two analysts that provided forecasts had an average estimate of $170.4 million. Fiscal year to date, sales of collectibles make up 25.8% of its revenues, up from 16.4% at this time last year.

The company significantly expanded its footprint in the “Pokemon” trading card world in 2024 by launching in-store buying and selling of individual cards, and introduced “Power Packs,” which include one card graded at 8 or above by the Professional Sports Authenticator, in its most recent quarter.

As a 35-year-old man who still plays “Pokemon” (Nuzlockes are peak math + strategy entertainment!), thinks the release of “Pokemon Go” marked the peak for Western civilization, and considers Christmas 1998 to be the second-best day of his life because it’s when he got “Pokemon Red,” I personally view the outperformance of “Pokemon” cards as being indicative of the power of nostalgia coupled with a drop-off in child rearing by millennials, leaving more room for discretionary purchases and investments.

And the nostalgia business seems like a great place to be.

The Hot Investment With a 3,000% Return? Pokémon Cards

“...the cards caught fire among amateur investors during the pandemic. As some investors banded together to spark the GameStop meme stock mania, a more fringe group of traders, also stuck at home and armed with cash from government stimulus, began scooping up Pokémon cards.”

And the connection between “Pokemon” cards and the video game retailer is in fact even closer than that:

And the nostalgia business seems like a great place to be.

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Oracle’s hyperscaler competitors lag after the cloud computing giant’s blowout revenue forecast

Oracle’s forecast for mind-blowing revenue growth through its fiscal 2030 is lifting most AI-adjacent stocks today.

However, the ones being left behind in this rising tide, falling or lagging well behind Morgan Stanley’s basket of AI tech beneficiaries (up 5.8% as of 12:22 p.m. ET), are its fellow hyperscalers.

Microsoft and Alphabet, which also have massive cloud divisions, are positive — but only just. Amazon, whose cloud revenue growth was deemed a disappointment relative to peers this quarter, is down 2.8%. Meta is down 1.2%.

This suggests, at the very least, that traders aren’t mapping Oracle’s outlook for Nvidia-like revenue growth onto the other major cloud players or one of their biggest customers.

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Chewy sinks despite topping Q2 estimates, erasing much of its recent rally

Chewy dropped nearly 16% Wednesday, despite the online pet retailer fetching stronger-than-expected Q2 results and hiking its sales guidance for the year.

The move erased much of a recent blistering run-up for the stock, which had gained 23% off its recent August 5 low through Tuesday.

The company delivered adjusted earnings per share of $0.33 for the quarter, in line with analysts’ consensus forecast of $0.33. Sales jumped nearly 8.6% to $3.1 billion, also above forecasts, with sales to the company’s Autoship customers making up 83% of the total.

Looking ahead: Chewy boosted its full-year sales estimates to $12.5 billion to $12.6 billion, up from $12.3 billion to $12.45 billion. Wall Street was expecting sales of $12.49 billion for the year.

For the current quarter, Chewy guided adjusted EPS to $0.28 to $0.33, compared with the Street’s $0.30 estimate.

Chewy ended the quarter with nearly 21 million active customers, up 4.5% from last year. CEO Sumit Singh said the quarter showed “Chewy’s differentiated value proposition,” citing both customer growth and wallet share gains.

Still, headline net income fell to $62 million, with net margins slipping under cost pressures tied to share-based compensation.

Chewy shares were up 24% year to date going into the print.

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