Markets
Luke Kawa

US stocks crumble on Friday to end worst week since 2020

There was no reprieve from Thursday’s massive sell-off, as Friday saw even larger declines for the S&P 500. The benchmark US stock index fell 6%, the Nasdaq 100 dropped 6.1%, and the Russell 2000 slumped 4.4% on the day.

So ends the worst week for the S&P 500 since March 2020, near the bottom of the Covid-induced bear market.

Trading volumes across all US exchanges set a record on Friday, as did the number of put options that changed hands.

The number of stocks in the S&P 500 that fell outnumbered gainers by 475, the most since March 2023. Every S&P 500 sector ETF fell at least 4%, with energy leading the way down.

The US no longer has any $3 trillion companies, as Apple fell out of that cohort with today’s retreat.

China ratcheted up the trade war by unveiling retaliatory tariffs on US goods, weighing on US companies with big exposure to the world’s second-largest economy and serving as a drag on shares of Chinese companies listed in the US. Intel’s outperformance on Thursday gave way to a double-digit loss on Friday as its exposure to China becomes a sore spot for the company in light of those retaliatory tariffs.

OPEC+’s plans to return even more oil to global markets in May, coupled with the demand shock from tariffs, sent the likes of Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips reeling.

The dealmaking and IPO pipeline is running dry in light of market conditions, with Klarna pausing its plans to go public. Bank stocks like JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley were all throttled and underperformed the broad market.

Boeing stock fell to levels not seen since the doors of its 737 were consciously uncoupling from its body mid-flight.

However, there was a glimmer of light on the hopes for these trade barriers to be dialed back: Nike and Lululemon surged as President Trump touted progress on coming to a deal with Vietnam.

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Stocks soar as US and Iran reach deal to open Strait of Hormuz, end the war

The details of the framework for peace are not yet available.

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

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
Jon Keegan

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.”

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