Markets

US stocks dip as Trump’s tariff letters dent optimism

Suddenly it sounds a lot more like early April, with high tariffs being bandied about and stocks moving lower. But as President Trump sent letters to different countries informing them what rate their imported goods will be levied at in August if they don’t make a deal, the damage was much less severe than the drubbing that followed Liberation Day, as traders seem to keep hope that the sequel to the Rose Garden Rout and Rebound will have a similar happy ending.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 closed down 0.8%, while the Russell 2000 slumped 1.5%. Every S&P 500 sector ETF fell except for utilities, with consumer discretionary faring the worst.

The day’s gains were led by Tractor Supply and Palantir, which were up 3.9% and 3.4%, respectively. Meanwhile Tesla led declines, falling 6.8% after CEO Elon Musk’s plan to start an “America Party” fostered another war of words on social media with Trump and analysts said the EV maker stands to lose about $255 million in regulatory credit revenue each quarter going forward. Meanwhile...

Japanese car companies Toyota, Nissan, and Honda all traded lower after Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on goods from Japan and South Korea.

Shares of recently IPO’d retail darling CoreWeave fell 3% after the company announced plans to buy crypto miner (and business partner) Core Scientific in an all-stock deal worth about $9 billion when it was announced — and 3% less now. Shares of the acquired company tumbled nearly 18%.

Stellantis shares fell 5% after the Jeep maker faced a trifecta of bad headlines including an analyst downgrade, reports of lower production numbers in Italy, and a new NHTSA probe.

Semiconductor stocks including Marvell, On Semiconductor, and Taiwan Semiconductor all dipped on the heels of a report that the Trump administration is cracking down on China’s ability to access AI chips via Malaysia and Thailand.

Uber shares jumped 3%, hitting an intraday all-time high of $97. The move extends a recent rally fueled by steady profits and optimism around the ride-hailing giant’s new tech investments.

Bit Digital soared 18% after the publicly traded digital asset platform announced that it had completed its digital asset treasury transition to ethereum from bitcoin.

GEO Group, which derives over 40% of its revenue from contracts with ICE, rose 4.5% after the GOP’s latest budget bill pushed more federal dollars on the growing network of deportation detention centers.

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Warner Bros. Discovery jumps after Wells Fargo ups price target on dealmaking buzz

Warner Bros. Discovery shares popped 7% Tuesday after Wells Fargo raised its price target on the media giant to $14 from $13, while keeping an equal-weight rating.

The bank’s optimism stemmed largely from the media giant’s potential for dealmaking. In June, WBD announced that it would would split its operations into two companies, with the Streaming & Studios division (home to Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios, HBO, and Max) standing alone from the networks side (CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery).

That separation could make the Streaming & Studios unit more attractive to buyers, the analysts said. They valued the segment at about $65 billion, which could translate to a takeover price north of $21 a share. Potential suitors range from Amazon and Apple to Sony and Comcast, though analysts flagged Netflix as the “most compelling” option despite its limited acquisition track record:

“While NFLX has historically not been acquisitive, [streaming and studios’] $12bn in annual content spend + library + 100+ acre studio lot offers a lot. It kickstarts a theatrical IP strategy, quickly scales video games and most importantly provides premium content to members.”

At Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia Conference this week, CEO David Zaslav also highlighted growing traction at HBO Max and hinted at future crackdowns on password sharing.

WBD shares are up 26% year-to-date, and up over 93% over the past 12 months.

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Duolingo up on bullish note, hopes for a user rebound

Duolingo rose by the most in nearly a month, as an analyst note painted a more bullish picture of the gamified language learning company despite a dearth of news otherwise.

A quick check-in with analysts covering the stock on Wall Street found most of them otherwise flummoxed on the reason behind the uptick Thursday.

Some, however, suggested the rise may reflect optimism that the company has been able to reverse a months-long downturn in daily active user metrics — a slump that set in after a social media backlash to a somewhat inartful LinkedIn post from the company about its AI first strategy.

The bullish analyst note, published Thursday by Citizens JMP, suggested Duolingo could be a big beneficiary from a change to Apple’s rules governing its App Store driven by a ruling on a Federal antitrust case against the company. The analysts wrote:

Apple’s recent changes to U.S. App Store rules that allow developers to steer payments to the web where fees are similar to typical credit card fees rather than Apple’s 30% fee for in -app purchases and 30% fee on subscriptions for the first year and 15% thereafter, we expect mobile app companies including Duolingo, Life360, and Grindr Inc. to unlock meaningful cost benefits.

At any rate, the next big event on the company’s calendar is its Duocon 2025 conference on Tuesday, where analysts are hoping to hear more hard information on all of the above topics.

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Jeep maker Stellantis surges as CEO says the automaker is in productive tariff talks with the US

Shares of Jeep and Dodge maker Stellantis are up more than 8% in Thursday afternoon trading, following comments from the automaker’s new CEO, Antonio Filosa, at a European auto conference.

On tariffs, Filosa said that Stellantis has had a “very productive exchange of ideas” with the Trump administration on the company’s manufacturing footprint and that the environment around the levies is “getting clearer and clearer.”

The US is Stellantis’ top priority, according to Filosa, and the company has taken efforts to turn things around in the market, where its struggled with sales in recent years. To fuel the turnaround, Stellantis is bringing back its popular Jeep Cherokee, which it discontinued in 2023.

As of 12:45 p.m. ET, Stellantis’ trading volume was at more than 140% of its average over the past 30 days.

markets

Tempus AI jumps on FDA clearance of AI-enabled tool to analyze cardiac MRIs

Tempus AI, a midcap medical diagnostics company that’s highlighted a push to incorporate AI technology into its products, surged on Thursday after announcing the FDA had issued a “510(k) clearance” of a new AI-enabled tool to analyze cardiac imagery from MRIs.

A 510(k) clearance — used for devices that are considered relatively low risk — essentially allows a product to be sold in the US.

While the company has never turned a profit, even on an adjusted basis, its sales are growing rapidly and the stock has had a great year, rising more than 160% in 2025.

For more on the company, check out our interview with its CEO, Eric Lefkofsky.

While the company has never turned a profit, even on an adjusted basis, its sales are growing rapidly and the stock has had a great year, rising more than 160% in 2025.

For more on the company, check out our interview with its CEO, Eric Lefkofsky.

markets

Micron surges as Citi boosts price target to $175

Micron is on the move this morning, gapping higher and continuing to trade up double digits after Citi boosted its view on how much the shares can run.

Analyst Christopher Danely raised his price target on the memory chipmaking specialist to $175 from $150, while maintaining a “buy” rating. The average analyst price target of $151 has now been shattered by Micron’s rise today, and the stock is trading at its highest level since June 2024.

This continues Micron’s advance as OpenAI’s dogged determination to burn through cash to enhance its AI capabilities provides a broad lift to the space, punctuated by Oracle’s massive gain on Wednesday.

Call demand is running hot: just 13 minutes into the session, volumes are running at 106,157 compared to a 20-day average of 88,888.

Micron is slated to report quarterly results on September 23.

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