Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

6/26/25

US stocks rise, S&P 500 misses out on fresh records by a whisker

The S&P 500 came tantalizingly close to both an intraday and closing record but ultimately got neither, closing up 0.8%. The Nasdaq 100 gained about 1% while the Russell 2000 bounced back with a strong 1.7% advance.

Both monetary and trade policy appear to be evolving in a favorable direction for stocks: traders are pricing in over 65 basis points of easing by the Federal Reserve through year-end (versus about 50 basis points for most of the past month or so), and the White House said its July 9 deadline before reciprocal tariffs would be ramped up wasn’t really a hard deadline.

Most S&P 500 sector ETFs rose, with consumer staples and real estate the exceptions. Energy, communication services, industrials, and materials all gained 1%.

Enphase Energy led gains on the day, up nearly 13% on reports that Congress may not slash federal tax incentives for residential rooftop solar installations. Data center company Equinix was the worst performer, down about 10%. Meanwhile...

Core Scientific surged 33% in afternoon trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that CoreWeave is in talks to acquire the company.

Super Micro Computer shares rose over 5.5% on no obvious news, just another wave of bullish call option buying.

McCormick jumped more than 5% after the spice giant posted a surprise Q2 earnings beat and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

Avis shares climbed 2% as hedge fund Pentwater Capital disclosed it had more than tripled its stake in the rental car company.

Cyngn, a tiny industrial robotics firm, surged more than 170% after highlighting its relationship with Nvidia.

Shares of autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai jumped 12% after The New York Times reported that Uber is in talks with former CEO Travis Kalanick to help fund a potential acquisition.

Kratos Defense dropped more than 2% after announcing plans to sell ~13 million new shares at $38.50 each in a stock offering worth just over $480 million.

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Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 post record closing highs as nearly everything rallies

The benchmark US stock index ended up 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.8% gain.

Bull charging across sand creating dust cloud

markets

6h

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 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 + Technology 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 more than 93% over the past 12 months.

markets

6h

Duolingo up on bullish note, hopes for a user rebound

Duolingo rose by the most in nearly a month after 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 monthslong downturn in daily active user metrics — a slump that set in after a social media backlash to a somewhat artless 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:

Given “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.

markets

6h

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 it’s 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.

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