Stocks Rebound to End Down Week; Dow Jumps 650 Points; Fed’s Williams Signals Support for December Rate Cut

This Off-Price Retailer Is the Latest to Get a Boost From Bargain-Hunting Shoppers

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Ross Stores (ROST) shares jumped to an all-time high Friday after the off-price retailer became the latest to say it’s seeing sales surge as shoppers search for deals.

The stock was up nearly 8% over $173 in recent trading, leaving it on track to close at a record high.

Ross Stores posted third-quarter earnings per share of $1.58, beating the consensus of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha by 18 cents. Revenue rose 10.4% year-over-year to $5.6 billion, also ahead of forecasts. Comparable store sales jumped 7%.

CEO Jim Conroy said the company had an “excellent” back-to-school season, and believes its “assortment of compelling brand name values resonated with shoppers,” with strong growth across major categories of merchandise, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense.

“It is clear the consumer is prioritizing value and our updated assortment is driving stronger customer engagement,” Conroy said.

Read the full article here.

–Bill McColl

Walmart Stock Leads Dow Decliners After Soaring Yesterday

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Walmart (WMT) stock soared yesterday on a terrible day overall for equities indexes. Today, the opposite scenario is taking place.

Shares of the world’s biggest retailer led Dow decliners Friday, with the stock down roughly 2%.

In recent trading, just two other components in the blue-chip index were in the red: Microsoft (MSFT) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shares were down roughly 1% and 0.2%, respectively.

Yesterday, Walmart shares jumped 6.5% to lead the Dow and S&P 500 after the company reported strong third-quarter results and lifted its fiscal 2026 outlook.

Walmart shares are up about 16% in 2025.

Are Stocks Weighing on Crypto—Or the Other Way Around? Here’s What Experts Think

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Have you seen the Spider-Man meme? You know—the one where two cartoon Spider-Men point at each other?

That might be a metaphor for the mood in risk assets these days, with some experts suggesting that stocks are to blame for the weakness in crypto markets, and others arguing that crypto is weighing on stocks. Whoever might be right, that investors seem to be reacting to excesses in both may not bode well for either.

The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes are rebounding a bit Friday, but coin markets continue to bleed. The price of bitcoin has tumbled roughly 8% in the last 24 hours, breaching the $81,000 level, moving closer to April’s year-to-date lows.

Interactive Brokers’ chief strategist on Friday suggested that yesterday’s intraday pivot in broad market indexes happened as bitcoin, which is being used as a “proxy for speculative fever,” started to fall below $90,000.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Bitcoin Price Plummets Over $40,000 in Just Six Weeks as Market Faces Growing Uncertainty

1 hr 7 min ago

Crytocurrenies are selling off amid heightened uncertainty.

The price of Bitcoin (BTCUSD) extended its recent slide Friday, hitting a seven-month low at below $81,000. It traded recently around $83,300, leaving the world’s largest cryptocurrency on track to log its fourth straight week of declines as investors reassess their risk appetite amid broader volatility in financial markets. Bitcoin has lost about a third of its value since hitting a record high of around $125,000 on Oct. 6.

The prices of altcoins such as ether (ETHUSD) and solana (SOLUSD) tumbled along with bitcoin Friday, as did exchange-traded funds tracking the cryptocurrencies. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, and crypto mining firm Mara Holdings (MARA) also lost ground.

Bitcoin has had just two positive days since Nov. 10, when it traded around $106,000. The cryptocurrency has tumbled in the weeks since as stocks have also declined amid concerns about an artificial intelligence bubble inflating the stock market.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

This Clothing Chain Feels Good About the Holiday Season. Its Stock Is Rising

1 hr 46 min ago

Shares of Gap took off after the clothing retailer exceeded earnings and revenue estimates and boosted its guidance on strong demand at its namesake locations.

The company, which also operates the Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta chains, reported third quarter fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share of $0.62, with revenue up 3% to $3.94 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for $0.58 and $3.91 billion, respectively. 

Gap’s (GAP) overall comparable store sales increased 5%. They rose 7% at Gap, 6% at Old Navy, and 4% at Banana Republic. Comparable sales slumped 11% at Athleta.

The “strength of our third quarter and quarter-to-date performance positions us well for the holiday selling season,” said CEO Richard Dixon. The company now sees fiscal 2025 sales increasing 1.7% to 2%, up from its previous estimate of 1% to 2%, and expects its operating margin to grow approximately 7.2%, above its previously issued range.

The news lifted Gap shares 8% and into positive territory for the year, offering investors a measure of optimism after an up-and-down 2025.

–Bill McColl

Elastic Shares Sink Despite Strong Results, Lifted Outlook

1 hr 53 min ago

After the close yesterday, Elastic (ESTC) posted better-than-expected results and raised its outlook. Investors are punishing the stock regardless today.

Elastic shares sank 15% Friday morning even though the Dutch-American data-analytics firm’s fiscal 2026 second-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.64 per share and revenue of $423 million topped consensus Visible Alpha estimates.

In addition, the company now sees fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS between $2.40 and $2.46, up from between $2.29 and $2.35, and revenue between $1.715 billion and $1.721 billion, up from between $1.679 billion and $1.689 billion.

However, although Elastic’s Q2 revenue increased 16% year-over-year, investors appeared to be disappointed that the growth slowed from a 20% rise the previous quarter.

With today’s stark selloff, shares of Elastic have lost nearly 30% of their value this year.

This Month’s Stock Trend Hasn’t Been AI. Here’s What’s Been Climbing Instead

2 hr 25 min ago

November’s Wall Street obsession hasn’t been AI. It’s been healthcare.

The S&P 500’s Health Care Index has risen 5% so far this month, handily outpacing the broader market, which is down more than 4%. Tech, meanwhile, has fallen more than 8% since the start of the month, making it the S&P 500’s worst-performing sector over that time. 

Pharmaceutical stocks have posted the largest gains in the healthcare sector. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) has been best-performing stock in the S&P 500 over the past month, followed closely by Eli Lilly (LLY).

The latter’s shares have risen more than 20% this month, and on Friday the maker of the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound briefly became healthcare’s first trillion-dollar company; its market cap currently sits in a territory between Walmart (WMT) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, BRKB).

Broadly speaking, the move is largely a reflection of investors’ search for the perception of safety in the stock market. Wall Street has been all about AI for the better part of three years, but that enthusiasm has cooled in recent weeks as investors drew parallels between today’s AI boom and the Dotcom Bubble of the late 1990s.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

December Rate Cut Seems Likelier After One Fed Official’s Comments

2 hr 46 min ago

The odds of the Federal Reserve lowering borrowing costs in December have suddenly flipped from unlikely to more likely than not after the words of a key federal official. 

John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, shook up the outlook for the Fed’s key interest rate Friday. He made comments indicating he was open to lowering the fed funds rate at the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in December to help bolster the job market.

His remarks made a rate cut seem far more likely: financial markets were pricing in a 73% chance of a December rate cut on Friday morning following Williams’s speech, up from 39% the day before, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

The Fed’s 12-member policy committee has been sharply divided over whether to cut rates to breathe some life into an increasingly sluggish job market, or to keep them higher for longer to fight inflation that has run above the Fed’s target of a 2% annual rate for more than four years.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Eli Lilly Briefly Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap

2 hr 58 min ago

Eli Lilly (LLY) briefly became the first healthcare firm to hit a market capitalization of $1 trillion Friday morning.

Shares of the maker of blockbuster weight-loss drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, currently up 0.5% at $1,048, rose as high as about $1,061 in the opening minutes of trading to surpass the threshold.

Eli Lilly stock is up about 35% this year. By contrast, rival Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) U.S.-listed shares have fallen about 45% this year and the Danish maker of weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy replaced its chief executive over the summer.

Oracle Stock Continues Pullback, Leads S&P 500 Decliners Friday Morning

3 hr 15 min ago

Oracle (ORCL) shares continue to decline.

Oracle was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 in the first hour of trading Friday, with shares down 6%.

The database software and cloud computing firm’s shares were trading around $198.50, down 12% from Wednesday’s close and more than 40% off their all-time intraday high of $345.72 set on Sept. 10.

Despite the sharp declines over the past two months, shares remain up about 20% this year.

Tariffs Made Car Buyers Hit The Gas

4 hr 24 min ago

Tariffs influenced the buying decisions of more than a third of car buyers this year, showing the far-reaching effects of President Donald Trump’s sweeping import taxes.

That’s according to market research firm J.D. Power, which found 36% of buyers factored in tariffs when purchasing a new vehicle this year, and 87% of those bought sooner than they had planned as a result. Buyers of vehicles made in Europe and Japan were most affected, according to the survey of 32,616 car buyers released Wednesday.

The report also hinted at the impact of tariffs on prices, as 15% of respondents reported paying more than they had planned.

Car buyers rushed to make purchases this spring to get ahead of Trump’s car tariffs, which took effect in May.

Tariffs haven’t yet driven up consumer prices as much as anticipated, since automakers have avoided passing the costs to customers. But forecasters expect that consumers will soon have to take on a share of the cost, which will hit hard, given that many are already struggling to afford a new car.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

BJ’s Wholesale Club Lifts Full-Year Profit Forecast

6 hr 1 min ago

Shares of BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) rose 4.5% in premarket trading after the wholesale retailer reported better-than-expected third-quarter net income and raised its full-year profit forecast before the bell.

The Marlborough, Mass.-based firm reported adjusted earnings of $1.16 per share, while analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha expected $1.10 per share. Revenue of $5.35 billion was in line with forecasts, although comparable club sales growth, both including and excluding gasoline sales, came up short.

For the full year, BJ’s now sees adjusted EPS of $4.30 to $4.40, up from the prior forecast of $4.20 to $4.35. However, it lowered the top end of its guidance for comparable club sales growth excluding gasoline to 3% from 3.5%.

Shares entered Friday up less than 2% this year.

Stock Futures Mixed to End Down Week

6 hr 35 min ago

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4%.

S&P 500 futures were little changed.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.2%.