Stock market today: Live updates

This initiative is now live in 1,000 locales across the U.S., with plans to reach more than 2,300 by year’s end.

“In our view, this represents an escalation of head-to-head competition between the two, with AMZN advancing grocery and rural investments whereas WMT continues to build up its marketplace and advertising verticals,” wrote Mizuho analyst David Bellinger in a Wednesday note. “In a consumer survey we recently conducted across rural zip codes — following Amazon’s $4B rural supply chain investment — we found that Walmart and Target (TGT) screened as the most popular answers for companies at risk of losing share to AMZN.”

Other grocers also pulled back following the news.

Kroger slipped more than 4%, while Albertsons fell more than 2%. Sprouts Farmers Market slid more than 1%. Grocery delivery platform Instacart tumbled more than 10%.

On the other hand, Amazon shares rose around 1%.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Alex Harring

Shares of Paramount Skydance soared more than 22%, putting the media company on track for its best day since March 2020.

It wasn’t clear what drove the sharp move higher, but the stock’s volume was among the 10 highest across Nasdaq names. As of 10:29 a.m. ET, Paramount had exchanged hands more than 5.9 million times at the exchange.

Across all exchanges, the stock’s volume for the day totaled well over 33.6 million. For context, Paramount’s 30-day average volume sits at 17.17 million.

One possible driver that Goldman Sachs alluded to late last week is a rotation into lower-quality stocks. This may be playing out now that expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts are elevated following a lighter-than-expected U.S. inflation report. The bank highlighted the stock in a screen of S&P 500 names that had weak balance sheets, low returns on capital, high volatility and low margins.

“Given the asymmetry indicated by current valuations, we think investors should protect themselves against the potential for a sharp rotation toward low quality if the outlook for economic and earnings growth proves more resilient than feared,” David Kostin, Goldman’s chief U.S. equity strategist, wrote in a note Friday.

— Fred Imbert

In a Tuesday note, Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Palo Alto Networks to a buy rating from hold.

The cybersecurity stock has slipped 4% this year. Deutsche’s upgraded forecast of $220 per share, up from $200, implies that shares could rally 25% from their Tuesday closing level.

As one catalyst, analyst Brad Zelnick pointed to Palo Alto Network’s July announcement that it would acquire fellow cybersecurity company CyberArk in a deal worth approximately $25 billion.

“We upgrade shares of Palo Alto Networks to a Buy rating and raise our DCF-derived TP to $220 given our thoughts on the health of the business, quality of its leadership, and forward prospects for the announced acquisition of CyberArk,” he wrote. “With the stock underperforming broader cyber by 15% YTD and 11% since credible speculation of the acquisition, we think investor concerns are overblown.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

On Wednesday, the communication services and technology sectors traded at new record highs.

Within the communication services sector, Electronic Arts, Live Nation, Meta and TKO Group reached new intraday highs. Advanced Micro Devices, Gen Digital, Broadcom, KLA and Lam Research reached new multi-year highs within tech.

The financials, utilities, industrials and consumer staples sectors all traded less than 2% of their record highs.

— Gina Francolla, Lisa Kailai Han

Morgan Stanley upgraded AvalonBay Communities, a real estate investment trust that invests in apartments, to overweight from an equal-weight rating.

The Wall Street firm said Avalon has been the worst-performing stock in its group year to date, but the company has the “best earnings growth” and “significant ramp in development contribution.”

“With valuation now roughly in-line with peers and greater conviction in best in class earnings growth, we see an opportunity to upgrade the stock,” Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients.

The stock is up 1% in premarket trading. Shares have dropped 15% this year.

— Yun Li

In a Wednesday interview with “Bloomberg Surveillance,” U.S. Treasury Scott Bessent suggested that the Federal Reserve lower its federal funds rate by at least 1.5 percentage points.

“I think we could go into a series of rate cuts here, starting with a 50 basis point rate cut in September,” Bessent said, adding that “any model” suggests “we should probably be 150, 175 basis points lower.”

He added that the U.S. central bank could have cut rates in both its June and July meetings.

— Lisa Kailai Han

These are some of stocks making notable premarket moves:

Cava — The fast-casual restaurant chain dropped 23.6% after revenue came in at $280.6 million for the second quarter, under the LSEG consensus forecast of $285.6 million. The company also missed expectations for same-store sales and cuts its forecast. On the other hand, Cava earned 16 cents per share in the quarter, surpassing Wall Street’s estimate of 13 cents.Brinker International — The Chili’s parent rallied 8.8% after beating earnings expectations for the fiscal fourth quarter. Brinker earned $2.49 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $1.43 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG penciled in $2.45 per share and $1.39 billion for revenue.CoreWeave – The artificial intelligence infrastructure provider dropped about 9% despite posting stronger-than-expected revenue for the second quarter. CFO Nitin Agrawal told analysts that revenue growth remains capacity constrained as demand outstrips supply.

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring

Capri Holdings could be set for big gains from here, according to JPMorgan.

The firm upgraded Capri Holdings stock to overweight from neutral on Wednesday, and raised its price target to $30 per share from $24. The firm’s forecast implies about 53% upside from Tuesday’s $19.62 close.

“We see CPRI on a path of multi-year sequential revenue. gross, and operating margin improvement, led by a brand reinvigoration strategy at the Michael Kors brand,” analyst Matthew Boss said. “Specifically, management is focused on driving product improvement, a sharpened value proposition, enhanced marketing, and distribution optimization, which we see translating to sequentially improved revenues in 2H26 and inflection to FY27 revenue growth at the Michael Kors brand and the total company.”

— Brian Evans

Shares of Hanesbrands shed more than 6% in the premarket after the company agreed to be acquired by Gildan Activewear for $6 per share in cash and stock. That’s slightly below where Hanesbrands closed on Tuesday. The deal assigns an enterprise value of about $4.4 billion to the company.

The deal is expected to close in late 2025 or early next year.

Hanesbrands rallied nearly 28% after the reports of the Gildan deal emerged.

Aggressive rate cut repricing could heighten risks of a market selloff after the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium later this month, Barclays warned in a Tuesday note to clients.

“This may reflect expectations that Powell’s remarks could shape policy into year-end. Indeed, with the theme ‘Labor Markets in Transition,’ the backdrop of softening employment data and tariff-driven inflation make this year’s meeting especially pivotal, in our view. A signal that rate cuts are less certain, or that inflation risks still outweigh growth concerns, could trigger a correction in equities,” wrote strategist Stefano Pascale.

He continued: “We warn against downplaying such a risk, as history shows that asset sensitivity to Jackson Hole has increased sharply since 2017, led by U.S. small caps, gold, and the USD.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish has priced its initial public offering at $37 per share, above the expected range of $32 to $33 and giving it a total market value of $5.4 billion.

The company will raise $1.1 billion in the offering of 30 million shares. In a measure of increased investor appetite, Bullish expanded the number of shares sold in the IPO from 20.3 million, which were originally proposed to be sold at between $28 and $31 a share.

Bullish, which is led by former New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley and headquartered in the Cayman Islands, is a crypto exchange geared toward institutional investors. It also owns the crypto news website CoinDesk, which includes crypto indexes, data and analytics. This is its second attempt at going public since it launched in 2021.

— Tanaya Macheel

Cryptocurrencies rallied on Tuesday, led by ether, which is now hovering below its record.

The market began its steady climb after the early morning release of the consumer price index, which reinstilled hope in investors that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates next month.

Ether was last higher by about 7% at $4,578.73. Earlier, it traded as high as $4,636.30, its highest level since Dec. 3, 2021. It’s edging closer toward its November 2021 record of $4,866.01.

“With CPI data coming broadly in line, crypto markets are rapidly rediscovering the momentum that has been growing over the last week,” Jordi Alexander, CEO at crypto trading firm Selini Capital. “Ethereum flows are coming in hard and fast from traditional markets in the form of both ETFs and treasury vehicles, and the rallies are broad across the market and have reignited animal spirits more than just the Bitcoin flows from earlier in the summer.”

— Tanaya Macheel

Cava and CoreWeave were among stocks moving after market close on the back of their latest financial results. Take a closer look:

Cava: Shares plummeted about 21% after the Mediterranean food chain reported lower-than-expected second-quarter revenue driven by weak same-store sales growth. The company also lowered its full-year forecast for same-store sales. Cava reported earnings of 16 cents per share on revenue of $280.6 million, while analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of 13 cents per share on $285.6 million in revenue.CoreWeave: The AI infrastructure stock met revenue expectations for its second quarter, but saw shares drop about 10% in extended trading. CoreWeave reported a loss of 21 cents and revenue of $1.21 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG, meanwhile, forecasted revenue of $1.08 billion. The company pointed to greater business with OpenAI, a major client and investor in CoreWeave.

Traders also watched stablecoin issuer Circle. The stock slid more than 6% after Circle said it will offer 10 million Class A shares to the public, 2 million of which will be offered by the company.

— Pia Singh