S&P 500, Nasdaq Hit New Highs as Stock Market Rally Continues; Dow Nears First Record Since December

Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Wednesday

3 hr 20 min ago

Advancers

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) shares skyrocketed 37%, extending gains posted in the prior session and logging the S&P 500’s top daily performance. The newly minted media giant, which began trading as a combined entity last week following a prolonged merger process between Skydance Media and the former Paramount Global, grabbed headlines Monday with the announcement of a $7.7 billion, seven-year agreement to acquire the exclusive broadcasting rights for Ultimate Fighting Championship events. Its comparatively small float led commentator Jim Cramer to call it a meme stock today, likely fueling the fire.
Shares of fellow entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) rose 7.4%. The company said it would partner with streaming service Viu to launch a bundling package in Southeast Asia.
Growing anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its September meeting and the potential for additional cuts later this year helped bolster shares of home builders. The housing market has been pressured by elevated mortgage rates, which limit affordability for potential homebuyers, so the prospect of lower borrowing costs represents a positive signal for the residential construction business. PulteGroup (PHM) stock gained 5.4%, while shares of Lennar (LEN) added 5.2%.

Decliners

Shares of electronic circuit board manufacturer Jabil (JBL) declined 4.9%, falling the most of any S&P 500 stock. Wednesday’s slide gave back gains posted in the prior trading session, but even after the downtick, Jabil stock has more than doubled in value over the past year, boosted by demand for hardware related to artificial intelligence processes.
Amazon (AMZN) announced plans to to offer same-day grocery deliveries, including perishable items, in 2,300 cities and towns in the U.S. by the end of the year, a major jump from the more than 1,000 where the service is currently available. Amazon stock moved 1.4% higher, but shares of grocery and food delivery competitors lost ground. Shares of Kroger (KR), operator of the largest chain of traditional grocery stores in the U.S., slipped 4.4%. DoorDash (DASH) stock lost 3.8%.
Oracle (ORCL) shares dropped 3.8% following reports that the database technology firm has cut jobs from its cloud infrastructure division. The staff reductions at Oracle, which aims to compete with Amazon and Microsoft (MSFT) in the enterprise cloud services market, are reportedly part of a strategy to shift more resources toward meeting the growing demand for AI-enabled products.

-Michael Bromberg

Paramount Skydance Soars After Getting Meme Label

4 hr 25 min ago

Paramount Skydance, the media conglomerate newly created with the merging of giants Skydance Media and Paramount Global, just hit a major cultural milestone: It’s been “memed.”

Shares of Paramount (PSKY) closed nearly 40% higher on Wednesday afternoon at $15. Average volume in the stock for the three trading days after the deal closed on Aug. 7 was around 40.6 million, but jumped to 130.9 million on Wednesday amid the buying frenzy.

Though the stock started to climb at the market’s open, it soared higher after CNBC’s “Mad Money” show host Jim Cramer tweeted: “Paramount (PSKY) is a meme stock!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Small float … shocking.”

The term Cramer used—float—refers to the number of a company’s shares available to the public, calculated by taking total shares outstanding and subtracting any restricted or insiders’ shares.

A small float, which would allow a group of people to move the share price substantially, is a quality that meme stocks usually have in common. They also may experience sharp swings in their share price not based on their underlying fundamentals. Other notorious meme stocks include American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Kohl’s (KSS), and GameStop (GME).

-Crystal Kim

180 Life Sciences Stock Soars as It Unveils Ether Treasury Plan

5 hr 46 min ago

Shares of the former 180 Life Sciences (ATNF) soared Wednesday after the biotechnology company said it plans to rebrand as ETHZilla and will pursue an Ether treasury strategy. 

The stock jumped as much as 70% Wednesday morning, before paring back. The shares were up about 5% in recent trading, leaving the stock’s year-to-date gains around 500%. 

The company, which was originally formed to focus on developing therapeutics in chronic pain, inflammation and fibrosis, said it now holds almost $350 million in Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, and plans to buy more.

The price of the Ether hovered near all-time highs Wednesday at over $4,700 and has added close to half its value in 2025 amid optimism about a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment under the Trump administration.

The move by ETHZilla, which counts billionaire Peter Thiel among its backers, echoes the playbook of Strategy (MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy, which has become the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin as part of its Bitcoin treasury strategy. 

The price of Bitcoin, which hovered near all-time highs Wednesday at about $121,600, has added close to a third of its value in 2025. Shares of Strategy have also climbed by roughly a third over the same period.

-Kara Greenberg

3 Stocks to Play the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’

6 hr 59 min ago

The world is having a “nuclear renaissance,” according to Morgan Stanley, and the opportunity for investors is ample. 

The pace of nuclear capacity expansion has only increased since last year, according to the firm’s analysts. Morgan Stanley now expects investment in nuclear energy to total $2.2 trillion through 2050, up from last year’s forecast of $1.5 trillion.

Morgan Stanley divides nuclear-exposed stocks into three categories: power generators, uranium miners, and equipment and plant providers. The firm’s three favorite U.S. stocks to play the nuclear theme all fall into the first category: Talen Energy (TLN), Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG), and Vistra (VST). 

“The dual imperatives of decarbonization and energy security, combined with a gradual decline in investor exclusions and more favorable financing conditions, are making the nuclear renaissance a truly global investment theme,” wrote Morgan Stanley analysts on Tuesday. 

President Donald Trump has made energy security a central theme of his second term. In May, Trump set the goal of growing America’s nuclear energy capacity to 400 gigawatts in 2050 from about 100GW today. The president signed several executive orders aiming to expedite the expansion and construction of U.S. nuclear capacity.

Investors around the world have become more open to nuclear energy. As of December 2024, Morgan Stanley wrote, 2.3% of global [assets under management] were subject to an exclusion policy regarding nuclear power—less than for alcohol, military contracting or gambling.

And The World Bank recently lifted its ban on financing nuclear power projects, which the firm said could set the stage for other international lenders to follow.

Read the full article here.

-Colin Laidley

Bullish More Than Doubles After IPO

7 hr 44 min ago

Shares of Bullish (BLSH), a crypto exchange backed by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, soared in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.

The stock recently traded hands around $92, nearly 150% above its initial public offering price of $37 per share, which topped its projected range of $32 to $33 that had been scaled up from $28 to $31 previously.

 Bullish sold 30 million shares in the offering, raising about $1.1 billion in proceeds. Its gains would give it a market capitalization close to $15 billion, based on the number of shares outstanding listed in a regulatory filing.

The crypto exchange and owner of the CoinDesk crypto media site reported its trading volume grew 78% year-over-year in the first quarter, with an average daily volume of $2.55 billion, according to its prospectus filing.

Bullish’s launch comes after a series of strong crypto IPOs this year, pointing to improving appetite for new listings while major cryptocurrencies have climbed in value amid optimism about a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment. The price of Bitcoin and Ether traded near record highs Wednesday.

Recent IPO Stock Gains Could Boost Upcoming Debuts

9 hr 13 min ago

Pent-up demand for initial public offerings is helping 2025’s newest stocks shine.

The median first-day performance of US IPOs that raised at least $100 million was about 19% so far this year. That’s the highest since 2020’s median of 33%, according to Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research and related ETFs. The firm’s index of larger new listings that have been public for less than three years, tracked by the US IPO ETF (IPO), was up 12% through Friday’s close, ahead of the S&P 500’s 8.6% gain.

Firefly Aerospace (FLY), WhiteFiber (WYFI), and HeartFlow (HTFL), all of which priced last week, were included in those figures.

Hot first-day performance can effect subsequent deals in what University of Florida business professor Jay Ritter calls a “spillover” effect. Companies waiting in the wings to go public could bask in the afterglow of NewsMax (NMAX), FatPipe (FATN), Circle Internet Group (CRCL), AIRO Group Holdings (AIRO) and Figma (FIG), all of which at least doubled their IPO prices, over their respective trading debuts.

More IPOs are on the way. Crypto exchange and CoinDesk owner Bullish is set to debut today under the ticker “BLSH.” Tickets provider StubHub, which delayed its IPO plans following Liberation Day stock volatility, is reportedly kicking off its roadshow after Labor Day and will make its public debut in late September.

There is no crystal ball for how well a new stock will do, but the ones that tend to outperform have a few things in common. “The vast majority of those with big run-ups are venture-capital backed. Lots are tech stocks. They’re hard to value,” Ritter told Investopedia, citing examples like Netscape in 1995 or Airbnb (ABNB) in 2020.

Of the top 10 biggest VC-backed U.S. IPOs of 2025, a list that includes Figma (FIG), Chime Financial (CHYM), and Circle (CRCL), only one didn’t pop on Day 1, according to PitchBook data. That was CoreWeave (CRWV), which priced its IPO under its marketed range. Its shares have subsequently climbed almost 250% since its March debut. Figma, which went on a blistering rally as soon as it listed on July 31, has since declined about 25%.

New stocks generally experience mean reversion. “Those that double or more on the first day have average long-term returns below IPOs that had less-than-enthusiastic first-day receptions,” according to Ritter, who defines “long-term” as three years.

The issue with companies that rocket up on their opening day, is that they then have a very high price-to-sales ratio. “It’s difficult for a company to meet expectations when there’s so much optimism built into the price,” he said.

-Cyrstal Kim

CoreWeave Drops After Large-Than-Expected Loss

9 hr 41 min ago

CoreWeave (CRWV) shares Wednesday morning, a day after the Nvidia-backed provider of artificial intelligence (AI) computing reported a much larger-than-expected loss as costs skyrocketed.

The company posted a second-quarter loss of $0.60 per share, while analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had anticipated a loss of $0.45 per share. Revenue soared 207% year-over-year to $1.21 billion, beating estimates.

Operating expenses jumped 276% to $1.19 billion, also more than anticipated. Co-founder and CEO Michael Intrator explained that CoreWeave was “scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI.”

CFO Nitin Agrawal said on the earnings call with analysts that the company is “still operating in a structurally supply-constrained environment, where demand far outstrips supply for our products and services,” according to an AlphaSense transcript. Agrawal said that because of the need to invest more to meet that demand, expenses will continue to rise, including debt, adding that “these costs ahead of revenue have a short-term impact on our margins.”

Agrawal noted that with the expectation of rising sales, CoreWeave was boosting its full-year revenue guidance to $5.15 billion to $5.35 billion, versus its earlier outlook of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion.

CoreWeave shares were down 17% in recent trading. Despite today’s sharp declines, CoreWeave shares have soared more than 200% since their March debut.

-Bill McColl

CAVA Shares Tumble on Weak Results, Lowered Outlook

11 hr 50 min ago

Shares of CAVA Group (CAVA) sank in early trading Wednesday, a day after the fast-casual restaurant chain posted weaker-than-expected results and cut its outlook on slowing sales.

The operator of its namesake Mediterranean-themed eateries reported second-quarter same-restaurant sales increased 2.1% year-over-year, while analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for a gain of 6.25%. Revenue rose 20% to $280.6 million, also short of forecasts. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.16 was above estimates.

CFO Tricia Tolivar told analysts during the earnings call that the industry is facing “a fluid macroeconomic environment and it’s one that sort of creates a fog for consumers where things are changing constantly and it’s hard to see the clear. And during those times, they tend to step off of the gas,” according to an AlphaSense transcript. Tolivar added that while CAVA entered the quarter with momentum, “as we moved through June, we saw a deceleration in same-restaurant sales, driven in part by the timing of our steak launch last year.”

The company now sees full-year same-restaurant sales growth to be 4.0% to 6.0%, versus its earlier outlook of 6.0% to 8.0%. 

CAVA shares were down 18% in recent trading. Even before today’s decline, CAVA Group shares had lost about a quarter of their value in 2025. 

-Bill McColl

Global Oil Supply Expected to Rise as Demand Slumps

12 hr 21 min ago

The International Energy Agency once again has lifted its forecasts for global oil supply this year and next. 

The IEA on Wednesday now sees global oil supply growth of 2.5 million barrels per day (B/D) this year, up by 370,000 b/d from last month’s forecast, and 1.9 million b/d in 2026, up by 620,000 b/d.

The upward revision was made “after the eight OPEC+ members subject to voluntary output reductions agreed on 3 August to raise production by another 547 kb/d in September, fully unwinding the 2.2 mb/d cuts agreed to in November 2023 since April,” the agency wrote.

Meanwhile, “global oil demand growth for 2025 has been repeatedly downgraded since the start of the year, by a combined 350 kb/d,” the IEA wrote. “Demand is now projected to rise by around 700 kb/d this year and next. The latest data show lacklustre demand across the major economies and, with consumer confidence still depressed, a sharp rebound appears remote.”

The IEA added that “while oil market balances look ever more bloated as forecast supply far eclipses demand towards year-end and in 2026, additional sanctions on Russia and Iran may curb supplies from the world’s third and fifth largest producers.”

Crude oil futures were down again this morning, extending a two-week slump that has taken prices to their lowest levels since early June.

-Aaron Rennie

Major Index Futures Point to Higher Open

13 hr 26 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.3% recently.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures also added 0.2%.