Stocks Close Higher as Investors Brush Aside Concerns About Trump’s Latest Fed Move; Nvidia Earnings Coming Wednesday

Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Tuesday

37 minutes ago

Advancers

Eli Lilly (LLY) shares jumped 5.9% to secure the S&P 500’s top performance Tuesday. The pharmaceutical company announced that orforglipron, its experimental weight-loss pill, met its primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase 3 clinical trial, reducing weight for adult patients with Type 2 diabetes who were obese or overweight. The drugmaker said it now has enough information to submit a request for regulators to approve the oral GLP-1 treatment.
Shares of Boeing (BA) climbed 3.5% after Korean Air said it will buy 103 of the aircraft manufacturer’s next-generation jets. The plane maker and the carrier inked the deal, worth an estimated $36 billion, at a signing ceremony in Washington as Trump hosted a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The aircraft are set to be delivered in phases through the end of 2030.

Korean Air further solidified its partnership with the U.S. aviation industry through an agreement with GE Aerospace (GE) to purchase spare engines and establish a 20-year maintenance contract. GE Aerospace stock gained 2.7%.

Decliners

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) shares sank 6.9%, suffering the steepest decline of any S&P 500 stock for the second consecutive session. The drop came after the firm announced plans to acquire coffee company JDE Peet’s for approximately $18 billion in cash and then split its beverage and coffee businesses into two separate companies. The deal raised some concerns about Keurig Dr Pepper’s debt levels, with analysts at S&P placing a negative credit outlook on the company.
Analysts at RBC Capital pointed to challenges facing alcoholic beverage maker Brown-Forman (BF.B), and shares of the Jack Daniel’s parent declined 3.8%. RBC indicated that an ongoing transition of Brown-Forman’s distribution system could exacerbate softness in U.S. markets. Brown-Forman also announced this week that its CFO is set to depart the company in May 2026. The wine and spirits maker is set to release its quarterly results before the opening bell on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Brown-Forman was not the only company in the alcoholic beverage business experiencing pressure on Tuesday. Shares of Constellation Brands (STZ) fell 3.2% after Bank of America downgraded the beer and wine maker’s stock to “underperform” from “neutral.” Analysts expressed concerns about long-term alcohol consumption trends, particularly in the beer category, noting the potential negative impact on Constellation’s sales and margins.

-Michael Bromberg

Interactive Brokers Set to Join S&P 500 on Thursday

57 minutes ago

With each change to the S&P 500, the index that dominates becomes a bit more like the digital world that dominates daily life.

Take the latest update: Come Thursday, Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR) will join the broad market measure, taking the place of drugstore operator Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), which is set to be taken private by Sycamore Partners later this year. Shares of Interactive Brokers, which gained nearly 1% on Tuesday, are up roughly 40% year-to-date. (Talen Energy (TLN) will take Interactive Brokers’s spot in the S&P MidCap 400.)

Interactive Brokers will be the third fintech firm to join the index of the U.S.’s largest companies this year, following Coinbase Global (COIN) and Block (XYZ). While the company was incorporated in the 1990s, its roots go back to the late 1970s when founder Thomas Peterffy started to explore algorithmic trading. Peterffy and his engineers famously hacked the Nasdaq terminal to enable automated trading in 1987, and circumvented the exchange’s manual entry rules by building a robot with rubberized fingers that would type in trades into a keyboard.

These days, Interactive Brokers is a soup-to-nuts broker-dealer with desktop and mobile apps that enable investors to trade securities, derivatives, currencies, commodities, crypto, and as of last year, event contracts in prediction markets. Rivals include E-Trade, Schwab (SCHW), and Fidelity.

Walgreens, meanwhile, will soon be a private company for the first time in almost 100 years. The company agreed to a deal worth roughly $10 billion after struggling to revive sales and amid thinning profit margins that led to a spate of store closures.

Its decline started in the last decade as its business model was caught between a rock—the rise of big-box and digital retailers like Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Amazon (AMZN)—and a hard place, with drug intermediaries lowering disbursement rates on prescriptions.

-Crystal Kim

What to Expect From Upcoming IPOs

1 hr 32 min ago

Getting a venture capital-backed unicorn through this year’s initial public offering  window has been like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle—impossible without a bit of humility.

Though broad market indexes are hovering near all-time highs, and stock valuations drawing dotcom bubble comparisons, IPO valuations have been more modest, and capital markets investors choosier than in the frothy years of 2020 and 2021.

Of the seven tech unicorns that have gone public this year, all but two—Figma (FIG) and Firefly Aerospace (FLY)—listed at valuations lower than their respective highest private market values, according to PitchBook. That has been the case for many billion-dollar-plus startups that have gone public since 2021, according to a recent report from the research firm. Also, 2025’s new listings showed stronger financials than in years past, indicating higher investor standards for companies debuting on major exchanges.

The median valuation for 2025’s IPO cohort was 25% higher than their respective highest private values, PitchBook data show. That’s closer to the modest 3% premiums last year’s cohort fetched than the 100%-plus premiums that IPOs fetched in 2020 and 2021.

The current IPO market “remains highly selective and focused on strong financials rather than high-loss startups,” PitchBook analysts Kyle Stanford and Emily Zheng wrote.

For example, Chime (CHYM), which accepted an exit valuation 62% lower than its highest valuation mark as a private company, showed revenue rising by about the same amount over the three years leading up to its debut. The average revenue for tech IPOs this year is $831 million, and four have hit the $1 billion mark, per PitchBook. Until this year, the sole company to have $1 billion in sales at IPO since 2022 was Maplebear (CART), which does business as Instacart.

While Figma’s IPO was valued at almost $20 billion, a high-valuation outlier among this year’s group, it was also profitable, unlike many companies that go public. A quarter of 2025’s IPOs had positive net income, compared to 2021’s 12%, PitchBook said.

Though this year’s listings have received warm market receptions, the VC exit environment remains “muted,” with few registrations in the pipeline, according to PitchBook analysts. They expect 2026 to be more active, though that group will have to reckon with “the higher bar to entry.”

-Crystal Kim

Nvidia Earnings Could Spark a Big Stock Market Move

2 hr 42 min ago

All eyes are on Nvidia heading into the artificial intelligence chip giant’s second-quarter earnings report, due after markets close on Wednesday.

As the world’s most valuable public company, Nvidia (NVDA) has more influence than any over the value of the S&P 500 and the more than $1 trillion indexed to it. With a market capitalization of about $4.4 trillion, Nvidia accounts for about 8% of the benchmark index, a whole percentage point more than its next largest component, Microsoft (MSFT).

Nvidia’s stock is expected to post its biggest post-earnings stock move in over a year, according to recent options pricing. That could translate into a market response that resembles that of a pivotal piece of economic data more than a single company’s earnings report. Options data suggests traders expect the S&P 500 to move about 0.9% in either direction on Thursday, the first day of trading after Nvidia’s report.

The S&P 500 moved more than 0.9% on nearly a third of all trading days this year through Tuesday. But that figure is inflated by the tariff tumult that gripped markets in March and April, when the index jumped or fell by at least one percentage point on more than half of trading days. So far in the relatively calmer second half of the year, the index has moved more than 0.9% approximately one out of every 10 days. 

Nvidia’s size isn’t the only reason its earnings might move the whole market. It has also become an AI bellwether that can move the stocks of AI beneficiaries spanning a range of industries.

The company’s results, as a gauge of AI demand, exert significant influence over other semiconductor stocks. When Nvidia’s results sent its shares plunging more than 8% in late February, the benchmark PHLX Semiconductor Index  (SOX) dropped more than 6%, and not just because Nvidia accounts for about 9% of the index. The stocks of fellow chipmakers Broadcom (AVGO) and Marvell (MRVL) tumbled more than 7% the same day, as did chip fabrication equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT). 

As the notion of what constitutes an “AI stock” has expanded, so has Nvidia’s influence. Shares of Constellation Energy (CEG) and Vistra (VST), nuclear power providers that have struck major data center deals with the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet (GOOGL), plunged more than 7% and 12%, respectively, following Nvidia’s results in February. Server makers Dell (DELL) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI) saw their shares fall nearly 7% and 16%, respectively, while software provider Palantir (PLTR) slid 5%. 

The ripple effects of Nvidia’s earnings could be even more pronounced now because AI beneficiaries and the “Magnificent Seven,” after big gains this year, make up more of the S&P 500 than they did in February. Palantir rose 75% in the past 6 months, while Nvidia competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained more than 50%. Broadcom, one of just nine U.S. companies worth more than $1 trillion, is up more than 35% in the same period.

Before Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech sent stocks soaring last Friday, tech and AI stocks were having a rough week. Palantir last Wednesday notched its longest losing streak in more than a year. An ETF tracking the “Magnificent Seven” stocks slid 3.5% over the first four days of the week. 

Investor concerns about an AI bubble, which have repeatedly bubbled up over the past few years, resurfaced last week. Wall Street was unnerved by an MIT survey that found nearly all companies have seen no material benefits from their AI investments. And Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, reportedly said the prior week that investors had become “overexcited” about AI. 

Those headlines amplified worries that tech valuations had become stretched after a strong rebound off April’s “Liberation Day” lows. The S&P 500 IT sector index has risen 50% since bottoming out on April 8, far outpacing the 29% gain for the S&P 500 as a whole.

-Colin Laidley

Bitcoin Levels to Watch as Price Hits 7-Week Low

4 hr 27 min ago

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) fell to its lowest level in seven weeks on Tuesday, giving back the gains posted at the end of last week after Fed Chair Powell opened the door to a cut in interest rates. 

The legacy cryptocurrency has come under pressure recently as some large investors have reportedly liquidated positions and bitcoin ETF outflows have increased. Bitcoin has fallen about 12% since hitting a record high of above $124,000 on August 14. The digital currency fell as low as $108,700 this morning, its lowest level since July 9.

Since hitting its all-time high less than two weeks ago, bitcoin has reversed course, potentially laying the groundwork for a bull trap—a trading event in which prices rise before reversing sharply, leaving investors with an unexpected loss.

It’s also worth noting that as the pioneer cryptocurrency made a new high, the relative strength index made a comparatively shallower high to create a bearish divergence between the price and indicator, signaling waning buying interest.

Investors should watch key support levels on Bitcoin’s chart around $107,000 and $100,00, while also monitoring resistance areas near $117,000 and $123,000.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

-Timothy Smith

Trump Administration Eyes Stakes in Defense Companies

6 hr 6 min ago

The Trump administration is looking into taking stakes in top defense contractors, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, after its deal for a 10% stake in Intel (INTC). 

“There’s a monstrous discussion about defense,” the Cabinet secretary told CNBC in a televised interview Tuesday, suggesting a number of defense companies that count the U.S. government as a major client could be potential targets.

“If we are adding fundamental value to your business, I think it’s fair for Donald Trump to think about the American people,” Lutnick added.

Lutnick pointed to Lockheed Martin (LMT), which made nearly three-quarters of its sales from deals with the U.S. government in 2024—including 65% from the Department of Defense, as a prime example. The company is “basically an arm of the U.S. government,” he said.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson told Investopedia, “As we did in his first term, we are continuing our strong working relationship with President Trump and his Administration to strengthen our national defense.”

Lutnick’s comments come after President Trump said yesterday that he plans to make more equity deals like the one he announced last week with embattled chipmaker Intel, which is being funded by awards under the CHIPS Act, though some Wall Street analysts have suggested similar agreements may not hold as much appeal for companies on stronger footing.

The Trump administration’s stated interest in expanding its ownership and influence in private businesses also marks a noteworthy shift in the approach of the federal government, which has typically reserved such moves for times of extreme stress, drawing some criticism from members of his own party concerned about state overreach.

Shares of Lockheed Martin were up about 1.5% in recent trading. They’ve lost roughly 6% of their value since the start of the year, after taking a hit last month on the heels of a weakened outlook and reported losses connected to multiple programs. 

Among other defense stocks, Northrop Grumman (NOC) and RTX Corp. (RTX) were up 1%, while L3Harris (LHX) inched higher.

-Kara Greenberg

IBM, AMD Partner on Quantum-Centric Supercomputing

6 hr 55 min ago

International Business Machines (IBM) and AI chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said Tuesday they were teaming up to develop “quantum-centric supercomputing.”

“In a quantum-centric supercomputing architecture, quantum computers work in tandem with powerful high-performance computing and AI infrastructure, which are typically supported by CPUs, GPUs and other compute engines,” the companies said. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the companies would “build a powerful hybrid model that pushes past the limits of traditional computing.”

Shares of each company were up about 1% in recent trading.

In June, IBM showcased what it called a “viable path” to building the world’s first large-scale, “fault-tolerant” quantum computer by the end of the decade. The computer, dubbed IBM Starling, is expected to be capable of performing 20,000 times the operations of quantum computers that exist today, the company said. That followed Google parent Alphabet’s (GOOGL) breakthrough late last year with its unveiling of a quantum computing chip it said can complete computations in less than 5 minutes that would take some of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years.

Despite recent breakthroughs, useful quantum computers remain many years off. Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said in early January that it would likely be more than 15 years before the world had “very useful” quantum computers, though he later turned more positive on the technology.

-Nisha Gopalan

Eli Lilly Rises on Weight-Loss Pill Trial Results

8 hr 10 min ago

Eli Lilly (LLY) shares rose Tuesday morning as results from a new study moved the drugmaker closer to applying for approval of its experimental weight-loss pill.

Lilly reported a Phase 3 trial of its oral GLP-1 treatment, orforglipron, met primary and key secondary goals in reducing weight for adults who were obese or overweight and had Type 2 diabetes. 

The company noted those taking the highest dose (36 milligrams) for 72 weeks and without food and water restrictions dropped their weight by an average of 10.5%, or 22.9 pounds, compared to 2.2%, or 5.1 pounds, for those on a placebo. Along with losing weight, the orforglipron patients had an average decline in their A1C glucose level of 1.8%. 

The pill uses the same GLP-1 hormone therapy as injectable weight-loss medicines, including Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy. However, the size of orforglipron’s weight reduction was lower than the other two. 

Lilly said it now has “the full clinical data package required to initiate global regulatory submissions for orforglipron.” However, a stumbling block may be the high number of adverse effects reported, including nausea (36.4% at the highest dosage), vomiting (23.1%), diarrhea (27.4%), constipation (22.4%), and dyspepsia (10.9%). In addition, a similar number of those taking the pill and the placebo dropped out of the study. 

Eli Lilly shares were up 4% recently, pacing S&P 500 advancers. Despite today’s advance, shares of Eli Lilly are down about 6% in 2025.

-Bill McColl

EchoStar Stock Soars as Company Sells Spectrum to AT&T

9 hr 23 min ago

Shares of EchoStar (SATS) skyrocketed Tuesday after the satellite TV provider, under pressure from federal regulators, sold 50 megahertz of its nationwide low- and mid-band spectrum allocations to AT&T (T) for approximately $23 billion.

The operator of DISH TV, Boost Mobile wireless service, and other properties said the deal includes its 3.45-gigahertz and 600-megahertz spectrum licenses, which it explained gives AT&T the ability to rapidly deploy “the purchased spectrum to U.S. consumers across the country, as AT&T has the option to lease the spectrum, pending the closing of the spectrum sale. This arrangement benefits both AT&T and Boost Mobile subscribers.”

In addition to the sale, EchoStar and AT&T have amended their previous network services agreement, creating a hybrid mobile operator relationship.

EchoStar shares were up 75% recently, trading at an all-time high.

AT&T CEO John Stankey said the acquisition “bolsters and expands our spectrum portfolio while enhancing customers’ 5G wireless and home internet experience in even more markets.”

EchoStar noted that the agreement is part of its “ongoing efforts to resolve the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) inquiries.” In May, the FCC launched an investigation into whether the company was meeting certain requirements for both its wireless and satellite rights. President Donald Trump reportedly intervened, calling on EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen and FCC head Brendan Carr to strike a deal. 

The transaction is expected to close by the middle of next year.

Shares of AT&T were up 0.5% in early trading and have gained about 27% since the start of 2025.

-Bill McColl

Major Index Futures Down Slightly

10 hr 48 min ago

Futures tied to the major U.S. stock indexes were each down 0.2% in recent trading.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures

S&P 500 futures

Nasdaq 100 futures