S&P 500 Closes at New High as Stocks Surge Ahead of August Jobs Report Release

Big S&P 500 Movers on Thursday

1 hr 21 min ago

Advancers

Shares of investment management company T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) surged 5.8%, logging the S&P 500’s top performance Thursday. The gains followed the announcement of a partnership with financial giant Goldman Sachs (GS), with the two firms saying they will collaborate to provide clients with public-private investment solutions. Goldman intends to purchase up to $1 billion in T. Rowe Price stock as part of the agreement. Shares of Goldman Sachs also traded higher, adding 2.5%.
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) shares gained 5.6%. Analysts at several research firms have raised their price targets on Williams-Sonoma stock since the home goods retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly profit in its earnings report last week. The stock was one of several exposed to the U.S. housing market that caught an updraft from Thursday’s private payrolls data, which added to investor confidence the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting later this month. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) rose 3.2% while shares of construction supplies provider Builders FirstSource (BLDR) gained 5.1%.
Amazon (AMZN) stock rose 4.3% after JetBlue (JBLU) became the first airline to partner with the e-commerce and technology giant’s low Earth orbit satellite internet business known as Project Kuiper. The air carrier plans to begin using Project Kuiper to provide free Wi-Fi service aboard certain aircraft starting in 2027. Having deployed its first satellites in April, Amazon’s offering could represent an emerging competitor to Starlink, the satellite internet venture operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. JetBlue shares sank 6.6% on Thursday.

Decliners

Although Salesforce (CRM) topped sales and profit expectations for its fiscal second quarter, its guidance for revenue and earnings per share in the current quarter came in below consensus forecasts. Shares of the enterprise software firm slipped 4.9%. A top executive said the company faced headwinds related to sales of its marketing and commerce products, although CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff stressed that the soft outlook was “appropriately conservative.”
Shares of Indiana-based regulated utility NiSource (NI) fell 4.7%. The move lower came amid growing uncertainty around the regulatory approval of NiSource’s proposed spinoff of a subsidiary focused on data centers and other high-demand customers. According to reports, two of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s five commissioners resigned on Wednesday, shortly before an expected decision on NiSource’s spinoff.
Barclays slashed its price target on Centene (CNC) stock, and shares of the health insurer plunged 4.7%. Analysts pointed to ongoing concerns about Centene’s financial outlook after the company withdrew its 2025 guidance in July. The move to rescind the full-year forecast came after an independent report showed higher levels of morbidity and slower market growth than previously anticipated in many of the states where Centene operates.

-Michael Bromberg

Salesforce Levels to Watch as Stock Drops on Weak Outlook

1 hr 59 min ago

Salesforce (CRM) shares tumbled Thursday after the cloud-based software company issued a sales forecast below Wall Street’s expectations, raising concerns about demand for its flagship AI agent platform.

The company’s results for the fiscal second quarter, announced late Wednesday, came in above analysts’ estimates on the top and bottom lines, but revenue guidance for the current quarter of $10.24 billion to $10.29 billion proved disappointing. Investors increasingly want to see strong sales growth from AI facing firms like Salesforce that have made significant investments in AI powered software.

Salesforce shares fell nearly 5% to around $244 on Thursday, leading decliners in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The stock has lost 27% since the start of 2025 amid concerns over the software maker’s slowing revenue growth and the uptake of its AI Agentforce platform.

After forming a hammer candlestick pattern at the respected 200-week moving average (MA) last month, Salesforce shares had staged a countertrend rally leading into the company’s quarterly results.

Despite the bounce in recent weeks, the relative strength index (RSI) had remained entrenched in bearish territory, signaling underlying weak momentum in the stock.

Investors should watch key support levels on the Salesforce chart around $225 and $200, while also monitoring important overhead areas near $267 and $290.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

-Timothy Smith

What’s Next for American Eagle Stock After Sweeney Boost?

2 hr 29 min ago

American Eagle is trending. Celebrity endorsements have expanded its reach, and its stock is flying. But can it stay in style?

For the moment, American Eagle Outfitters’ (AEO) shares have completed a remarkable turnaround. They finished Thursday up about 38%, a dramatic jump that pulled them back into positive territory for the year so far; shares that traded below $10 in July are now commanding more than $18. (The stock does, however, remain below the prices around $38 seen in 2021.)

Some of the latest gains may be attributable to the enthusiasm of meme-stock traders, but upbeat results contributed to today’s move. At Aerie, its loungewear and undergarment label, comparable sales rose 3% year-over-year for the quarter ended Aug. 2, while American Eagle’s fell 3%. Companywide, American Eagle reported $1.3 billion in revenue—down 1% from last year, but above analysts’ expectations. 

There’s reason to trust the rally, according to analysts at UBS—in part because of the strength at Aerie, which can’t be attributed to the namesake brand’s campaign with actress Sydney Sweeney. That suggests, UBS wrote, that the company is making progress “not only because of marketing, but also because of much improved products and merchandising,” with room to double its intimate apparel business at the expense of brands like Victoria’s Secret (VSCO).

American Eagle executives said the company is gaining momentum. The Sweeney spot generated sales from an “unprecedented” number of new customers, and a more recent collab with tight end Travis Kelce is also selling well, they said on a conference call Wednesday. The company had a record-breaking Labor Day and is seeing comparable store sales trend upward, it said.

But some are skeptical, and today’s rise has the shares above Visible Alpha’s current consensus price target.

“The jury is still out on whether recent trends can continue following a strong [back to school] season for most of the industry,” Bank of America analysts wrote Thursday. Others vying for teens’ spending, such as Abercrombie and Fitch’s Hollister (ANF) and Pink, a Victoria’s Secret brand, are also seeing sales pick up, JPMorgan said.

“We see potential for inconsistent results,” analysts said in a research note Thursday.

-Sarina Trangle

What You Need to Know About the Next Big Crypto IPO

3 hr 24 min ago

Crypto’s next high-profile initial public offering involves a set of twins credited with being the world’s first bitcoin billionaires.

Brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who landed in the public eye through their early involvement in the social media platform then called Facebook, now Meta (META), plan to list Gemini Space Station, which operates the crypto exchange they founded in 2014, on the Nasdaq under the symbol “GEMI,” according to a filing. Gemini’s public debut looks like the next notable IPO to come out of crypto, following stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish (BLSH).

The company intends to sell some 16.7 million shares at a range of $17 to $19, indicating a market valuation of $2.1 billion at the midpoint, the filing showed. At that price, the company is expected to net roughly $272 million in proceeds. Tyler will be Gemini’s CEO, and Cameron its president.

Gemini is among the more well-known crypto exchanges in the U.S., competing with the largest, Coinbase (COIN); the oldest, Kraken; and more recent entrants like Robinhood (HOOD). The company said crypto’s total addressable market could expand over the next decades, capturing “multi-trillion-dollar opportunities,” according to its filing.

Like its rivals, the company makes money on transaction fees when users trade on the platform or use it to hold their digital assets, and via ancillary businesses that include the Gemini dollar (GUSDUSD) stablecoin and a credit card. Bitcoin and ether accounted for 74% and 14%, respectively, of the $18.2 billion of assets on the platform as of June 30, according to the firm. The company generated $68.6 million in revenue and a net loss of $282.5 million in the first half of the year.

Gemini has had about $285 billion of total trading volume over its lifetime through the end of July. For context, while not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, the much larger Coinbase had about $237 billion in trading volume in their most recent quarter.

Read the full article here.

-Crystal Kim

What to Expect From the Jobs Report on Friday

4 hr 15 min ago

The job market continued to sputter along in its recent low-hiring, low-firing limbo, if forecasts are on target.

Economists predict that a report on Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will show the economy continuing its recent trend of relatively low job growth. Employers likely added 75,000 jobs in August, a slight uptick from the anemic 73,000 added in July, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

They also expect the unemployment rate to rise to 4.3% from the prior month’s 4.2% level.

Friday’s jobs report comes at a crucial time for the economy and the outlook for interest rates. The July edition caused economic and political shockwaves by showing a sharp slowdown in job growth and steep downward revisions to job growth estimates for May and June. The August report could shed fresh light on how much President Donald Trump’s tariffs are dragging down the hiring market and the overall economy.

The report could also be pivotal for the Federal Reserve, which will use the data to decide whether to cut interest rates at the central bank’s next policy committee meeting in September. Fed officials have said they’re considering lowering interest rates out of concern that tariffs are slowing hiring and could cause a severe increase in unemployment. A lower federal funds rate could lower borrowing costs and boost the job market.

Although job growth has been relatively slow compared to previous years, the unemployment rate has stayed low, with some economists saying the workforce is growing more slowly because of Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Financial markets currently widely expect the Fed to cut the Fed funds rate from its current range of 4.25% to 4.5%. But that expectation could change if the job market rebounds and inflation worsens.

However, that may be a high bar to clear. An addition of 225,000 jobs in August would likely be enough job growth to ease the Fed’s concerns about the labor market and push policymakers to keep interest rates high, Michael T. Gapen, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a commentary. That would be the fastest job growth since December 2024.

Fed officials have been caught between their two-sided objective, given to them by Congress, of keeping inflation low and employment high. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested in a major policy speech this month that the job market was becoming more of a concern than it had been earlier this year.

Read the full article here.

-Diccon Hyatt

Spirit Airlines Rivals Are Circling Like Sharks

5 hr 3 min ago

Spirit Airlines’ prospects are so dire that a rival carrier explicitly talked about its potential demise when announcing targeted new routes.

United Airlines (UAL) on Thursday put out a press release touting its expanded winter schedule, including new routes between its hub in Newark, N.J., and Columbia, S.C., and Chattanooga, Tenn., beginning in early January.

What’s noteworthy isn’t just that Columbia and Chattanooga are cities Spirit flies to, but that United explicitly addressed the elephant in the room: Spirit might not be operating much longer. Last Friday, just a couple weeks after Spirit warned that it could run out of money within the next 12 months, the carrier filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year.

“If Spirit suddenly goes out of business it will be incredibly disruptive, so we’re adding these flights to give their customers other options if they want or need them,” said Patrick Quayle, United senior vice president of global network planning and alliances.

“While we appreciate the obsession certain airline executives have with us, we’re focused on competing and running a great operation,” said Duncan Dee, Spirit’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications. “Suggesting anything else is wishful thinking on the part of a high-cost airline looking to eliminate a low-cost competitor so they can fulfill their ultimate goal of charging American travelers the highest fares possible to visit the people and places they love.”

United wasn’t the first rival to go after Spirit’s customers in recent weeks. Frontier Airlines, a unit of Frontier Group Holdings (ULCC), last week called itself “America’s Low Fare Airline” and announced 20 new routes, including 16 serving Spirit focus cities Baltimore, Detroit, and Houston.

Frontier has been needling rival airlines for some time now. Back in March, it issued a press release headlined “Frontier Airlines Is Ready to Be Your New Love”—nodding at the ticker symbol of Southwest Airlines (LUV), which was getting rid of its decades-long “bags fly free” policy, and offering a free checked bag with a promo code.

On Wednesday, Spirit’s parent, Spirit Aviation Holdings, said it had received bankruptcy court approval to enable it “to continue operating as usual, including honoring tickets, reservations, credits and loyalty points; paying wages and honoring benefits; and paying certain critical vendors and partners for goods and services delivered prior to the filing date.”

-Aaron Rennie

One Way to Play a Possible Broadcom Post-Earnings Surge

6 hr 17 min ago

Broadcom (AVGO) is slated to post quarterly results after the bell on Thursday, and at least one analyst sees an attractive way to bet on a post-earnings stock surge.

Broadcom shares are expected to move nearly 6% in either direction between Thursday’s open and Friday’s close, according to options pricing data. A move of that size would put shares at either an all-time high of $320 or, on the downside, about $285, which would be its lowest close since late July. 

Still, 6% is a modest change for Broadcom stock. Shares moved an average of 7.4% after earnings over the past three years, and 12.1% in the past four quarters. The relatively muted move implied by options pricing is one reason JPMorgan strategist Bram Kaplan on Thursday endorsed using derivatives to stake a bullish bet on Broadcom’s earnings.

 “Call skew on AVGO appears flat,” wrote Kaplan on Thursday, “leading us to favor upside call spreads on AVGO into earnings.” An upside call spread entails simultaneously buying call options at one strike price and selling the same number at a higher strike price. Kaplan recommended buying for $1.80 a $320-$330 call spread on contracts expiring Friday.

Broadcom is JPMorgan analysts’ top semiconductor pick, “given its exposure to AI infrastructure spending trends combined with its diversified end market exposure and best-in-class gross, operating, and free cash flow margins,” according to Kaplan. 

The firm predicts a beat-and-raise quarter from Broadcom, with AI revenue expected to surpass the Wall Street consensus of $5.1 billion and fall somewhere between $5.2 billion and $5.4 billion. They also expect guidance to easily exceed expectations. 

JPMorgan’s not alone in liking the stock. All 14 of the analysts tracked by Visible Alpha with current assessments of Broadcom stock rate it a “Buy.” Their average price target of $320.55 represents 6% upside from Wednesday’s close. 

Broadcom’s report comes a week after AI chip leader Nvidia’s (NVDA) slightly better-than-expected results showed that demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, like Broadcom’s chips and networking equipment, remains robust. As with Nvidia, investors will be eager to hear how Broadcom is navigating tensions between the U.S. and China, since the Asian country accounted for about a fifth of Broadcom’s revenue last year.

Broadcom shares were up about 1% in recent trading and have gained 32% since the start of the year.

-Colin Laidley

T. Rowe Price Jumps on Goldman Collaboration

7 hr 52 min ago

T. Rowe Price (TROW) shares surged Thursday as the investment manager teamed up with financial giant Goldman Sachs (GS) to offer clients public-private investment solutions.

The firms said the collaboration would focus on “providing a range of wealth and retirement offerings that incorporate access to private markets for individuals, financial advisors, plan sponsors, and plan participants.”

As part of the arrangement, Goldman Sachs plans to buy as much as $1 billion worth of T. Rowe Price stock, with the intention of holding up to a 3.5% stake. 

“With Goldman Sachs’ decades of leadership innovating across public and private markets and T. Rowe Price’s expertise in active investing, clients can invest confidently in the new opportunities for retirement savings and wealth creation,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said.

The companies expect to launch the offerings in the middle of next year. 

T. Rowe Price shares were up 6% recently, pacing S&P 500 advancers. Even with today’s advance, shares of T. Rowe Price remain slightly negative for the year.

Goldman Sachs shares, which were up about 1% in recent trading, are nearly 30% higher year-to-date.

-Bill McColl

C3.ai Drops as Company Replaces CEO, Withdraws Outlook

9 hr 11 min ago

Shares of C3.ai (AI) fell Thursday, a day after the artificial intelligence software provider announced that it had replaced its CEO, posted weak results and withdrew its guidance.

The company said Stephen Ehikian replaced Thomas Siebel as of Sept. 1. C3.ai called Ehikian a “recognized innovator in the enterprise software industry” who most recently held the position of Acting Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration. Siebel will remain as Executive Chair.

The company reported a fiscal 2026 first-quarter adjusted loss of $0.37 per share, more than double the estimate of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue sank 19% year-over-year to $70.3 million, also way short of forecasts.

Siebel pointed to two factors behind the poor performance. The first was the disruptive effect of the company’s reorganization, with new sales and services leadership. The second was that he dealt with “a number of unanticipated health issues,” which “prevented me from participating in the sales process as actively as I have in the past.” Siebel noted that his involvement in sales “may have had a greater impact than I previously thought.”

C3.ai anticipates a current-quarter adjusted loss from operations of $49.5 million to $57.5 million, bigger than what analysts expected. It also withdrew its full-year outlook, “given the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer and the recent restructuring of the sales and services organizations.”

Wedbush wrote to clients that even with a new CEO, “the company still has significant hurdles to overcome to regain the Street’s confidence given the weakness in its operational performance following the sales restructuring.” The analysts maintained their “outperform” rating, but lowered the price target to $20 from $23, “reflecting a lower multiple as the company looks to reverse its current path with new leadership at the helm.”

C3.ai shares recently were down more than 4% at around $16, trading at their lowest level since early 2023. 

-Bill McColl

What’s Next for Apple on AI?

10 hr 9 min ago

Apple appears to have lost more AI talent, fueling worries about its progress with the emerging technology. Wall Street doesn’t expect its iPhone 17 launch next week to change that, and some think any enthusiasm for the event could mean a chance to sell the stock.

Apple’s (AAPL) lead AI researcher for robotics, Jian Zhang, has left the company to join Meta (META), Bloomberg reported Tuesday. That would mark the latest in a string of exits, bringing the tally of recent moves from the company’s Foundation Models team—responsible for Apple Intelligence, the AI system built into its devices—to some 10 members, the report said. (Apple and Meta didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for publication.)

The report reinforced some investors’ concern that the iPhone maker lags peers in the space. The Apple iPhone 17 launch event, set for next week, might not fix that impression. 

The company has said the event, set to kick off Monday at 7 a.m. ET, will be “awe dropping.” (You’ll be able to watch the streamed event here.) Analysts have suggested it could focus on improvements that wouldn’t change the company’s AI trajectory.

Bank of America analysts told clients last week that they’ll be on the lookout for new AI enhancements, but that investors’ expectations are fairly muted ahead of what could be a “sell-the-news” event, anticipating largely form-factor improvements such as a thinner phone with a better front camera, and an updated Apple Watch portfolio.

Goldman Sachs and Citi analysts echoed those sentiments, with Citi suggesting product launches next year could drive stronger demand, after a series of delays in highly anticipated features like an AI-enhanced Siri.

At the company’s developers conference in June, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said the AI Siri features “need more time to reach our high quality bar,” and that more information would be released “in the coming year” following reports they may not be available until 2026.

The iPhone maker had previously suggested they would become available earlier this spring, after teasing them at its developers conference last year, where it unveiled its Apple Intelligence. At the time, Apple’s stock surged on excitement about Apple’s AI story, but that early AI momentum has faded while investors wait for more signs of progress—or an acquisition, after CEO Tim Cook recently told investors Apple would consider buying other companies to boost its AI capabilities.

Bloomberg reported late Wednesday that Apple is currently working on developing a new AI-powered system called “World Knowledge Answers” for launch next year, with plans to integrate it into Siri as part of the delayed revamp, along with its Safari internet browser, among other things.

Apple shares were up slightly in early trading after gaining nearly 4% yesterday on the heels of a favorable antitrust ruling for Google that would allow the iPhone maker to continue receiving payments for preloading Google search products in Apple devices.

The stock has lost roughly 4% this year so far, making it the only member of the Magnificent Seven in the red for 2025 besides Tesla (TSLA).

-Kara Greenberg

Salesforce Shares Tumble on Soft Guidance

11 hr 9 min ago

Salesforce (CRM) shares fell sharply in premarket trading Thursday, a day after CEO Marc Benioff called the customer-relationship software firm’s soft current-quarter outlook “appropriately conservative.”

After the bell Wednesday, Salesforce reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.91 on revenue that increased 10% year-over-year to $10.24 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha were looking for $2.78 and $10.14 billion, respectively.

However, the San Francisco-based firm forecast third-quarter GAAP EPS between $1.60 and $1.62 and revenue between $10.24 billion and $10.29 billion, and analysts were expecting $1.83 and $10.29 billion, respectively. Its adjusted EPS forecast of $2.84 to $2.86 came in a tick above estimates.

“Our results are absolutely fantastic and our guidance is also, you know, is always appropriately conservative,” Benioff told CNBC’s Jim Cramer Wednesday.

Salesforce shares, a Dow component, were down nearly 7% in recent trading. Through Wednesday’s close, the stock was down 23% in 2025.

-Nisha Gopalan

S&P 500, Nasdaq Futures Tick Higher

12 hr 6 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were fractionally lower.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.3%.