Market Performance
The stock market continued its winning streak with another solid move higher. The S&P 500 increased by 0.8%, the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.0%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced by 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 gained 1.1%, all settling near their best levels of the session.
Key Movers
- NVIDIA (NVDA, Financial) surged 1.9% to $119.14, nearly 16% higher than Friday's close.
- 23 of the 30 Dow components settled higher.
- All 11 S&P 500 sectors registered gains, with communication services (+2.0%) and consumer discretionary (+1.2%) sectors leading the way.
Sector Performance
- The energy sector was a strong performer, driven by rising commodity prices. WTI crude oil futures rose 2.5% to $68.97 per barrel, and natural gas futures increased by 4.0% to $2.36 per mmbtu.
- The rate-sensitive real estate sector logged the smallest gain at 0.1% as market rates moved up slightly. The 10-year note yield settled three basis points higher at 3.68%, while the 2-year note yield remained unchanged at 3.65%.
Economic Data
Today's economic releases had minimal impact on stocks or bonds:
Today's News
Adobe (ADBE, Financial) reported impressive Q3 results, with a Non-GAAP EPS of $4.65, surpassing estimates by $0.11. The company generated $5.41 billion in revenue, a 10.6% increase year-over-year, and exceeded expectations by $40 million. Adobe's GAAP net income stood at $1.68 billion, while non-GAAP net income was $2.08 billion. The company also repurchased approximately 5.2 million shares and reported a Digital Media ARR of $16.76 billion. For Q4, Adobe projects total revenue between $5.50 billion and $5.55 billion.
Arista Networks (ANET) is likely to be the networking partner for Meta Platforms (META, Financial) in its massive model training cluster powered by over 100,000 Nvidia (NVDA, Financial) GPUs. The cluster, valued at around $2.5 billion, will train Meta's Llama 4 large language model. Arista shares rose 4% following this news.
Moderna (MRNA, Financial) plans to launch an mRNA-based vaccine for skin cancer as early as next year. CEO Stéphane Bancel mentioned that the company's factory is almost ready, and the product could be available in six months. The vaccine, mRNA-4157, has shown promising mid-stage data in combination with Merck's (MRK) Keytruda for high-risk melanoma. A Phase 3 trial is substantially enrolled, and discussions for FDA approval are ongoing.
RH (RH, Financial) posted a Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of $1.69, beating expectations by $0.08. The company reported $829.66 million in revenue, a 3.7% year-over-year increase. For Q3, RH expects demand growth between 12% and 14% and revenue growth between 7% and 9%. Shares of RH surged by 15.4% following the announcement.
Wells Fargo (WFC, Financial) saw its stock drop 3.5% after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an enforcement action against the bank for deficiencies in its financial crimes risk management and anti-money laundering controls. Wells Fargo is required to take corrective actions to enhance its compliance programs.
Unity Software (U, Financial) shares jumped 8% after the company announced it was canceling the Runtime Fee for its games customers and increasing subscription fees for its largest customers. The change aims to improve game development and strengthen partnerships with developers.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD, Financial) CEO David Zaslav expressed optimism about the company's long-term growth, citing a strong content portfolio and better distribution deals. The company expects to gain more than 6 million subscribers this quarter and exceed $1 billion in EBIT next year. Shares rose by 9% following Zaslav's comments at a recent conference.
Fortinet (FTNT, Financial) confirmed a data breach after a hacker claimed to have accessed 440GB of data from the company's Microsoft (MSFT) Sharepoint server. Fortinet shares fell 3% on the news, and the company is working to address the breach.
Amazon (AMZN, Financial) announced an additional investment of over $2.1 billion in its Delivery Service Partner program. The funds will be used for safety programs, training, and incentives, aiming to increase driver pay to a national average of nearly $22 per hour.
Micron Technology (MU, Financial) experienced a 5% drop in early market trading after receiving a double downgrade and price target cuts from analysts due to a temporary slowdown in non-high-bandwidth memory markets. Despite this, analysts expect the DRAM upcycle to continue into the second half of 2025.
Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) vice chairman of insurance operations, Ajit Jain, sold some of his class A shares for $139.1 million. Jain now controls 166 class A shares, with 61 directly owned by him.
Verizon (VZ) expects to record a severance charge of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion in Q3 2024 related to a voluntary separation program. Around 4,800 employees will separate from Verizon by March 2025, with over half exiting this month.
Snowflake (SNOW) noted that its top customers are shifting towards traditional large enterprises, making longer-term commitments. CFO Michael Scarpelli mentioned that the company has enough GPUs and will only increase them if revenue supports the investment.
GuruFocus Stock Analysis
- Berkshire Hathaway Joins the Trillion-Dollar Club: A Deeper Dive Into the Insurance Industry by Wall Street Horizon
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- Why McDonald's Recent Moves Could Propel Its Shares Higher by Muslim Farooque
- Mastercard Outpaces Visa in Growth With Low Volatility Risk by Oliver Rodzianko
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