The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended the week on a positive note, with five consecutive days of gains. For the S&P 500, this marks a historic milestone, as it achieved five straight record closes. According to Howard Silverblatt of S&P Global, this has only occurred 57 times previously, with the last instance in July 2024.
With major earnings reports scheduled for the upcoming week, there is potential for both indexes to rise further. Here’s a look at the top performers and underperformers in the index today:
The Dow slightly outperformed the S&P 500 today, rising by 0.47%, in line with the small-cap Russell 2000, which gained 0.39%. Meanwhile, gold prices fell by 1%, and Bitcoin dropped by 1.91%. The Cboe Volatility Index decreased by 2.7%.
Sarepta Therapeutics’ stock declined by 7% after European regulators rejected Elevidys, its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, citing insufficient evidence of its effectiveness. Although approved in the U.S. in June 2023, concerns arose after a patient died from acute liver failure in March, followed by two more liver-related deaths recently. The FDA requested Sarepta to halt sales, and the company complied. The drug’s withdrawal is a setback for the DMD community, as no alternative treatment is currently available.
Vanguard recently adjusted its outlook for U.S. equities and bonds following an update to its Capital Markets Model. The model forecasts weaker returns, which are already being observed. U.S. equities are currently valued at the 99th percentile compared to Vanguard’s fair-value estimate. While many assets have entered overvalued territory, some, like U.S. value and small-cap stocks, are considered undervalued.
Health insurers have faced a challenging year, with Centene (CNC) reporting its first quarterly loss in 13 years and experiencing a 47% drop in its stock price this month. Similarly, Molina Healthcare (MOH) has seen a 44% decline. Higher medical costs and unfavorable loss ratios on government program plans, such as Medicare Advantage, have contributed to these struggles. Policy changes from the Republican tax and budget bill have also impacted health insurers operating in the marketplace or offering Medicaid managed-care plans.
U.S. indexes surged midday following reports that EU trade representatives anticipate a potential deal with the U.S. this weekend. This news coincided with a rise in all four indexes, including the Russell 2000, which had been declining throughout the day. U.S. President Donald Trump is en route to Scotland for discussions with European Union President Ursula von Der Leyen regarding trade.
Intel (INTC) reported a $2.9 billion loss and announced plans to cut 25,000 employees, leading to a 9% drop in its stock price. Retail investors also faced losses, with shares of QuantumScape (QS) and AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) each falling by 8%. Conversely, Deckers Outdoor, parent company of Uggs and Hoka, experienced a significant gain after exceeding earnings expectations.
T-Mobile (TMUS) is set to take over from Verizon (VZ) as the mobile virtual network operator for business lines in 2026, highlighting its strategy to capitalize on growth opportunities. The company has seen a 40% increase in its stock price over the past year.
Goldman Sachs (GS) reported that its Speculative Trading Indicator has reached an all-time high, surpassing levels seen during the Dot-Com Bubble and the Covid-19 pandemic. Analysts noted that while this may lead to short-term gains in the S&P 500, it could result in weaker returns over the medium term.
Investors are closely examining earnings reports from companies such as Charter Communications (CHTR), Boston Beer (SAM), HCA Healthcare (HCA), Aon plc (AON), Phillips 66 (PSX), and Centene (CNC). These reports provide insights into the current market landscape and potential future trends.
— news from TheStreet
— News Original —
Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Notches Fifth Consecutive Record Close as Vanguard, Goldman Warn On Growth
Closing Up Shop (for the Week)
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq spent the whole week in lockstep; five days of green.
But for America’s most-tracked index, its fifth consecutive all-time high makes history. Per S&P Global’s Howard Silverblatt, only 57 times has the index set five consecutive records; the previous one being in July 2024.
With megacap earnings on tap for next week, both indexes could stand to go even higher next week.
Until then, here are the index’s top winners and losers on the day:
Meanwhile, the Dow did the S&P one better today — or rather, about seven basis points better. It rose 0.47% today, in tandem with the small-cap Russell 2000 (+0.39%).
Gold fell 1%. Bitcoin was down 1.91%. The Cboe Volatility Index: -2.7%.
Sarepta Continues Declines After EU Rejects Gene Therapy
This morning, European regulators rejected Elevidys, Sarepta Therapeutics’ (SRPT) gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, arguing that the clinical trials have not proved that the treatment worked. The stock fell 7% today.
Elevidys, which U.S. regulators approved in June 2023, was the first therapy approved for DMD, a rare degenerative disease. But a patient died of acute liver failure in March, raising concern. Two more liver-related deaths in recent weeks prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week to ask Sarepta to halt sales. The company complied with the order.
A year ago the stock was trading at $150. It closed regular trading today below $12.
The company says additional testing could help it put the drug back on the market. For now the company does not have follow-up data available to make that effort in Europe.
Its withdrawal from the market, even if temporary, is a blow to the DMD community, since no alternative treatment for the disorder is available.
Why Did Vanguard Downgrade U.S. Growth?
In the wee hours of the morning, we wrote a bit about how Vanguard downgraded its outlook for U.S. equities and bonds after a running of its Capital Markets Model. The passive-investing giant is known to run this model from time to time and share the details with the investing crowd.
The model expects weaker returns — and they’re happening right now. Vanguard’s model compares the current Cyclically Adjusted Price/Earnings Ratio percentile relative to the fair-value CAPE estimate it has generated internally.
As you can see, U.S. equities are extremely stretched. Valuation percentile relative to the investment firm’s fair-value estimate is 99%. (Mind you, U.S. equities keep hitting all-time highs, too.)
Many assets also tipped into stretched-valuation territory over the month since the previous publication of the report. In particular, these are a large amount of U.S. fixed income, emerging-markets sovereign securities, and unhedged equities from outside the U.S.
Still, the model identifies that a lot of investments are still fairly valued. Some, like U.S. value and small-caps, are even considered undervalued at the moment.
Health Insurers Continue Messy Year
After reporting its first quarterly loss in 13 years, Centene (CNC) is up 5% today. But zoom out: It’s down more than 47% this month.
It’s not alone, either. Insurer Molina Healthcare (MOH) has been similarly situated, down 44% over the same period.
Private insurers are getting hammered due to higher medical costs and loss ratios on plans, particularly government program plans like Medicare Advantage, which once buttered their bread. Loss ratios measure how much an insurer spends for clinical services.
Centene and Molina have been particularly vulnerable; so, too, has UnitedHealth (UNH), which has faced controversy this year.
In addition, policy changes made in the Republican tax and budget bill are seen hurting health insurers that operate in the marketplace or offer managed-care plans for Medicaid.
Some companies, like CVS Health (CVS) — which owns insurer Aetna — are even planning to withdraw from selling individual health insurance. It has also made the decision to withdraw from selling health plans that lose money.
Stocks Rally on U.S. and EU Trade Murmurs
Not long after the midway point of the day, U.S. indexes started sprinting. The jump coincided with a report that EU trade representatives expect a deal with the U.S. could materialize this weekend. On the news, all four indexes hit day highs; even the Russell 2000, which had been down all day.
It’s still too early to say, but U.S. President Donald Trump is on his way to Scotland, where he is expected to meet with European Union President Ursula von Der Leyen and discuss trade. Trump said “we have a 50/50 chance, maybe less than that” of a deal coming together.
The meeting is set for Sunday.
Midday Movers: Intel, AST SpaceMobile, Deckers
Although there were dozens of earnings reports this morning, many of the stocks making big moves today are the products of yesterday’s earnings.
After Intel reported a $2.9 billion loss, a plan to cut 25,000 employees, and an exit from its European foundry business, the chipmaker is down 9%. It’s today’s most active stock and for the moment it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
Some risk-taking retail investors are also (likely) having a bad day, with shares of battery-tech company QuantumScape (QS) and satellite company AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) down 8% apiece.
The S&P 500’s one-time worst performer is up more than 11% today. Deckers Outdoor, parent of Uggs and Hoka, knocked its earnings out of the park.
With that, it’s moved from dead last in YTD returns to… #498 out of #504 in the index.
T-Mobile Chooses to Compete (With Itself)
When you think of Charter (CHTR) or Comcast (CMCSA), you might think cable. That’s an image they’re trying to reshape, with success.
While cell providers like Verizon (VZ), T-Mobile (TMUS), and AT&T (T) added over half a million lines in the first quarter, it was cable providers like Charter, Comcast and Altice (ATUS) that stood out, with 886,000 cell additions.
For a period, Charter and Comcast have relied on Verizon (VZ) to run their mobile virtual network operator for them, but earlier this week T-Mobile (TMUS) said it would take over that task for business lines in 2026.
T-Mobile, which has been known to identify these low-cost networks and make deals, has never been shy about jumping at growth opportunities. Aside from its Sprint buy in 2020, it also owns the fast-growing prepaid Boost Mobile; it also acquired Mint Mobile in 2024.
It’s up 40% over the past year.
Goldman Sachs: Speculative Trading Hits All-Time High
Per Investing.com, Goldman Sachs (GS) said in an analyst note that its Speculative Trading Indicator has reached an all-time high, surpassing even the levels seen in 1998-2001 (Dot-Com Bubble) and 2020-2021 (Covid-19 pandemic.)
It cited strong first-day trading in new IPOs, monstrous returns in retail-popular stocks, and more aggressive call option trading as signs of mania. It also singled out higher valuations, which it warns could hamper future returns.
Analysts noted that increases in the speculative indicator tend to be followed by short-term gains (3-12 months) in the S&P 500, but weaker returns over medium-term spans (2 years).
At the time of this writing, the S&P 500 is up 8.8% YTD.
Morning Earnings Reactions
Investors are parsing some of the morning’s earnings reports.
Charred-ter
Despite meeting analyst expectations, Charter Communications was hammered this morning, among the worst performers on the markets. It’s down 17% at the moment.
The results have also pulled at Liberty Broadband (LBRDK) (LBRDA), which is expected to merge with Charter, per filings.
Boston Beer Party
Young people might be swearing off alcohol, but it was no matter for Boston Beer, (SAM) which saw revenue rise 1.5% in the quarter, even as its shipment volume fell 0.8% year-over-year. The stock rose 9.3% on the news.
Meanwhile, the company did take a $5 million impairment charge as a result of “write-offs of equipment at third-party and company-owned breweries.”
HCA, AON, PSX and CNC report
Aside from these big movers, here’s the work from today’s largest A.M. reports:
Hospital operator HCA Healthcare (HCA) lifted its outlook as revenue and profit beat expectations; it’s down 0.6% this morning.
Insurer Aon plc (AON) saw double-digit revenue growth and a rebound in quarter-over-quarter diluted EPS; it’s up 5.6% in early trade.
Oil refiner Phillips 66 (PSX) topped estimates as its margin per barrel rose 12.4% year-over-year, moved by geopolitical uncertainty; it’s down 0.8%.
Private insurer Centene (CNC) reported its first quarterly loss in 13 years but the stock is 2.2%.higher.
Stock Market Today
Friday is generally a quieter day for earnings, but per Nasdaq, we’re getting 47 reports today; almost all of which will be before the market opens today.
Among the largest are hospital operator HCA Healthcare (HCA), insurer Aon (AON), and Charter Communications (CHTR), the communications-services parent of Spectrum.
In addition, investors can also expect some illuminative reports from government services contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) and car retailer AutoNation (AN).
Vanguard Warns on Growth
A month ago, passive-investing goliath Vanguard published findings from its Capital Markets Model, which showed that commodities, global equities, and U.S. value stocks could deliver the most compelling returns over the next decade.
It even made some fixed-income investments look compelling compared with U.S. growth, U.S. REITs, and emerging-market equities.
Yesterday, in a rerunning of its markets-model forecast, it eased up on some of its U.S. optimism, pointing to stretched valuations in U.S. equities. Notably, U.S. growth stocks are now seen growing at a rate barely beating inflation expectations.
Per Vanguard, here’s the 50th percentile range of returns for the next 10 years:
Over the longer run Vanguard sees domestic returns being a bit stronger. Over 30 years, investors can expect returns to be multiple percentage points higher on an annualized basis.
Vanguard notes that the outlook of the VCMM could change over time based on market conditions. The model’s perspective can be ascribed in large part to its assessment of the market environment and valuations, which we’ll touch on later today.
Uh, Everything All Right, Intel?
Intel (INTC) might have beaten analyst expectations and notched a small gain after its quarterly results, but investors weren’t in love with the story that new CEO Lip-Bu Tan laid out on the company’s 5 p.m. EDT Thursday earnings call.
After reporting a fifth consecutive quarter of losses — this time, $2.9 billion — the company said it would cut 25,000 employees and reduce its foundry investments. The stock pared its early gains on the news.
With that, Intel says it planned “to end the year with a core workforce of about 75,000 employees.” That will still be substantially more than foundry competitors like Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), as well as chip competitors Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA). Still, it’d be the fewest number of employees since fiscal 2009.
That would mean that 45% of the company’s workforce has either been dismissed or has abandoned ship since 2022, eliminating substantially all the job additions it made as it pursued its foundry expansion.