Stocks Close Lower as Mega-Caps Slump Ahead of Nvidia Earnings

Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Wednesday

39 minutes ago

Decliners

• Shares of server and data center technology firm Super Micro Computer (SMCI) plummeted 19.0%, marking the weakest performance of any S&P 500 stock. The company announced on Wednesday that it would postpone filing its annual Form 10K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Supermicro’s decision to postpone the filing came a day after the activist investment firm Hindenburg Research accused the company of accounting anomalies and disclosed a short position in the stock.
• Bath & Body Works (BBWI) shares dropped 7.0% after the personal care and beauty product retailer reduced its full-year sales forecast. The company said that due to persistent inflation, consumers remain cautious about expensive discretionary purchases, leading to weaker demand for the company’s products such as fragrances and scented candles.

• The impact of inflation on consumer spending also dragged on shares of J.M. Smucker (SJM), which slipped 5% after the food maker missed quarterly sales estimates and lowered its full-year guidance. The CEO of the firm behind Jif peanut butter and its namesake jams said “selective” spending behavior had a particular impact on sales of sweet baked goods, weighing on the company’s Hostess brand.

Advancers

• Shares of Insulet (PODD), which manufacturers devices to help patients manage diabetes, notched the biggest daily gains in the S&P 500, jumping 6.2%. Wednesday’s strong performance extended an uptick posted in the previous session after Insulet received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Omnipod 5 wearable delivery system to be used by patients with type 2 diabetes.
• Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO) shares added 2.9% after Nephron Research upgraded the stock to “buy.” The provider of clinical diagnostics tests benefits from a strong pipeline in its digital PCR business as well as growing demand for quality control, blood typing, and diabetes products.
• Tyson Foods (TSN) shares gained 2.8% on Wednesday to reach a new 52-week high. Earlier this week, Zacks Equities Research highlighted Tyson as an attractive momentum stock, pointing to its strong recent performance and increasing earnings expectations.

–Michael Bromberg

Salesforce Jumps After the Bell Following Strong Earnings

55 minutes ago

Salesforce (CRM) delivered second-quarter results that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines and maintained its full-year guidance, sending the company’s shares higher in extended trading.

The cloud software company posted net income of $1.4 billion, or $1.47 per share, up more than 12% year-over-year, on revenue of $9.3 billion, up 8%. Both figures beat the Visible Alpha analyst consensus. 

Salesforce posted a record-high operating margin of 19.1%, a figure some analysts had their eyes on after the company’s disappointing first-quarter results sent shares tumbling.

The company maintained its fiscal 2025 revenue guidance of $37 billion to $38 billion, and upped its earnings per share projection by 1 cent to between $6.05 and $6.13.3 Wall Street is looking for $37.8 billion and $6.11 per share, respectively, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Salesforce shares were up more than 3% in recent after-hours trading.

–Andrew Kessel

Nvidia Slides as Earnings Top Expectations but Growth Slows

1 hr 4 min ago

Nvidia (NVDA) shares were down more than 5% in extended trading even as the AI investor favorite reported fiscal second-quarter results that came in well above expectations.

The AI chipmaker posted second-quarter revenue of $30.04 billion, more than doubling from the same period a year ago. Net income at $16.6 billion also more than doubled from the year-ago period. 

While handily exceeding expectations, growth has slowed from previous quarters. The projection for $32.5 billion in third-quarter revenue indicates a further slowdown in growth.

Nvidia’s Recent Earnings Have Sent Shares Soaring

2 hr 15 min ago

As investors await Nvidia’s latest quarterly report, it’s worth noting that the company has blown past market expectations in its two previous earnings reports in 2024, sending the stock sharply higher.

Shares jumped more than 9% on May 23, the day after the chipmaker reported record quarterly revenue and profit, and announced a 10-for-1 stock split. They went on to rise more than 27% in the following two weeks.

The company’s fiscal 2024 fourth-quarter results were even more explosive. Shares jumped 16% in one day, adding a record $272 billion to the company’s market cap. By the end of the week, Nvidia’s market value had increased by more than $300 billion, and within two weeks its shares had risen more than 30%. 

Berkshire Hathaway Joins $1 Trillion Club

3 hr 58 min ago

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A; BRK.B) rose in intraday trading on Wednesday, pushing the industrial conglomerate’s market capitalization above $1 trillion for the first time. 

Wall Street legend Warren Buffett’s holding company is just the 8th U.S. company and the 9th in the world to achieve the feat. And it is only the second company outside the technology or consumer discretionary sectors to hit $1 trillion, the first being the Saudi Arabian state-controlled oil company Saudi Aramco.

Berkshire ended Tuesday with a market cap of about $995 billion. To close above $1 trillion, the stock will need to gain about 0.5% on Wednesday.

However, due to the company’s dual-class structure, it’s impossible to say exactly at what price Berkshire stock will need to close on Wednesday to cement its spot in the $1 trillion club.

Read more here.

–Colin Laidley

Abercrombie Drops as Company Warns on Retail Environment

5 hours ago

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) shares plunged Wednesday after the clothing retailer’s chief executive officer raised concerns about the economy affecting the retail market.

CEO Fran Horowitz said in the company’s second quarter financial release that “we are continuing to operate in an increasingly uncertain environment.”

The comment dampened an otherwise strong report, with Abercrombie posting adjusted earnings per share of $2.50 and revenue up 21% to a second-quarter record of $1.13 billion. Comparable store sales rose 18%. All three were better than analysts had estimated. 

The company raised its full-year sales growth guidance to a range of 12% to 13%, up from the earlier 10%.

The stock was down 17% in recent trading, though it remains more than 50% higher since the start of the year.

–Bill McColl

Nordstrom Jumps on Strong Earnings

6 hr 23 min ago

Nordstrom (JWN) shares jumped Wednesday, a day after the retailer posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.

Nordstrom reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 96 cents on revenue of $3.89 billion, topping consensus expectations of analysts polled by Visible Alpha, and a nearly 9% year-over-year sales gain at its Nordstrom Rack discount chain.

The department store operator also said its full-year comparable store sales would be in a range of flat to 2% growth from fiscal 2023, compared with its previous projection of a 1% decline to 2% growth.

Nordstrom shares were up 5% in recent trading.

–Nisha Gopalan

Super Micro Plunges as Company Delays Annual Report

7 hr 44 min ago

Shares of Super Micro Computer (SMCI) lost nearly a quarter of their value in early trading Wednesday after the company said it would delay the filing of its annual 10-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The news comes one day after short seller Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the server maker and published a report that accused the company of accounting anomalies, among other issues.

“SMCI is unable to file its Annual Report within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort or expense,” Super Micro said in a press release Wednesday morning. “Additional time is needed for SMCI’s management to complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024.”

Super Micro Computer, which makes server technology and hardware used in data centers, has been a major beneficiary of the AI boom. As an Nvidia (NVDA) partner, Super Micro has shared in some of the gains made by the market’s AI darling.

After surging in the early months of 2024, Super Micro shares have languished amid concerns that more expensive next-generation AI chips could eat into profit margins. The company earlier this month reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts’ estimates and announced a 10-for-1 stock split.

Super Micro shares were down 24% recently, trading at their lowest level since January. The stock has fallen 40% in August.

Read our technical analysis piece, published late Tuesday, here.

Futures Point to Lower Open for Major Indexes

9 hr 38 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures were also down 0.1%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were also off 0.1%.