Market Movers

S&P 500 — daily market movers

Macro backdrop

All three major indexes rallied sharply on Thursday, one of the best sessions in a month. The S&P 500 rose 1.06% to 7,747.71, the Dow gained 1.18% to 53,686.11, and the Nasdaq led with a 1.40% gain to 26,584.06. The advance was driven by falling Treasury yields, an easing Middle East risk premium after Trump said U.S. strikes on Iran "wouldn't take too long," a reignited AI-software trade after Snowflake's earnings sent its stock up more than 20% intraday, confirmation of Nvidia's $12.9B Hugging Face acquisition, and Tesla surging as much as 7% intraday ahead of its evening Cybercab robotaxi unveiling in Austin. Investors were also positioning ahead of Friday's jobs report.

Top 10 gainers

  • 1. HOOD+16.57%
    Robinhood Markets
    Retail brokerage and investing app spanning stocks, options, crypto and prediction markets
    Rallied on a Deutsche Bank report flagging prediction-market tailwinds, a Scotiabank Outperform initiation ($136 target) and a Piper Sandler price-target raise to $145.
  • 2. COIN+10.14%
    Coinbase Global
    Cryptocurrency exchange and custody platform for retail and institutions
    Jumped after filing to launch U.S. stock perpetual futures, expanding its product suite beyond crypto trading.
  • 3. PLTR+7.71%
    Palantir Technologies
    AI and big-data analytics software for government and enterprise customers
    Rose after Maven AI-defense revenue surged and guidance was raised, with lingering U.S.-Iran tension adding a bid to defense-AI names.
  • 4. NOW+6.49%
    ServiceNow
    Enterprise IT workflow and business-process automation delivered as SaaS
    Lifted as Snowflake's blowout earnings (stock up over 20%) reignited the enterprise AI-software trade, pulling peers like ServiceNow, Oracle and CrowdStrike higher.
  • 5. PFG+6.47%
    Principal Financial Group
    Retirement services, asset management and insurance
    Climbed to a fresh 52-week high on analyst upgrades highlighting its stable, diversified revenue streams.
  • 6. AXON+6.15%
    Axon Enterprise
    Tasers, body cameras and cloud software for law enforcement and security
    Gained on a defense-and-security bid amid lingering U.S.-Iran tension, alongside continued momentum in a broadly rallying market.
  • 7. ORCL+5.69%
    Oracle
    Enterprise databases and cloud infrastructure services
    Advanced as the AI-cloud trade heated up again, with Oracle, ServiceNow and Snowflake rallying together after Snowflake's earnings beat.
  • 8. CRWD+5.68%
    CrowdStrike Holdings
    Cloud-native cybersecurity for endpoint, cloud and AI-driven threat detection
    Rode the broad AI-software rally and steady cybersecurity demand.
  • 9. TSLA+5.42%
    Tesla
    Electric vehicles, energy storage and autonomous-driving technology
    Rose ahead of its evening Cybercab two-seat robotaxi unveiling event in Austin, one of the session's biggest single-stock contributors to the Nasdaq's gain.
  • 10. HPE+5.04%
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise
    Servers, networking and hybrid-cloud infrastructure for enterprises
    Extended the AI-server hardware rally that followed Dell's blockbuster AI-backlog earnings a day earlier.

Common Themes

The gainers are dominated by a reignited AI/enterprise-tech trade: Snowflake's blowout earnings reignited enterprise AI-software buying, lifting ServiceNow, Oracle and CrowdStrike, while HPE extended the prior day's Dell-driven AI-hardware rally. Layered on top are same-day catalyst-driven momentum names — Tesla ahead of its Cybercab robotaxi unveiling, Robinhood on analyst upgrades and prediction-market optimism, and Coinbase on its stock-perpetual-futures filing — plus defense-AI beneficiaries of lingering Iran-conflict risk (Palantir, Axon). Principal Financial is the lone outlier, driven by an idiosyncratic analyst upgrade rather than the broader theme.

Top 10 losers

  • 1. CIEN-10.36%
    Ciena
    Optical networking equipment for telecom carriers and data centers
    Fell despite a Q3 earnings beat because only in-line guidance disappointed a high bar, triggering profit-taking across optical/AI-infrastructure names and dragging the sector.
  • 2. TSN-7.26%
    Tyson Foods
    Meat processing across beef, chicken and pork
    Dropped on a sales miss, declining volumes and a cut to its fiscal-2026 outlook, compounded by packaged-food weakness.
  • 3. CHTR-4.77%
    Charter Communications
    Cable broadband and pay-TV under the Spectrum brand
    Slid as broadband subscriber losses and a weaker profit outlook weighed on shares.
  • 4. ALB-4.06%
    Albemarle
    Lithium and specialty-chemicals producer
    Declined on soft lithium pricing and China supply concerns, with analysts staying cautious on the pricing lag.
  • 5. GIS-3.25%
    General Mills
    Packaged foods including cereal and snacks
    Sold off with the consumer-staples group after Campbell's announced a 36% dividend cut that spooked packaged-food investors.
  • 6. KHC-3.20%
    Kraft Heinz
    Packaged food and beverages
    Fell on the same staples/dividend-cut contagion pressuring defensive food names.
  • 7. DOW-2.94%
    Dow Inc
    Commodity chemicals and materials
    Downgraded by Bank of America, with oil-linked feedstock and margin pressure weighing on the chemicals group.
  • 8. BSX-2.94%
    Boston Scientific
    Medical devices spanning cardiology, endoscopy and urology
    Dropped as a disappointing outlook overshadowed the broader market's gains.
  • 9. AVGO-2.74%
    Broadcom
    Semiconductors and infrastructure software
    Beat on Q3 EPS and revenue but guided Q4 sales (~$34.8B) below the ~$35B Street expectation, prompting a sell-the-news reaction.
  • 10. LYB-2.72%
    LyondellBasell Industries
    Commodity plastics and petrochemicals
    Also downgraded by Bank of America amid squeezed chemical margins.

Common Themes

Three threads run through the losers. First, consumer-staples/packaged food (Tyson, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, plus McCormick just off the list) sold off after Campbell's 36% dividend cut rattled the group. Second, commodity chemicals (Dow, LyondellBasell, Albemarle) were pressured by Bank of America downgrades and oil/margin dynamics. Third, a cluster of 'beat-but-guide-light' tech and health names (Ciena, Broadcom, Boston Scientific) were punished for soft forward outlooks despite decent current results.

Overall read

Money rotated out of defensives (staples, chemicals, cable) and into the AI/enterprise-tech and retail-momentum complex, with defense-AI and crypto/prediction-market names catalyzed by geopolitical tension and analyst upgrades. The session showed a very low tolerance for weak guidance: companies that beat but guided softly (Ciena, Broadcom) were sold hard even as the indices rose.

Sources