Stock market today: Live updates

It’s been a great week for eVTOL stocks. Although year-to-date, these stocks are still in the red, both Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation have logged double-digit gains on the back of positive news.

On Thursday, Joby Aviation, which hopes to become a zero-emission regional air taxi service, said it had completed a 523-mile test flight in California using a prototype electric aircraft powered by a hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cell system. This important milestone helped boost its stock nearly 28% this week.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Archer Aviation announced a partnership with Southwest to work on an air taxi service. That news comes after a flight test milestone Archer completed last month. Archer shares rose more than 15% week to date.

“These milestone achievements show that the sector continues to move forward to certification and first commercial service,” Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag wrote in a research note, adding that Joby and Archer appear to be making the most progress in the space.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

For this week’s market moves to be characterized as a rotation rather than a bounce, Wells Fargo analyst Christopher Harvey said there needs to be better expectations around earnings.

“We would embrace ‘rotation’ if we see stocks stop going down on bad news,” he wrote to clients on Friday. “For now, we remain concerned about earnings, especially for SMID-caps.”

A so-called “great rotation” needs earnings optimism in addition to expectations for lower interest rates, Harvey said. Though this week’s consumer price index reading delivered on the rates front, he still sees concerns around corporate financials following Delta‘s weaker-than-expected revenue.

“We see an oversold bounce, not a rotation,” he said.

— Alex Harring

Helen of Troy, the company behind brands such as Hydro Flask and Revlon, headed for its worst week in a decade and a half.

While shares rose in Friday’s session, the stock was still tracking to end the week down by more than 25% this year. If that holds through the closing bell, it will mark Helen of Troy’s worst weekly performance since January 2009, when shares tumbled just over 30% in a week.

This week’s slide comes after the Texas-based company reported first-quarter earnings that missed the expectations of analysts polled by FactSet on both lines. Helen of Troy also lowered its outlook for earnings and revenue in the full year.

With this drop, the stock is down more than 45% on the year.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Lucid Group surged 23% in morning trading following a nearly 8% gain from the previous session. The stock is down nearly 3% this year.

On Thursday, CEO Peter Rawlinson said in an interview with Bloomberg that “things are looking up” for the company, citing Lucid hitting a new record for its delivery numbers in the second quarter. He added that production for its Gravity SUV is set to start in late 2024.

Rawlinson also called that the company’s relationship with Saudi Arabia through the Public Investment Fund is the “perfect long-term” partnership.

— Sean Conlon

A shift into smalls caps and bond proxies appears to be the new emerging “pain trade” as clients anticipate a “higher-for-longer” rate environment, according to Barclays.

“U.S. investors we met were bullish equities and very long secular growth stocks,” wrote Emmanuel Cau in a Friday note. “Yet caution is mounting given high positioning, softer data and a high earnings hurdle – rotation into laggards on lower rates is the pain trade.”

He added that some clients have begun limiting their beta by adding staples and some quality growth names.

— Samantha Subin

Piper Sandler is raising concerns of a market correction in the coming months, warning that now is a time when “fools rush in” to the market.

Despite Thursday’s rotation into interest rate-sensitive sectors such as regional banks, homebuilders and solar stocks, the firm says there is not yet enough technical evidence to indicate that the broader market participation can be sustained.

“The melt-up in the SPX and Nasdaq was undermined by a significant deterioration in breadth, leading us to believe that the SPX is overdue for a 10% correction toward its 200-day MA/long-term uptrend off the ’22 lows. It is too early to “rush” into thinking that a sustainable rotation can be maintained as the technical evidence is not there yet,” chief market technician Craig Johnson wrote in a Friday note.

Johnson has his year-end target for the S&P 500 at 5,050, suggesting a correction of around 10% from the index’s current levels.

— Hakyung Kim

The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) is tracking for its best week since 2022.

The fund has added more than 11.5% so far in the trading week. If that holds, the exchange-traded fund will notch its best weekly performance since November 2022, when shares gained more than 12% in one week.

LGI Homes and Green Brick Partners led the fund higher with rallies of around 20% each on the week. Every stock in the ETF was on pace to close the week in the green.

This week’s climb has helped bring the fund’s year-to-date gain above 14%.

— Alex Harring

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed above the 40,000 level on Friday and hit a fresh record high. The 30-stock Dow originally surpassed the 40,000 threshold in May.

The Dow has added about 2% so far this week. The move comes as investors signal optimism following a softer-than-expected June consumer price index report on Thursday.

— Brian Evans

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Wells Fargo — Shares of the San Francisco-based lender dropped nearly 7% after the firm reported a 9% decline in net interest income. Wells Fargo recorded $11.92 billion in net interest income, a key measure of what a bank makes on lending, below the $12.12 billion expected by analysts, according to FactSet. The bank’s second-quarter earnings and revenue did exceed Wall Street expectations.
• JPMorgan — Shares slipped 2% despite the bank posting an earnings and revenue beat for its second quarter. JPMorgan reported revenue of $50.99 billion, higher than the $49.87 billion analysts polled by LSEG had expected. The bank’s per-share adjusted earnings of $4.26 also beat the predicted $4.19 consensus. However, JPMorgan had a higher provision for credit losses than estimated in the current quarter, which indicates that it expects more borrowers will default on loans going forward.
• Citigroup — The shares dropped more than 2% even after the bank reported better-than-expected profit as investment banking activity surged. Earnings per share came in at $1.52 for the second quarter, compared to $1.39 a share expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue was about as expected for the period as fixed income revenue dipped slightly.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Famed Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel believes Thursday’s proof of easing inflation should be more than enough evidence for a rate cutting cycle this year.

“The Fed should definitely cut,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday morning.

From this point on, Siegel believes Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is “teeing up a cut” on the horizon. At the very least, he expects that the July 31 Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting will shed some light on the U.S. central bank’s rate cutting timeline.

— Lisa Kailai Han

After Thursday’s major equity market rotation, the Russell 2000 is now up 6% on the week.

This marks the best weekly performance for the small-cap index this year and since last November, when small caps gained 7.56% in a singular day.

The highest week-to-date small-cap stock gainers include Morphic, up more than 75%; EVgo, up more than 37%; and SoundHound AI, up more than 33%.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Gina Francolla

History suggests that Thursday’s sharp market rotation out of Big Tech and into small caps could have some legs, according to UBS.

“Historically, when the market experiences a significant one-day rotation from large to small caps, the trend tends to continue for the following four weeks. When reviewing the top 5 instances, the largest 10 companies underperformed the rest of the market by -4.8% over the next month. Importantly, the S&P 500 advanced by 4.5% over the same period,” UBS strategist Patrick Palfrey said in a note to clients.

Thursday was only the second day since 1979 where the small-cap Russell 2000 rose more than 3% while the S&P 500 fell, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

— Jesse Pound

Stocks opened higher on Friday, with investors largely shaking off hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation data.

The S&P 500 added 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 100 points, or 0.2%.

— Brian Evans

The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) rose in Friday’s premarket, signaling small caps could be in for another strong day.

The fund added more than 1% before the bell. That comes after the exchange-traded fund tracking the small cap-focused index climbed more than 3.5% in Thursday’s session, marking its best day since November.

Thursday brought a rotation into small caps that sent the Russell 2000 higher while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped. Now, investors are wondering if this trend can continue, which could help the group make up some ground after underperforming this year.

— Alex Harring

Citigroup reported earnings of $1.52 per share on revenue of $20.13 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG forecast $1.39 in earnings per share and $20.07 billion in revenue.

— Brian Evans

Here are some of the names moving in premarket trading:

• Wells Fargo — The bank dropped nearly 6% after reporting net interest income that missed expectations. Wells Fargo also reiterated its full-year forecast of a net interest income decline of 7% to 9%.
• JPMorgan Chase — Shares shed 1% despite reporting a revenue beat for the second quarter. Revenue came in at $50.99 billion, versus the $49.87 billion expected from analysts polled by LSEG. The bank’s stock is up 22% already this year.
• Tesla — The electric vehicle maker slipped 1.2%, adding to the previous session’s decline of 8.4%. On Friday, UBS downgraded the stock to sell from neutral, a day after Bloomberg News reported that Tesla’s robotaxi event was pushed back to October from August.

To see more stocks moving before the bell, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

The firm said net interest income, which is a key figure for what banks make on lending, fell 9% to $11.92 billion in the second quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $12.12 billion. Wells Fargo attributed the decline to higher interest rates hampering funding costs.

Wells Fargo stock slipped nearly 6% before the opening bell.

— Brian Evans