Stocks Rise for 2nd Straight Day to Close Out Volatile Week of Trading

Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Friday

2 hr 3 min ago

Advancers

• Akamai Technologies (AKAM) shares popped 10.9% higher, marking the best daily performance in the S&P 500 after the company posted better-than-expected sales and profits for the second quarter, boosted by strong demand for cloud computing and security products. Akamai also lifted its full-year earnings per share (EPS) guidance, pointing to a successful product launch and continued momentum in the first half of 2024.
• Online travel platform operator Expedia Group (EXPE) also exceeded top- and bottom-line expectations for the recently completed quarter, citing positive demand in international markets, and its shares jumped 10.2%. However, Expedia expressed concerns about macroeconomic challenges and softening travel demand, echoing recent comments from other online travel firms.
• Eli Lilly (LLY) shares were up 5.5% on Friday, adding to gains posted in the prior session following the pharma giant’s strong set of earnings results. Lilly benefitted from booming sales of weight-loss and diabetes treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro, and the company said it’s making progress on boosting supply to keep pace with growing demand.

Decliners

• Shares of Insulet (PODD) suffered the heaviest losses of any S&P 500 stock, dropping 8.8% after the maker of insulin management devices suggested new user growth could be lower than previously expected in the second half of 2024, despite topping second-quarter sales estimates. Revenue gains were boosted by a 26.3% year-over-year jump in sales of the company’s Omnipod device.
• Intel (INTC) shares sank 3.8%, extending an August downdraft the stock has endured since the chipmaker reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss last week. Along with the results, Intel announced a $10 billion cost-saving plan that includes laying off 15% of its workforce, but analysts questioned whether the initiatives will be sufficient to spur a recovery. On Friday, reports emerged that Intel postponed its “Innovation” event, originally scheduled for September.
• Deutsche Bank trimmed its price target for shares of Estee Lauder (EL), and the cosmetic company’s shares fell 2.8%. The maker of makeup and other beauty products is navigating a tough competitive environment in the U.S. and a challenging economic outlook in China.

–Michael Bromberg

Akamai Jumps 11% After Strong Earnings

2 hr 51 min ago

Shares of Akamai Technologies (AKAM) took off Friday, a day after the tech firm reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its profit guidance on higher demand for its security and cloud computing products. 

Akamai posted adjusted EPS of $1.58, with adjusted EBITDA of $408.9 million. Revenue gained 5% year-over-year to $979.6 million. All three beat consensus estimates of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

Security revenue rose 15% to $498.7 million, and compute revenue increased 23% to $151.5 million. However, delivery revenue fell 13% to $329.4 million.

Akamai now sees full-year adjusted EPS of between $6.34 and $6.47, up from its previous outlook of $6.20 to $6.40.

Shares in the company jumped 11% Friday to close at a three-month high.

–Bill McColl

Eli Lilly’s Post-Earnings Surge Continues

4 hr 43 min ago

Eli Lilly (LLY) investors continued to ride the wave created by the pharmaceutical firm’s powerhouse second-quarter earnings report. 

Shares soared for a second straight session Friday after Lilly posted profit and sales that exceeded analysts’ forecasts, and it raised its guidance, fueled by the excitement for its weight-loss products Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Mounjaro sales skyrocketed 215% from 2023 to $3.09 billion. Its sales were nearly three times larger than Lilly’s second-best-selling drug, breast cancer treatment Verzenio, which saw its sales jump 44% as it surpassed the previous No. 2, diabetes medicine Trulicity.

The company’s other weight-loss drug, Zepbound, wasn’t even available until November, yet its sales were Lilly’s fourth best at $1.24 billion. Together, Mounjaro and Zepbound made up nearly 40% of Lilly’s quarterly revenue.

Eli Lilly shares were up about 5.7% in recent trading and have gained nearly 16% since the earnings report was released.

–Bill McColl

Bitcoin Moves Mimicking Stock Moves

7 hr 5 min ago

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) briefly rose above $61,000 early Friday, riding on the heels of Thursday’s stock market rally, but the cryptocurrency gave up some of those gains to trade on either side of the $60,000 mark depending on where stocks were in afternoon trading.

The latest moves come after the cryptocurrency crashed below $50,000 for the first time since February on Monday amid one of the worst days for stocks in recent history.

Much like Monday’s price drop came in the midst of global market turmoil more generally, the price recovery and eventual reversal Friday has mimicked what has taken place in traditional equities markets.

Notably, bitcoin’s correlated movements with traditional equities markets have shown that the cryptocurrency can still act as a risk-on asset at times, despite the hope that it can operate as a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty.

According to Pearson correlation data from The Block, bitcoin moved more in tandem with the S&P 500 than gold this week, despite the “digital gold” nickname that has been frequently applied to the asset.

That said, many bitcoin holders were not phased by this week’s price action. “In crises, markets sell what they can, not what they want,” Strike CEO Jack Mallers posted on X on Monday. “#Bitcoin is down because it was the only market open to sell on Sunday night, not because the only fixed supply money we have is now less valuable.”

–Kyle Torpey

S&P 500, Nasdaq Trying to Avoid 4th Straight Weekly Loss

8 hr 36 min ago

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500, despite gains in early trading Friday, remain on pace to record their fourth consecutive week of losses. Over that time (as the chart below shows), the Nasdaq’s losses have been steeper as technology stocks have suffered most during the recent selloff.

Shares of Salad Seller Sweetgreen Skyrocket

9 hr 3 min ago

Sweetgreen (SG) shares soared on Friday, a day after the salad restaurant chain slashed its loss, boosted sales, and raised its guidance as it expanded locations.

Sweetgreen posted a second-quarter net loss of $14.5 million, nearly half of what it was a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA of $12.4 million was better than expected. Revenue rose 21% year-over-year to $184.6 million, also more than estimates.

The company attributed the revenue jump primarily to the addition of 36 net new restaurant openings versus the same period in 2023, which contributed $18.2 million.  Same-store sales gained 9%, pulling in $13.9 million.

Sweetgreen shares were up 28% in recent trading, near a 52-week high.

–Bill McColl

Paramount Rises as Company Announces Big Staff Cuts

10 hr 23 min ago

Paramount Global (PARA) wrote down the value of its cable-TV networks by nearly $6 billion, a day after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) also took a massive charge, as streaming services like Netflix (NFLX) continue to disrupt traditional networks.

Paramount also announced plans to save at least $500 million in annualized costs, and will cut about 2,000 jobs, or 15% of its U.S. workforce, the owner of CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon said in its earnings call.

Paramount, whose controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, struck a deal after months of talks to merge with Skydance Media last month, also reported an 11% year-over-year decline in second-quarter sales to $6.81 billion.

The company said, however, that it is on track for Paramount+ to reach domestic profitability in 2025.

Shares of the company were up more than 4% in premarket trading.

–Nisha Gopalan

Futures Point to Lower Open for Major Indexes

11 hr 8 min ago

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

S&P 500 futures are off 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures are down 0.4%.