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Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq hit pause as hot PPI inflation data cools rate-cut rally
- US stocks closed the session mixed on Thursday, but the S&P 500 managed to eke out a record as investors digested a hotter-than-expected PPI inflation print, dampening optimism around a 50-basis-point cut in September.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell slightly, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose above the flatline to notch its third record in a row. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped below the flatline.
- Stocks wavered for much of the session as investors trimmed expectations of looser monetary policy after July’s hot PPI print.
- Meanwhile, crypto tumbled as bitcoin (BTC-USD) retreated from a record high and ether (ETH-USD) also pulled back from near-record territory.
- Intel (INTC) shares jumped 8% to a session high after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is considering taking a stake in the US chip-maker.
- On Tuesday the stock jumped after CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with President Trump, who had called for Tan’s resignation just last week.
- Yahoo Finance’s Francisco Velasquez reports:
- Read more here.
- Netflix (NFLX) shares rose about 3% on Thursday after the streamer announced it had doubled its overall ad commitments during this year’s US Upfront and finalized deals with all major holding companies and independent agencies.
- Amy Reinhard, president of Netflix advertising, said the results were in line with expectations, with brands eager to align with the platform’s upcoming slate, which includes the final season of “Stranger Things” and new seasons of “Bridgerton,” “Emily in Paris,” and “Nobody Wants This.”
- “We are committed to building a long-lasting ads business that not only drives impactful return on investment for our clients but also offers an entertaining and relevant experience for our members around the world,” Reinhard said in a company blog post.
- Netflix executives are doubling down on their ad-supported tier as a key engine for future growth. On last month’s second quarter earnings call, CFO Spencer Neumann said ad sales are showing “nice momentum,” with the company expecting ad revenue to roughly double to about $3 billion in 2025.
- The push comes as Netflix continues to grow its ad tier audience, which hit 94 million global monthly active users, up from 70 million in November. Earlier this year, the streamer hiked prices across several US plans, including its ad-supported offering, which is still among the cheapest options at $7.99 per month.
- Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters noted that retention remains “stable and industry-leading” while overall engagement remains strong. Recent price hikes, he said, have performed in line with expectations, reinforcing Netflix’s confidence in its monetization strategy even as the company keeps a close eye on broader consumer sentiment.
- Pras Subramanian reports:
- Read more here.
- Yahoo Finance’s Robert Powell reports:
- Read more here.
- Bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell 3% on Thursday, retreating from its record high after hotter-than-expected inflation soured expectations of a large rate cut in September. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated the US wouldn’t buy any more tokens for its reserve, but it wouldn’t sell any either.
- On Wednesday, bitcoin touched an all-time high record, surpassing $123,000 per token. Crypto rolled over after July’s producer price index came in much higher than expected.
- During an interview with Fox Business this morning, Bessent said US reserves of bitcoin amount to around $15 billion or $20 billion at today’s prices.
- “We’ve also started to get into the 21st century — a bitcoin strategic reserve. We’re not going to be buying that, but we are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up. We’re going to stop selling that,” he said.
- Expectations of Fed rate cuts, coupled with heavy purchases from corporate treasurys, have driven up the price of the asset this year.
- The cryptocurrency has gained 25% year to date and has rallied roughly 57% since the April lows.
- Yahoo Finance’s Francisco Velasquez reports:
- Read more here.
- Nvidia (NVDA) stock climbed nearly 1% Thursday morning after the company told Barron’s and Seeking Alpha that its Rubin chip is “on track” after an analyst at Fubon Research indicated the GPU could be delayed.
- The company did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance’s request for comment.
- “We think it is very likely that Rubin will be delayed,” Fubon Research analyst Sherman Shang wrote in a research note seen by the outlets. “The first version of Rubin was already taped out in late June, but Nvidia is now redesigning the chip to better match AMD’s upcoming MI450.”
- “We think the next tape out schedule will be in late September or October, and based on the tape out schedule, the Rubin volume will be limited in 2026,” Shang said.
- Nvidia said the report was incorrect in emailed statements to the outlets. Rubin is Nvidia’s next-generation AI chip architecture, the successor to Blackwell, and it was unveiled during the company’s annual GTC conference in 2025.
- C3.ai stock sank 3.5% Thursday, putting shares down more than 20% over the past five trading sessions.
- The AI software company’s shares have suffered since releasing preliminary results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2026, which ended July 31. The company estimated last Friday that it will see a quarterly loss of $57.7 million to $57.9 million on revenue in the range of $70.2 million to $70.4 million. C3 will report its full results on Sept. 3.
- Its preliminary results were “well below” consensus estimates on Wall Street and the company’s previous guidance for a loss of $23.5 million to $33.5 million on revenue of $100 million to $109 million, JPMorgan analyst Brian Essex wrote in a note to clients Monday.
- C3 has been mired in controversy over the last several years. In 2022, investors sued the company and its founder and former CEO, Tom Siebel, for misrepresenting the size of a sales team related to its largest partnership with energy company Baker Hughes (BKR). In 2023, short-selling firm Spruce Point Management alleged the company showed “signs of problematic financial reporting and accounting.” Then last month, Siebel stepped down from the role of CEO due to an autoimmune disease diagnosis.
- Since C3 released its preliminary results last Friday, four investment firms, including Oppenheimer and DA Davidson, have downgraded C3 stock to Market Perform and Sell ratings.
- Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating on the stock but lowered its price target to $23 from $35.
- “This was a brutal quarter and if C3 cannot turn this around darker days could be ahead,” Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients Monday.
- US stocks sank Thursday at the market open, after the latest Producer Price Index reading showed wholesale inflation climbing much more than expected — a negative sign for hopes of a Fed rate cut in September.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) sank more than 0.4%, while the benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell over 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) lost 0.25%.
- The Producer Price Index — a measure of wholesale inflation that tracks changes in the selling prices of US producers of goods and services — rose 0.9% in July, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, more than the 0.2% expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That was the biggest jump since June 2022.
- That’s after the PPI was unchanged in June and advanced a more modest 0.4% in May. Driving the increase in July was a rise in prices for final demand services, or services sold by businesses, which climbed 1.1% — the largest jump since March 2022.
- Producers also saw higher prices of raw materials businesses use to make other products, which rose 1.8%, led by a jump in prices for food and animal feed (in particular, the price of raw milk soared 9.1%). Still, that was smaller than the 2.6% rise in June.
- Read more here.
- Thursday’s hot PPI reading has shifted bets on the Fed’s next move a bit. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, a cut is no longer fully priced in.
- Yesterday’s odds:
- Today’s odds (as of 9 a.m. ET):
- So the bets on a jumbo cut have in effect switched places with holding steady.
- Here’s a look at the top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance this morning:
- Bullish (BLSH): The cryptocurrency exchange operator’s stock rose 5% in premarket trading after it posted an 83% gain in its first day of trading. The stock saw gains as high as 215% on Wednesday after it opened for trade at $90. You can read more about the Bullish IPO here.
- JD.com (JD): Shares were up 0.2% after the Chinese e-commerce company reported that net income fell by more than 50% year over year amid new investments into the competitive food delivery space in China. Revenue of 356.66 billion yuan ($49.73 billion) beat estimates, however.
- Deere (DE): Shares of the farm equipment maker fell 5% as quarterly sales fell 9% from a year ago. Deere also narrowed its full-year profit forecast, and profits for the third quarter came in lighter than expected.
- Cisco (CSCO): The networking giant reported earnings that barely beat estimates and results that showed Cisco benefiting from a boom in AI demand. Still, the stock dropped 1.6% in premarket trading.
- Check out live coverage of corporate earnings here.
- Bitcoin (BTC-USD) saw modest gains to trade at $120,807 on Thursday morning, but the crypto was about 2% off its record high of $123,500 on Wednesday.
- As Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré detailed, inflows into spot exchange-traded funds and public companies adding bitcoin to their balance sheets have been key drivers of this year’s token rally. Strategists also point to the Trump administration’s pro-crypto stance as a major catalyst.
- Meanwhile, ethereum (ETH-USD) prices traded near record levels, climbing 0.5% on Thursday morning to $4,722 per token, just shy of its 2021 record level of around $4,800.
- “We have stated multiple times we believe Ethereum is the biggest macro trade over the next 10-15 years,” Fundstrat head of research Tom Lee wrote in a note on Wednesday.
- When Amazon (AMZN) goes big on something, usually the stock prices of its competitors get beaten up.
- The latest example came on Wednesday
- Amazon announced plans to expand its 1,000-city fresh and perishable same-day grocery delivery to 2,300 cities by year-end. This is a huge deal for the grocery industry. Albertson’s (ACI) and Kroger (KR) — aka traditional grocers — saw their share prices fall.
- I think this is a big deal for the industry and for Amazon. The impact of Amazon’s move won’t be felt overnight, but just like the company’s impact on department stores in recent years, the aftershocks will be felt over time.
- Evercore ISI analyst Michael Montani with some good thoughts this morning:
