U.S. stocks closed a choppy session little changed on Thursday, erasing initial declines as Treasury yields eased off recent highs after the House of Representatives passed U.S. President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.35 points to 41,859.09, the S&P 500 lost 2.6 points, or 0.04%, to 5,842.01 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 53.09 points, or 0.28%, to 18,925.73.
Market Movers
IonQ is aiming to become the industry leader in quantum computing, envisioning an ascent similar to that of the biggest names in the semiconductor industry -- and it doesn't plan on doing quietly. IonQ up 36% on the news. Shares of quantum computing companies also rocketed higher with Rigetti up 26%; QUBT up 15%.
Meanwhile, D-Wave Quantum stock jumped 24%. The company on Tuesday had unveiled its newest quantum computer.
Solar stocks were plummeting as President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending bill narrowly passed in the House of Representatives early Thursday, threatening the huge tax benefits granted to clean-energy companies during the Biden-era. First Solar and Enphase Energy were the worst performers in the S&P 500 index, down 4.3% and 19.6%, respectively, while shares of smaller peer SunRun plunged 37%.
Nuclear-industry stocks were trading higher after Reuters reported that President Trump is expected to sign executive orders by as soon as Friday that aim to jumpstart the nuclear-energy industry.
In after-hours trading, shares of NANO Nuclear Energy, Centrus up 18%; Energy Fuels, Oklo up 14%; Lightbridge up 13%; NuScale Power up 12%.
Snowflake rose 14% after it reported fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings that were better than expected and revenue rose 26% from a year earlier to $1.04 billion. It was the cloud-based data storage company's first-ever $1 billion revenue quarter. Product revenue -- derived from Snowflake customers' consumption of compute, storage, and data transfer -- also increased 26% from the previous year to $996.8 million and beat Wall Street estimates. The company said it expects second-quarter product revenue of between $1.035 billion and $1.04 billion, higher than consensus of $1.02 billion.
Fannie Mae jumped 47% and Freddie Mac rose 43% after Trump said he was giving " very serious consideration" to taking the mortgage giants public. The companies have been under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency since the 2008 mortgage-led financial crisis.
UnitedHealth declined 2.1%, Humana fell 7.6%, and CVS Health fell 3.1% after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it was expanding its auditing efforts for Medicare Advantage plans to crack down on overpayments. "Beginning immediately, CMS will audit all eligible MA contracts for each payment year in all newly initiated audits and invest additional resources to expedite the completion of audits for payment years 2018 through 2024," the agency said in a statement.
Enphase Energy fell 20%, First Solar was down 4.3%, and Sunrun dropped 37% as the tax-and-spending bill would end certain tax credits for wind and solar energy by 2028 instead of a slower phaseout through 2031, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sunrun also was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital.
Nike was up 2.2% after the sportswear company said it plans to sell products on Amazon.com's U.S. site for the first time in more than five years. Nike stopped selling to Amazon directly in November 2019 to focus on its direct business.
Shares of Urban Outfitters jumped 23% after the conglomerate of apparel brands reported an increase in first-quarter earnings and sales. The company's three main brands -- Anthropologie, Free People, and its namesake brand Urban Outfitters -- each posted sales increases in the period.
Alphabet was up 1.3%. The stock rose 2.8% on Wednesday, bucking the stock market's slide, as investors -- initially cool to the company's new artificial-intelligence offerings -- warmed to its AI developments.
Analog Devices was down 4.7%. The semiconductor company guided for third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.82 to $2.02 a share and revenue of $2.75 billion, plus or minus $100 million. Analysts had been expecting third-quarter earnings of $1.80 a share on revenue of $2.61 billion.
Advance Auto Parts soared 57%. The company maintained its fiscal-year outlook after reporting a narrower-than-expected first-quarter adjusted loss.
Market News
Apple Plans Glasses for 2026 as Part of AI Push, Nixes Watch With Camera
Apple Inc. is aiming to release smart glasses at the end of next year as part of a push into AI-enhanced gadgets, but it has shelved plans for a smartwatch that can analyze its surroundings with a built-in camera.
Company engineers are ramping up work on the glasses — a rival to Meta Platforms Inc.’s popular Ray-Bans — in a bid to meet the year-end 2026 target, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple will start producing large quantities of prototypes at the end of this year with overseas suppliers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the products haven’t been announced.
