Stock Gains Moderate as S&P 500, Nasdaq Poised for 4th Straight Weekly Loss

Eli Lilly’s Post-Earnings Surge Continues

15 minutes 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

2 hr 37 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

4 hr 8 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

4 hr 36 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

5 hr 55 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

6 hr 40 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%.