The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished ever so lightly in the red Thursday, and major equity indexes generally limited losses at reasonable levels amid a confirmed market uptrend that began all the way back on April 22. Artificial intelligence stock Coherent tumbled on the stock market today after reporting second-quarter results. The stock issued at least three key sell signals for recent buyers.
Among new issues, Coindesk Indices provider Bullish gained 10% and notched a session high of 85, one day after its roller-coaster debut at $37 a share. On Wednesday, shares vaulted to as high as 118 before sinking to 68, a whopping 42% correction just in a single session. Bullish rallied furiously Thursday despite a 3% hit on iShares Bitcoin Trust, a popular exchange-traded fund.
Stock Market Today
At this point, it's too early to determine a new buy point for Bullish in its post-IPO life, based on the IBD chart reading methodology. Typically, the best IPO breakouts take place after a stock has formed a base at least 25 trading sessions long.
By the session's close, the Dow trimmed its opening decline of 0.4% to a loss of just 11 points, well less than 0.1%. As seen on a daily chart, the Dow Jones average formed an inside day, which is healthy. That is, Thursday's intraday high and low sat inside Wednesday's session high and low. This chart action indicated a lack of exuberant selling by institutions.
Late in the regular session, former Dow Jones industrials component Intel spurted more than 7% higher and on an intraday basis notched a five-month high. Its 40 Relative Strength Rating is still poor and well below the 85 minimum typically seen among leading growth stocks in the stock market today. Multiple news outlets reported the U.S. government may take an ownership stake in the chipmaking veteran.
This would not be the first time America has invested in struggling corporations. The U.S. government has bailed out key companies in the banking and auto sectors during past financial crises, receiving ownership in the form of warrants and debt securities.
S&P 500 Ekes Out Fresh Record
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 turned an early loss of 0.4% to a slight gain of 2 points, enough to notch its 18th record-high close of the year, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite eked out a microscopic loss of less than 3 points to close at 21,710. Early data showed Nasdaq volume climb 4% and trading on the New York Stock Exchange sank 14% vs. the prior session.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hold solid year-to-date gains, up 9.8% and 12.2%, respectively. At the session high of 44,890, the Dow industrials are up 5.5% since Jan. 1. The index rose 12.9% in 2024.
Among exchange traded funds, the Invesco QQQ Trust reversed a 0.3% morning loss to trade practically at break-even.
The Bullish Take On Bullish Stock
Bullish, based in the Cayman Islands, is a global platform that offers market infrastructure, information and data services for the cryptocurrency market. Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor whose successes include early investments in PayPal, Meta Platforms, and Palantir Technologies, is an early backer.
The company sold 30 million shares and granted securities underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 4.5 million shares. JPMorgan Chase and Jefferies acted as lead book-running managers of the offering.
There are no Wall Street research analyst earnings and sales estimates published for Bullish yet.
3:15 p.m. ET
Three Top Performers Lately
Returning to Coach brand handbag maker Tapestry, this stock was also a standout on the downside. But its action slightly differed from Coherent in at least one important way: The luxury goods giant rallied off its early-morning low of 92.62 to hold just above a very important price level, the 50-day moving average.
Tapestry stock, down nearly 16% in massive volume and the heaviest turnover since mid-March, still holds a stout 46% year-to-date gain. Hence, its Relative Strength Rating, according to IBD Stock Checkup, is still solid at 97 on a scale of 1 to 99.
In the meantime, keep space on your watchlist of top growth stocks for Micron Technology, Insulet, and new insurance IPO American Integrity Insurance. All three bucked the indexes' decline on Thursday.
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Three For The Watchlist
Micron, a leader in data storage technology, traded nearly flat and aimed at a fifth gain in six sessions. The megacap tech has etched a seven-week cup pattern. For now, 129.85 serves as the breakout point.
In its May-ended fiscal third quarter, Micron posted powerful results. Earnings gushed 208% higher to $1.91 a share as sales jumped 37% to $9.3 billion, likely the highest sales in a single quarter. Gross margin improved vs. the prior quarter to 37.7%.
Wall Street sees earnings rocketing 515% to $7.99 a share in the fiscal year ending this month, then leaping another 60% to $12.79 in FY 2026.
Micron's 98 Composite Rating on a scale of 1 to 99 is strong, reflecting solid fundamental, technical and institutional ownership metrics for Micron stock.
Meanwhile, American Integrity, rising 6% on Thursday, is near a 19.17 entry within a choppy base. The personal and residential property insurer went public at $16 a share on May 8. American Integrity has 19.6 million shares outstanding and a market cap of $365 million, squarely in small-cap land.
And Insulet, a leader in insulin pumps for diabetics, has been forming a base that for now shows an early entry at 322.80. In the three-month base, the 14.8% decline is bullishly mild and fits the mold of a flat base. This hints that fund managers have been reluctant to dump shares. That said, the 12-month 79 Relative Strength Rating could use some improvement. Ideally, focus on growth stocks with an 85 RS score or higher.
Insulet, up more than 20% for the year so far, also stopped its recent decline just above the 200-day moving average, a key long-term level of both price support and price resistance.
The company recently got included in IBD Sector Leaders, the most stringent computer-generated IBD screen for top growth stocks.
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2:02 p.m. ET
PPI Data And Comments
Early Thursday, the producer price index, or PPI, came in hotter than expected.
Wholesale prices in the U.S. rose 0.9% in July, above the 0.2% estimate, with an annual increase of 3.3% compared with the expected 2.6% rise. The core PPI, excluding food and energy, increased 0.9% vs. the 0.2% estimate. Finally, the core PPI had a year-over-year increase to a 3.7% reading, above the 3% estimate.
"Today's producer price inflation report casts serious doubt on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's claims that the Fed should be cutting rates by 50 basis points (half of one percentage point) in September," James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, wrote in a note emailed to IBD.
Knightley highlighted a 2% month-on-month rise in trade services that caused the jolt in producer price-level inflation.
Bill Adams, chief economist at Dallas-based Comerica Bank, commented that equipment selling margins "rose sharply" while vegetable prices spiked nearly 40%.
"Businesses were hesitant to raise prices charged to consumers last month, but the prices they charge each other are rising faster," Adams told IBD via email.
12:28 p.m. ET
Inside The Stock Market Today
The market's internals continue to flip-flop nearly on a daily basis. Take, for instance, the breadth of winners vs. losers. On Wednesday, gainers in heavy volume topped decliners in above-average turnover by a 7-1 margin, as noted on the homepage of MarketSurge. On Thursday, the action was diametrically opposite, with 435 stocks down and 70 stocks up, all in strong turnover.
As the Big Picture noted on Wednesday, small caps have gained some traction. But on Thursday morning, the Russell 2000 extended losses and retreated nearly 1.8%.
Crude oil futures were the standout in commodities, with light sweet crude near-term contracts up 1.9% to $63.80 a barrel. Oil prices eked out a gain after two days of declines. But gold, silver and copper futures all fell. The 10-year Treasury yield had initially held steady in the morning at 4.23% but then bonds sold off, sending the benchmark bond's yield up five basis points to 4.28%.
Apparel Firms: Clothed In Red
Going back to Tapestry, the company issued soft adjusted earnings guidance for the fiscal year ending in January 2026. One reason: Its Kate Spade luxury handbag, accessories and apparel brand suffered a 13% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter sales, to $253 million. Coach sales climbed 14% to $1.43 billion and helped total sales beat Wall Street expectations.
While fiscal 2026 earnings are now poised to come in at $5.30-$5.45 per share, the estimate at FactSet was aiming for $5.49.
The daily chart of Tapestry shows the 50-day moving average painted in red. Strong growth stocks tend to pull back to their 50-day lines after a nifty breakout and profit-making price run, then bounce sharply off that key technical level to resume their uptrends.
Related stocks to watch include Ralph Lauren, Capri and Louis Vuitton luxury goods behemoth LVMH. All three stocks fell in sympathy with Tapestry. Ralph Lauren slipped the most among the three names, down 2.5%. But all three stocks also rebounded off morning lows.
Lauren is also respecting its 50-day moving average.
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10:52 a.m. PT
Stock Market Today: 3 Key Sell Rules For Coherent
After a disappointing fiscal first-quarter forecast, Coherent marked its biggest single-day point and percentage drop this year. The laser expert also gave back all the gains and more from a recent breakout past a handle entry at 101.34 on its super-deep cup base. Finally, Coherent shares nose-dived below the rising 50-day moving average.
All three price-related moves triggered IBD-style sell rules.
9:56 a.m. ET
Nasdaq-100 Winners, Losers: Amazon, Strategy
On the Nasdaq-100 index, Amazon and Netflix were among the best performers at the market open. Amazon stock jumped 2%, and Netflix shares gained 0.7%.
On the downside, Strategy and AppLovin fell sharply. Bitcoin play Strategy declined almost 3%, and AppLovin shares lost 2.8%.
8:54 a.m. ET
Dow Jones Movers: Amazon, Nvidia, UnitedHealth
Inside the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Amazon, Nvidia and UnitedHealth Group were the among the early movers on the stock market today.
Amazon stock moved up 0.5%, on pace to add to its two-day rally. UnitedHealth shares climbed 0.9%, looking to extend its win streak to five sessions.
On the downside, Nvidia stock slipped 0.6%, threatening to fall further from this week's record high.
8:37 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Hot Inflation Data, Jobless Claims Fall
Early Thursday, the producer price index, or PPI, came in hotter than expected. The PPI rose 0.9% in July, above the 0.2% estimate, with an annual increase of 3.3% compared to the expected 2.6% rise. The core PPI, excluding food and energy, increased 0.9% vs. the 0.2% estimate. Finally, the core PPI had a year-over-year increase of 3.7%, above the 3% estimate.
Meanwhile, initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to 224,000 vs. 226,000 in the previous week. They were expected to rise to 230,000, per Econoday.
8:01 a.m. ET
Earnings Movers: Cisco, Coherent
Key earnings movers Thursday included Advance Auto Parts, Birkenstock, Cisco Systems, Coherent, Deere, JD.com and NetEase.
Shares of Advance Auto Parts declined 1.7% in morning trading, while Birkenstock lost 2%. Cisco stock sold off 1.4%, as Coherent plunged 19%. Deere stock tumbled 5%. JD.com shares moved up modestly but NetEase dived nearly 7%.
Stock Market Today: PPI Inflation Report
Due out at 8:30 a.m. ET, the Labor Department's producer price index, or PPI, for July is expected to show that wholesale inflation rose 0.2% on the month, with an annual increase of 2.6%. The core PPI, excluding food and energy, is anticipated to rise 0.2% in July, with a year-over-year increase of 3%.
Meanwhile, initial unemployment claims are expected to rise to 230,000 vs. a 7,000 increase to 226,000 last week.
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