Biggest S&P 500 Movers on Tuesday
2 hr 29 min ago
Advancers
- Shares of First Solar (FSLR) surged nearly 23% after Wolfe Research upgraded the stock to “outperform” and raised its price target to $221, pointing to the company’s strength in the U.S. market. Wolfe Research said that tax legislation under consideration in the House of Representatives doesn’t cut solar panel taxpayer subsidies as much as had been feared, while also raising restrictions on Chinese-made solar panels, which could help the American firm.
- Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares jumped 16% after Raymond James initiated coverage of the server maker’s stock with an “outperform” rating and $41 price target. Supermicro has “emerged as a market leader in AI-optimized infrastructure,” Raymond James analysts told clients. The bullish rating comes after several analysts cut their price targets for the tech firm after it lowered its sales outlook.
- Palantir (PLTR) shares added more than 8% to close at an all-time high just above $128. Yesterday, Bank of America analysts raised their price target for the stock to $150, calling Palantir a “market definer” for companies looking to leverage AI.
Brenan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images
Decliner
- UnitedHealth Group‘s stock plummeted nearly 18%, making it the S&P 500’s worst performer Tuesday after the company said its CEO was departing and that it would suspend issuing its 2025 outlook. CEO Andrew Witty is stepping down for “personal reasons,” the health insurer said. Former CEO and current board chair Stephen Hemsley was appointed as his replacement, taking the role immediately. The company also said it wouldn’t issue forecasts as the medical costs of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries “remained higher than expected.”
Kent Nishimura / Getty Images
Dow and Nasdaq Almost Back in Positive Territory for 2025
2 hr 46 min ago
The S&P 500 closed Tuesday’s session in positive territory for the year, the first time that’s happened since early March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite aren’t far behind.
After two straight days of gains, the S&P 500 is up 0.1% since the start of the year. The benchmark index has gained 22% from its early-April low.
The Dow has narrowed its year-to-date decline to 1%, while the Nasdaq is down 1.6% since the start of the year. The Dow has risen 15% since hitting its low early last month, while the Nasdaq has soared 29% since its low.
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Why One Stock Sent the Dow Lower on Tuesday
3 hr 30 min ago
Soft inflation data and a major AI deal lifted U.S. stock indexes Tuesday, except for one notable exception: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the blue-chip index that for many is synonymous with “the stock market.”
Health care giant UnitedHealth Group (UNH) was the culprit behind the Dow’s 0.6% decline. Shares of insurer plummeted nearly 18% after the company said its CEO would step down for personal reasons, and suspended its full-year guidance, citing unexpectedly high healthcare costs.
The reason for the divergence in the performance of major indexes lies in the Dow’s peculiar construction. The index, composed of 30 of America’s largest companies, is price-weighted, meaning the stock with the highest share price has the greatest impact on the index’s level throughout the day. On the other hand, the S&P 500 is a capitalization-weighted index in which the companies with the largest market caps have the most influence.
The two indexes contain the same stocks—granted, there are an extra 470 in the S&P 500—but those stocks have vastly different weights within the indexes. Apple (AAPL), with its $3.1 trillion market cap, is the second-most valuable company in the world, and thus the second-largest stock in the S&P 500. But its share price of about $210 ranked it 16th in the Dow as of Monday’s close. That gives it less sway within the index than companies a fraction of its size, like the Travelers Companies (TRV), with its $268 share price and $60 billion market cap.
UnitedHealth entered Tuesday with the third-highest share price of any company in the Dow, behind just Goldman Sachs (GS) and Microsoft (MSFT). Thus, UnitedHealth’s slump detracted about 420 points from the Dow, accounting for all of its 270-point loss.
Today was the second time in the past month that a sharp drop in UnitedHealth shares single-handedly pulled down the Dow. The stock plunged 22% on April 17, its worst day since 1998, after the company reported weak first-quarter results and cut its full-year profit forecast.
Palantir Closes at Record High Amid Tech Rally
3 hr 47 min ago
Shares of Palantir (PLTR) closed Tuesday at an all-time high as optimism about easing tariffs has driven a broad market rally that has lifted artificial intelligence stocks.
The company’s stock rose 8% to finish just above $128, though it was even higher intraday; the stock established both closing and intraday records. The latest surge comes after the U.S. and China agreed Monday to slash their tariffs on one another for 90 days.
Tuesday’s gains more than made up for losses early last week following quarterly results from Palantir that may not have lived up to investors’ lofty expectations. Despite beating Wall Street’s estimates and raising its full-year outlook, Palantir’s shares dropped 12% the following day.
Palantir stock is up more than 70% in 2025 and over 500% from a year ago.
On Monday, Bank of America analysts called the firm a “market definer” for companies looking to leverage artificial intelligence. The bank said Palantir’s recent deal with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which came despite pressure on the body to buy from a European firm, “hints at the superior capabilities [the company] can provide customers.”
Their price target, $150, is well above the Visible Alpha consensus near $95.
Nvidia Returns to the $3 Trillion Club
4 hr 10 min ago
Nvidia (NVDA) leaped back into the $3 trillion club on Tuesday as its stock shot up following the announcement of a major deal with a state-backed Saudi Arabian AI company.
Nvidia shares rose nearly 6% to close just under $130. The gains put Nvidia’s market capitalization at nearly $3.2 trillion, more than every other U.S. company aside from Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL).
Nvidia on Tuesday announced a partnership with Humain, an AI subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Nvidia will sell Humain “several hundred thousand” advanced GPUs over the next five years, starting with an AI supercomputer powered by 18,000 GB300 chips. The announcement coincided with the beginning of President Trump’s four-day tour through the Middle East, the first major international trip of his second term.
Nvidia became only the third U.S. company to reach a $3 trillion market value in June 2024. The AI chipmaker’s path to that milestone looked very different than the two companies that preceded it, Microsoft and Apple. Its shares began a near-constant $3 trillion ascent in late 2022 when the release of ChatGPT sparked the generative AI boom.
It was around the time Nvidia topped $3 trillion that the stock’s meteoric rise gave way to a more volatile sideways drift. Still, it competed with Apple and Microsoft for the title of the world’s most valuable company throughout the remainder of the year before its market cap topped out at about $3.66 trillion in early January.
The stock has been on a wild ride since. The company lost about $1.3 trillion in value between early January and early April as Wall Street questioned both the economics of AI and how President Trump’s trade war with China would affect sales. The stock has rebounded strongly in the last month, driven higher by solid earnings reports from big tech and the White House’s softened stance on tariffs. Nvidia is set to report its first-quarter results later this month, on May 28.
Robinhood Jumps as BofA Raises Price Target
4 hr 36 min ago
Shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD) surged Tuesday after Bank of America raised its price target for the do-it-yourself online brokerage’s stock.
The bank upped its target to $65 from $60, implying a 13% upside from Monday’s closing level of $57.43. Robinhood stock rose 9% to close at $62.57 and has gained nearly 70% in 2025.
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BofA pointed to Robinhood’s ability to generate strong organic growth “without significant expense inflation.” The brokerage “is working on multiple sizable initiatives in parallel and only a few will need to be successful,” the analysts said. Those projects include upgrades to desktop trading platform Robinhood Legend, which launched in the fourth quarter of 2024, and an AI-powered customer service assistant called Cortex that is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025, BofA wrote
Nvidia Leads Chip Stocks Higher
5 hr 57 min ago
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and other semiconductor stocks surged Tuesday amid optimism about new partnerships and trade deals.
Nvidia was up about 6% in recent trading, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares were up 4% after the companies said they would supply semiconductors to Saudi Arabian AI startup Humain, as part of initiatives announced as President Trump kicked off a four-day trip to the Middle East, starting in Saudi Arabia.
As part of Nvidia’s partnership with Humain, which CEO Jensen Huang reportedly announced on stage at an event in Riyadh, the company said it will deploy “several hundred thousand” of Nvidia’s most advanced GPUs over the next five years, starting with an 18,000 GB300 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputer with Nvidia’s InfiniBand networking technology.
Meanwhile, AMD said it and Humain would invest up to $10 billion over the next five years to build out AI computing centers “stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States.”
The announcements come as President Trump reportedly looks to secure $1 trillion in investment and trade pledges from Saudi Arabia, with plans to visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well during his trip.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to an Investopedia request for comment on the chip partnerships.
Shares of Broadcom (AVGO), Micron Technology (MU) and other chip companies were also higher in recent trading, driving the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) up about 3%. Today’s rally extended Monday’s gains that came after the U.S. and China agreed to lower tariffs on each other’s imports for 90 days.
Supermicro Soars After a Bullish New Recommendation
7 hr 10 min ago
Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares jumped Tuesday after Raymond James initiated coverage of the server maker’s stock with an “outperform” rating and $41 price target.
The stock was up about 15% to more than $38 in recent trading, though even with Tuesday’s gains, the shares have lost over half their value from a year ago.
Supermicro has “emerged as a market leader in AI-optimized infrastructure,” Raymond James analysts told clients. The company has 9% of the $145 billion AI platform market, which could climb, the analysts said, adding that it leads branded suppliers, according to research firm Dell’Oro.
Earlier this month, several analysts cut their price targets for Supermicro after the Nvidia (NVDA) partner reduced its sales outlook, and pointed to customers delaying product decisions amid economic uncertainty.
Supermicro shares have been volatile over the past few months, pressured by downward forecast revisions, disappointing results, and worries about the company’s accounting practices. In February, the company narrowly avoided being delisted for delinquent financial filings.
Goldman Raises S&P 500 Target
8 hr 11 min ago
Goldman Sachs analysts are growing more bullish on the S&P 500‘s growth prospects after the U.S. and China agreed to pare back tariffs on each other’s imports for 90 days.
The analysts said they now expect the S&P 500 over the next 12 months to rise to about 6,500 points, up from a prior forecast of 6,200. The S&P 500 was just below 5,900 in midday trading Tuesday.
Goldman pointed to “lower tariff rates, better economic growth, and less recession risk than we previously expected,” for the shift. The Trump administration’s agreement with China will reduce the levy on Chinese imports to 30% from 145% by Wednesday, while Beijing’s tariffs on U.S. goods will drop to 10% from 125%.
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The S&P 500 has gained about 22% from its recent low point in early April. The benchmark index has nudged back into positive territory for 2025.
Honda Stock Drops as Automaker Sees Big Hit From US Tariffs
9 hr 9 min ago
U.S.-listed shares of Honda Motor (HMC) tumbled Tuesday morning after the Japanese automaker warned it will have a significant drop in profit because of uncertainty over new U.S. tariffs. It will also postpone plans for a new Canadian electric vehicle supply chain as demand for EVs slides.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, Honda sees net profit slumping 70% year-over-year to 250.0 billion yen ($1.69 billion). It expects operating profit declining 59% to 500.0 billion yen ($3.38 billion), and sales to fall 6.4% to 20.30 trillion yen ($137.27 billion).
Honda Director, President, and Representative Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe said in a call with analysts that the tariffs would have a negative impact of JPY650 billion ($4.40 billion) in the current fiscal year. “I think the tariff impact will continue to change as time goes by, and we have to think about these major changes taking place,” Mibe said, according to a transcript provided by AlphaSense.
Mibe noted that Honda was already looking at ways to respond, saying that “if the tariff measures are to be in place for a long time, then we will have to increase our production capacity in the United States.”
Mibe also pointed out that its plan announced in April 2024 of an EV operation in Canada would be put on hold for at least two years since “in North America, the EV market growth is slowing down.”
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Honda shares were down more than 5% in recent trading. Despite today’s losses, the stock is up slightly year-to-date.
UnitedHealth Slides As CEO Exits, Outlook Suspended
10 hr 41 min ago
Shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) sank in early trading Tuesday as the health insurance giant replaced its CEO and suspended its 2025 outlook.
The company said Andrew Witty decided “to step down as CEO for personal reasons,” and that former CEO and current board chair Stephen Hemsley has been appointed as his replacement, effective immediately. Hemsley held the CEO role from 2006 to 2017.
In addition, UnitedHealth suspended its full-year outlook “as care activity continued to accelerate while also broadening to more types of benefit offerings than seen in the first quarter, and the medical costs of many Medicare Advantage beneficiaries new to UnitedHealthcare remained higher than expected.”
The suspension comes weeks after UnitedHealth cut its full-year profit forecast while reported first-quarter results below expectations. The performance and reduced forecast led to a 22% share decline on April 17— the company’s worst day since 1998—that brought the Dow down with it.
UnitedHealth shares were down 13% in early trading, pulling the Dow lower. Other insurance stocks, including CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC), Humana (HUM) and Elevance Health (ELV), were also down sharply this morning.
Watch These Nike Levels After Stock’s Monday Surge
11 hr 19 min ago
Nike (NKE) shares inched higher in premarket trading after surging Monday on news that the U.S. and China would slash tariffs on one another.
The development was good news for the sports apparel and equipment giant, which generated 15% of its revenue from China in its latest quarter and relies on the country as a major global supply chain hub. Analysts at Jefferies recently pointed out that large companies such as Nike could see significantly fewer costs as trade discussions progress, despite having planned for higher hefty import duties, Barron’s reported.
Nike shares slumped as much as 37% between late February and early April amid concerns that tariffs could significantly increase production costs, leading to increased pressure on the company’s profit margins. However, a more optimistic trade outlook has seen the stock rebound 20% from last month’s low as of Monday’s close. The stock was up 0.5% at just under $63 this morning, after gaining more than 7% yesterday.
Since gapping sharply lower in early April, Nike shares consolidated within an ascending triangle before breaking out above the pattern’s upper trendline in Monday’s trading session.
Importantly, Monday’s move occurred on above-average volume, indicating buying conviction by larger market participants. Moreover, the breakout saw the relative strength index cross back above the neutral threshold to signal bullish price momentum.
Investors should watch crucial overhead areas on Nike’s chart around $63, $71 and $79, while also monitoring a key support level near $59.
Read the full technical analysis piece here.
Major Index Futures Mixed After Monday Rally
12 hr 19 min ago
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.5%.
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S&P 500 futures were off 0.1%.
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Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%.
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