Stocks Retreat as Tech Shares Resume Slide; S&P 500, Dow on Pace for 4th Straight Loss

Medical Supply Firm Medline Is Set to Start Trading Today in Biggest IPO Since Rivian

7 minutes ago

Medline is set to start trading on the Nasdaq today, after the medical supply company raised $6.26 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in recent years. 

The medical supply giant, which will debut under the “MDLN” stock ticker, said Tuesday that it sold just over 216 million shares in its IPO at $29 per share, at the higher end of its previously anticipated range of $26 to $30. The company said it plans to use those proceeds to pay down some of its debts.

Medline, which sells more than 335,000 different medical and surgical products from protective equipment such as face masks to testing kits, said in a regulatory filing that sales have grown every year since the company’s founding.

Medline reported net income of $977 million on $20.65 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the year ended in September, up from net income of $911 million on $18.72 billion in revenue over the same period a year earlier.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Hut 8 Stock Pops on AI Data-Center Deal

42 minutes ago

Early Wednesday, Hut 8 (HUT) announced it was teaming up with Anthropic partner Fluidstack to build an AI data center in Louisiana. Investors are cheering the news.

Shares of Miami-based Hut 8 popped more than 10% in recent trading after it said it had inked a 15-year, $7.0 billion lease with Fluidstack for 245 megawatts of IT capacity at its River Bend data-center campus in Louisiana.

The deal grants Fluidstack a Right of First Offer (ROFO) for up to 1,000 MW of additional capacity at future expansion phases of the campus, Hut 8 said. Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google “is providing a financial backstop, which covers the lease payments and related pass-through obligations,” it added.

Last month, Fluidstack announced a $50 billion deal with Anthropic to build data centers in New York and Texas, “with more sites to come.”

“By integrating industry-leading counterparties throughout the project lifecycle, we are strengthening delivery certainty and positioning River Bend to set a new standard for how next-generation AI infrastructure is designed and developed,” Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said.

Hut 8 describes itself as “an energy infrastructure platform integrating power, digital infrastructure, and compute at scale to fuel next-generation, energy-intensive use cases.” Back in March, it announced a deal with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump to create a new Bitcoin mining and reserve business.

Including today’s sharp rise, Hut 8 shares have roughly doubled this year.

Amazon Eyes Major Investment in OpenAI, in What Could Be Tech’s Next Big Circular Deal

1 hr 29 min ago

Amazon (AMZN) could be set to unveil an investment of $10 billion or more in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

The companies are in talks for a deal that would see OpenAI buy some of Amazon’s custom AI chips, and that would likely push OpenAI’s valuation above $500 billion, according to a report from The Information confirmed by CNBC.

The talks reportedly started in October, after OpenAI completed its restructuring to a for-profit company with an agreement with Microsoft (MSFT), its largest investor, making it easier for OpenAI to seek funding from other companies.

Amazon and OpenAI did not respond to Investopedia requests for comment in time for publication.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Communication Services Is Worst-Performing S&P 500 Sector This Morning

1 hr 38 min ago

The worst-performing sector of the 11 tracked by the S&P 500 Wednesday morning was Communication Services.

The sector was down 1.1% in recent trading, one of four in the red.

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) led sector decliners, with a roughly 5% drop after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) said shareholders should reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid and accept Netflix’s (NFLX) $83 billion offer instead.

Other stocks weighing on the sector were those of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and Live Nation Entertainment (LYV), down 2.7% and 2%, respectively.

Jabil Leads Early S&P 500 Gainers After ‘Excellent Start’ to Fiscal 2026

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Jabil (JBL) was the best performer on the S&P 500 in the opening minutes of trading Wednesday following better-than-expected fiscal 2026 first-quarter results and an upbeat outlook.

The St. Petersburgh, Fla.-based engineering and manufacturing firm posted preliminary Q1 core, or adjusted, earnings of $2.85 per share on revenue that increased nearly 19% year-over-year to $8.31 billion. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected $2.68 and $8.00 billion, respectively.

“Fiscal 2026 is off to an excellent start, with Q1 performance ahead of expectations across revenue, core operating margins, and core EPS,” CEO Mike Dastoor said. “Our Intelligent Infrastructure segment remains a major growth engine, supported by accelerating demand across cloud, data center infrastructure, networking, and capital equipment.” 

For the current quarter, Jabil sees adjusted EPS of $2.27 to $2.67 on revenue between $7.5 billion and $8.0 billion. The midpoint of both ranges was above analysts’ expectations.

Jabil also expects fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $11.55 on revenue of $32.4 billion. Both figures also are above Visible Alpha consensus.

Shares jumped 8% early Wednesday and are up about 60% this year.

Here’s How Much Traders Expect Nike Stock to Move After Earnings Thursday

3 hr 37 min ago

Nike is set to post quarterly earnings after the market closes Thursday, with traders anticipating a big move from athletic apparel maker’s stock following the results.1

Current options pricing suggests traders expect Nike’s (NKE) stock could swing up to 7% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that size from Tuesday’s close around $67 would push the stock up to around $72 at the high end, its highest level in two months though still in negative territory for the year. At the low end, the stock could drop down to $62.

While up from their April lows in the wake of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement, the shares are still down about 11% year-to-date. It hasn’t been an easy year for Nike, which continues to grapple with a number of challenges as part of its turnaround plan under CEO Elliott Hill, who took over last October, and higher tariffs haven’t helped.

Nike topped sales estimates when it last reported results in late September, but noted that persistent uncertainty around tariffs was negatively impacting its business, and profits declined. The company said at the time that tariffs could cost it about $1.5 billion annually, up from a previous forecast of $1 billion.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Nucor Stock Drops as Steelmaker Issues Soft Q4 Profit Outlook

4 hr 10 min ago

Nucor (NUE) is “optimistic” about 2026 business conditions. Its fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter outlook, however, is dragging shares.

Before the bell Wednesday, the steelmaker said it sees Q4 profit of $1.65 to $1.75 per share, well below the consensus estimate of $2.16 of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said earnings “are expected to decrease across all three of our operating segments as compared to the third quarter of 2025, driven by seasonal effects and fewer shipping days in Nucor’s fiscal quarter.”

Shares were down 3% an hour before the opening bell.

However, Nucor added that “as we look ahead into 2026, we are encouraged by backlogs that are materially higher than they were a year ago at this time, reflecting continuing momentum in select construction market segments such as energy, infrastructure, data centers and manufacturing. We are also optimistic that monetary, tax and trade policy will lead to continued gradual improvement in business conditions for Nucor.”

Entering Wednesday, Nucor shares were up about 40% this year.

What to Expect From Thursday’s Report on CPI Inflation

4 hr 26 min ago

High inflation just won’t die. At least not yet.

A belated report Thursday is likely to show the Consumer Price Index rose 3.1% over the year in November, according to a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. That would be up from 3% in September and mark the highest annual inflation since May 2024. Core inflation is expected to have risen 3% over the year, the same as September, by the median forecast.

Inflation has steadily risen since April, when President Donald Trump announced steep import taxes against nearly every U.S. trading partner. Businesses have passed on some of the tariff costs to consumers, pushing up overall inflation even as price increases for some important categories unaffected by tariffs, such as rent, have cooled down.

Accelerating inflation would worsen the dilemma faced by the Federal Reserve, which aims to keep inflation running at a 2% annual rate and has failed to do so since 2021.

Inflation had nearly cooled to that point in January after surging during the pandemic, but tariffs have kept it stubbornly high. Some members of the Fed’s policy committee have argued for keeping the central bank’s key interest rate high to discourage spending and quell inflation. However, they have been outvoted by the majority, which has favored cutting rates to boost the faltering job market.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Lennar Stock Drops as Homebuilder Issues Soft Outlook

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A tepid housing market affected Lennar’s fiscal fourth-quarter results and current-quarter outlook.

Shares of Lennar (LEN) fell 4.5% before the bell Wednesday, a day after the homebuilder reported a Q4 profit miss and issued soft guidance.

Lennar posted adjusted earnings of $2.03 per share, below the $2.24 consensus of analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha. Revenue of $9.37 billion topped expectations of $9.13 billion.

For the first quarter of its fiscal 2026, Lennar sees new orders of 18,000 to 19,000 and deliveries of 17,000 to 18,000. Both were below analysts’ estimates, as were projections for average sales price and financial services operating earnings.

“Even as interest rates moved slightly lower in our fourth quarter, the overall market remained challenged,” co-CEO and Executive Chairman Stuart Miller said.

Lennar shares entered Wednesday down more than 10% this year.

Oil Futures Rise After Trump Orders Blockade of Sanctioned Tankers In and Out of Venezuela

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Yesterday, West Texas Intermediate futures touched their lowest level in nearly five years. Prices are rebounding Wednesday following a social media post by President Donald Trump.

WTI, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rebounded more than 2% to $56.40 after President Trump wrote on his Truth Social network Tuesday evening that he was “ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”

The U.S. last week seized an oil tanker full of Venezuelan crude, and has deployed warships and troops to the Caribbean as it looks to pressure the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro.

On Tuesday, WTI futures briefly fell below $55 a barrel for the first time since early 2021.

Stock Futures Rise After Dow, S&P 500 Fall for 3rd Straight Session

5 hr 39 min ago

Futures contracts associated with the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%.

Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.4%.