Stock Market Live August 11: S&P 500 (VOO) Inches Higher Amid New China Trade War News
Key Points
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President Trump may demand 15% of Nvidia and AMD revenues on chip sales to China.
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Chinese media raise concerns about the safety and performance of Nvidia’s H20 AI chip, designed specifically for sale in China.
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Monday Wrap-up
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed at 584.54 Monday, down 0.2%.
Adobe Cracks
In less happy news, Melius analyst Ben Reitzes downgraded Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) stock to sell with a $310 price target this morning. Warned Reitzes: “The world is coming around to the reality that AI is eating software.” And “it could actually get worse” for Adobe as value continues to “shift toward infrastructure winners like Microsoft and Oracle.”
Adobe stock is down 1.1%. On the plus side, at least the Voo is back up — 0.1%.
Airbnb No Longer a Sell
PhillipCapital removed its “reduce” rating on S&P 500 component Airbnb Inc. (Nasdaq: ABNB) this morning, upgrading the stock to neutral with a $127 price target. “We expect modest sales growth through 2025, driven by stable travel demand and strong growth in Asia Pacific and Latin America,” wrote the analyst. However: “New initiatives like local experiences may take until FY26e to scale and contribute meaningfully.”
Investors are accentuating the negative part of that note today, however, and Airbnb stock is down 1.8%. The Voo is now also negative, down 0.01%.
Cummins Could Motor
S&P 500 component company Cummins (NYSE: CMI) won an upgrade to outperform with a $480 price target from Wolfe Research analyst Scott Group this morning. “Engine results remain pressured with a continued weak Class 8 truck market,” noted Group, but “CMI is delivering structurally higher margins and earnings,” and the stock trades for about a 15% discount “relative to select multi-industrial comps.”
Cummins stock is up 1.2% on the upgrade. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is up 0.03%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is up 0.1% premarket as investors digest President Trump’s latest shot in the global trade war (against China in particular). As London’s Financial Times reported over the weekend, the Trump administration may levy a 15% export tax on sales of H20 artificial intelligence semiconductor chips by Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) to China, and on MI308 AI chips from Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) to China, as its fee for granting export licenses permitting the chip sales in the first place.
The move wouldn’t affect proposed 100% tariffs on semiconductor imports into the U.S. It wouldn’t necessarily guarantee the issuance of export permits for the chips to be sold to China. What it would do is provide additional revenue for the U.S. government, and raise the cost of the chips in question when sold to China — or else eat into profit margins at Nvidia and AMD.In potentially related news, Chinese media reported over the weekend that Nvidia’s H20 chip is “neither environmentally friendly, nor advanced, nor safe,” and might contain a “backdoor” permitting it to be “remote shutdown” by… someone. Presumably sponsored by the Chinese government, the conspiracy theory would appear to be aimed at damping demand for U.S.-made AI chips.
Earnings
Earnings season continues this morning, albeit with mostly smaller companies reporting:
Meme stock AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) reports it broke even in Q2, earning no profit, but doing better than the nine cent loss forecast by Wall Street analysts. Revenue was $1.4 billion, more than the $1.3 billion expected, and AMC generated positive free cash flow in the quarter: $88.9 million.
Conversely, ammunition company Ammo Inc. (Nasdaq: POWW) earned $0.02 per share in its own fiscal Q1 when it had been expected to earn $0. Sales for the quarter were $11.9 million, more than $1 million better than expected.
Fruit company Dole (NYSE: DOLE) earned $0.55 per share in Q2, four cents better than expected. Revenue of $2.4 billion likewise exceeded expectations.
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