The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed at 596.52 Monday, up 0.3%.
Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard upgraded S&P 500 component company Boeing (NYSE: BA) stock to buy with a $270 price target this morning. “The overall aerospace upcycle remains on track,” said the analyst, and “airline RPM growth looks likely to return to a more normal ~5%,” setting the stage for Boeing to outperform.
Boeing stock is up 0.7% on the upgrade, and the Voo is up 0.4%.
Phillip Securities analyst Serena Lim Yi Qi downgraded Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) (Nasdaq: GOOGL) stock from buy to “accumulate” (which also means buy I think) — and raised its price target by $30 to $265 this morning.
So is this good or bad news?
Well, Qi says “we expect GOOGL to continue benefitting from AI-driven product enhancement and operational efficiencies,” which sounds pretty good to me. Investors think it’s good, too, and are bidding up Alphabet stock 0.5% so far.
In even more space news today, satellite communications company EchoStar (Nasdaq: SATS) opened up 21.2% today after announcing it will sell wireless spectrum licenses worth $17 billion to SpaceX Starlink.
SpaceX will reportedly pay $8.5 billion cash, spend another $2 billion covering EchoStar’s interest payments to lenders, and trade the company a final $8.5 billion more in SpaceX stock for the spectrum.
EchoStar has been under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission for failing to utilize much of its wireless spectrum to provide 5G services for its Boost Mobile subscribers. The sale to SpaceX should get the FCC off EchoStar’s back — and put more money in EchoStar’s pocket.
The Voo opened up 0.2%.
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Last week saw exceedingly weak August employment reports from both private payrolls specialist ADP and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the latter of which reported that non-farm payrolls grew an anemic 22,000 net new jobs last month. Investors took the week to crush the numbers and figure out what comes next. Their conclusion:
The Federal Reserve will definitely cut interest rates by at least 0.25% when it meets two weeks from now. Then it will probably cut again in October, and a third time in December. The only question now is whether one or more of these cuts will be by 0.5%, instead of just 0.25%.
Investors like the sound of this, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) looks set to open for the week up 0.2% premarket.
Speaking of the S&P 500, on Friday after the close it was announced that two companies will be joining the S&P 500, and two others leaving.
Advertising software maker Applovin (Nasdaq: APP | APP Price Prediction) and mobile-first stock brokerage Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD) will join the index on September 22. Making way for these two stocks will be casino stock Caesar’s Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR) and broker MarketAxess Holdings (Nasdaq: MKTX).
Applovin stock is up nearly 10% premarket, and Robinhood is up nearly 9%. Caesar’s and MarketAxess stocks, in contrast, are both down marginally.
In earnings news today, Planet Labs (NYSE: PL), owner of the world’s largest constellation of Earth observation satellites, beat earnings by two cents this morning. Reporting the financial results for its fiscal Q2 2026, Planet said it lost $0.03 per share (but was expected to lose $0.05).
Revenue was much stronger than forecast at $73.4 million, and guidance for the rest of fiscal 2026 was similarly strong. Wall Street thinks Planet will do only $272.6 million this year, but company management says sales will exceed $281 million.
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Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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