Stock market today: Live updates

Check out some of the companies making headlines in Thursday trading:

• Adyen — Europe’s Stripe rival Adyen lost 36% in midday trading after the company reported worse-than-expected sales and a profit drop in the first half of the year, driven by increased hiring and competition from rivals. Adyen reported 739.1 million euros in revenue between January 2023 and June 2023, which fell short of analysts’ expectations of 853.6 million euros, according to Eikon data.
• Wolfspeed— Shares of the semiconductor developer dropped 16% following the company’s earnings report after the bell Wednesday. Wolfspeed posted an adjusted loss of 42 cents per share for its fiscal fourth quarter, missing expectations of a 20 cent loss per share, according to Refinitiv.
• Hawaiian Electric — The utility stock tumbled 15% and hit a new 52-week low as investors remained concerned about the company’s potential liability in Maui’s wildfires. The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Hawaiian Electric is in talks with firms that specialize in restructuring. 

Read the full list here.

— Pia Singh

Bank of America analyst Ebrahim Poonawala said in a note to clients that he came away confident in Wells Fargo‘s trajectory after a meeting with CFO Michael Santomassimo.

“Management sees significant cost-save opportunities across the franchise, which should keep a lid on expense growth and drive an improving efficiency ratio (WFC lags peers in three of the four operating segments) over the coming years,” the note said.

Poonawala also said that Wells Fargo’s excess capital should help the bank adjust to regulatory changes.

Bank of America has a buy rating and a $50 price target on Wells Fargo, which is 18% above where the stock closed on Wednesday.

— Jesse Pound

JPMorgan thinks Alcon’s recent better-than-expected second-quarter results will underpin forward growth.

The firm upgraded Alcon stock to overweight from neutral on Thursday.

“We acknowledge this reporting season has seen a lot of share prices in the sector struggle even with ‘beats & raises’ – but there had been a lot of anticipation built in elsewhere,” analyst David Adlington said. “The positive earnings’ momentum looks set to continue.”‘

Shares jumped more than 1% midday Thursday.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Hawaiian Electric shares are poised to close at their lowest price in nearly four decades as pressure from the Maui wildfires mount.

Shares traded below $12 midday Thursday. If that holds through the close, it will be the cheapest price since 1985.

Investors have sold-off holdings in recent days amid growing concerns about the impact of the wildfires in Hawaii. Some Wall Street analysts have cut back on or completed pulled expectations for share prices over the next year as the situation’s evolution brings continuous questions on how the company will be impacted.

The stock has plummeted nearly 63% since the start of this week.

Oppenheimer marks the latest Wall Street firm to hikes it price target on Nvidia heading into the chipmaker’s earnings next week.

Analyst Rick Schafer lifted his target to $500 from $420 a share, calling the company the “purest scale play” on AI adoption. The new target reflects about 15% upside from Wednesday’s close.

“NVDA’s entrenched DC/AI ecosystem is core to GenAI adoption,” he wrote. “We remain long-term buyers.”

Schafer also views Nvidia as a leader in the transition from legacy central processing unit computing to accelerate compute. He also sees a strong long-term growth setup fueled by its high-performance gaming and auto divisions, and data-centric AI.

— Samantha Subin

Apple is having a difficult August.

The tech giant is currently the worst mega-cap performer for the month, with shares down 11%. It has also seen the largest losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which comparatively has dropped 2.4%.

Shares are on pace for a third-negative week, and are set to snap a 7-month positive streak.

The stock fell 1% midday Thursday.

All 11 sectors in the S&P 500 are on pace for losses this week in a broad market slide.

The S&P 500 is down 1.5% this week. Consumer discretionary and real estate stocks have led the index lower, with each on pace for weekly losses of more than 2.5%.

Tesla and MGM Resorts weighed on the consumer discretionary sector, while Regency Centers dragged on real estate.

Information technology has performed the best of the sectors this week, but is still down about 0.4%. Rallies in Nvidia, Teledyne and Arista helped restrict losses.

— Alex Harring

Citi remains optimistic on tech giant Apple stock ahead of the company’s iPhone 15 launch.

The firm reiterated a buy rating on Apple stock in a Wednesday note, with a $240 per share target price or about 36% upside from Wednesday’s close.

To be sure, shares are down 1.1% in midday trading.

Recent US supply chain discussions point to strong replacement cycle potential in IP12 [iPhone 12] installed base and excitement around ~30% faster charging on upgraded USB-C vs Lightning port,” analyst Atif Malik said. “We believe a premium is warranted to reflect expanding gross margins, growing services sales mix, and strong balance sheet.”

Despite a flat day for the S&P 500, energy shares managed to post gains.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund rose 2.3%. Shares of Exxon Mobil jumped 3.3%, while Chevron, Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips all gained more than 2%.

Materials stocks also outperformed the broad market index, adding nearly 1%.

Meanwhile, technology, consumer discretionary, consumer staples and health care stocks fell into negative territory.

Faster productivity growth in the U.S. is coming to the rescue of both the stock market in the form of higher profits and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in his fight against higher inflation, Wharton School of Business professor of finance Jeremy Siegel said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Thursday.

“Why aren’t higher rates tanking the stock market now?,” Siegel asked. “Because real increases in productivity and real growth increase profits,” and profits look a lot better today than they did three months ago, “so the bond market has not done well, and the stock market is holding its own.”

Siegel said he’s not worried about inflation rising as a result of this summer’s strong economic reports, because of “one of the biggest bouncebacks in productivity that I’ve ever seen. And that’s saving Jay Powell. That’s why we can have this tremendous GDP growth and yet still have the disinflationary trends that are in the economy.”

“Last year we hired almost 5 million new workers, nonfarm payrolls, and we got GDP growth of less than 1%. It was the worst productivity performance in over 70 years. This year we are hiring at less than half the pace and we have 2-3 times the level of GDP growth that we had last year,” Siegel said.

“It is true, oil stopped going down, commodities have stopped going down, but I don’t see those as starting a new trend. I see the productivity as being a basic disinflationary force that will keep that inflation in check,” said the author of 1994’s “Stocks for the Long Run.”

— Scott Schnipper

Bank of America thinks Adobe could emerge as a leader in artificial intelligence.

The firm upgraded Adobe stock to buy from neutral on Thursday, and lauded its Firefly software as a driver of growth.

“Adobe is ahead of the curve, and we believe that AI offerings (such as generative AI-powered content creation tool Firefly) are likely to begin driving meaningful revenue/[free cash flow] upside as soon as FY24,” analyst Brad Sills said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Natural gas spiked nearly 2.8% Thursday, but is still headed for its worst week since July. Thus far this week, it’s down about 4% as of Thursday, or its worst week since July 7 when natural gas lost 7.72%.

Meanwhile, the natural gas ETF (FCG) was up 2% on Thursday. It was led by gains in Chesapeake, which is higher by 5.9% after the S&P said it would join the S&P 400 Midcaps index before trading opens Monday.

— Gina Francolla, Sarah Min

Cryptocurrencies were under pressure Thursday as investors grappled with renewed concerns about the U.S. economy.

Bitcoin was last lower by about 2% at $28,506.00, according to Coin Metrics. The slide began after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July policy meeting were released. Late Wednesday bitcoin dropped to as low as $28.335.42, its lowest level since late June.

Bitcoin’s correlation with stocks is at its lowest level in two years, according to Coin Metrics. In 2022 it shot to an all-time high as a result of the Fed’s rate hiking campaign to tame inflation.

For more, read the full story here.

— Tanaya Macheel

There’s more upside in equities than investors are currently expecting, according to Bank of America.

“There is tremendous skepticism around the ability of risk assets to, you know, continue to move higher,” Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy at BofA Securities, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Our view is that stocks still look a lot better than bonds.”

Many investors worry that stocks are due for a pullback after their rally this year. However, the strategist cited strong consumer and corporate balance sheets that have helped bolster the economy.

“I think it’s one of those environments where we’re looking at 2008-2009 and bracing for the end of the world,” Subramanian said. “And it’s actually a very different setup today.”

— Sarah Min

Leading economic indicators declined again in July, pointing to a continuing risk of a modest recession ahead.

The Conference Board’s index of data points including stock prices, bond yields and housing and employment numbers fell 0.4% for the month, in line with the Dow Jones estimate and less than the 0.7% decline in June. The index is down 4% over the past six months.

“The leading index continues to suggest that economic activity is likely to decelerate and descend into mild contraction in the months ahead. The Conference Board now forecasts a short and shallow recession in the Q4 2023 to Q1 2024 timespan,” said Justyna Zabinska-La Monica, senior manager, business cycle indicators, at The Conference Board.

—Jeff Cox

The S&P 500 has seen its worst August performances in years when the broad index has rallied through the end of July, according to Bespoke Investment Group data.

In years when the broad index has gained at least 10% heading into August, it has pulled back an average of 0.69% in the month, the firm’s data shows.

That marks a worst performance than when sorting historical performance differently. The index has added 0.14% in the month when it gained between 0% and 10% year to date as of the end of July. And it’s climbed 0.78% on average in years when its down on the year heading into August.

With just over half the trading month finished in 2023, the S&P 500 has lost 4% since August began. Even with the pull back, the index is still up nearly 15% this year.

— Alex Harring

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield note rose to its highest level since October 2022. It reached a high of 4.312%. That was the highest level since Oct. 21, 2022 when the 10-year yielded as high as 4.337%, according to Tradeweb.

Meanwhile, the dollar index hit session lows after falling to 103.067. This comes after hitting a high of 103.598, or the highest level since Jun 13th when the index hit a high of 103.624.

— Gina Francolla, Sarah Min

Here are some of the names moving before the bell:

• Hawaiian Electric — The utility company tumbled sank 30%, continuing its slide over concerns of its potential liability in Maui’s wildfires. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported the company is in talks with firms that specialize in restructuring. Bank of America lowered its price target on the stock on Thursday, for the second time this week, from $11 to $10.
• Ball — Shares added 3% following BAE Systems announcement that it was buying Ball’s aerospace business for $5.55 billion in cash.
• VinFast Auto — Shares of the electric vehicle start-up fell 4.5% in premarket trading as VinFast’s stock searches for its level after debuting earlier this week. The stock rose more than 250% on Tuesday in the first session, but retreated nearly 19% on Wednesday.

To see more companies making moves in the premarket, read the full story here.

Initial filings for jobless claims fell last week about in line with expectations, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

New claims totaled 239,000 for the week ended Aug. 12, down 11,000 from the previous period and just under the Dow Jones estimate for 240,000. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose to 1.716 million, an increase of 32,000 and above the FactSet estimate for 1.7 million.

Separately, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its manufacturing index in August bounced up to a reading of 12, representing the percentage difference between companies reporting expansion against contraction. That was an increase from July’s -13.5 and much better than the -10 estimate.

The rebound came from a big jump in the new orders index. Readings on shipments, unfilled orders and delivery times also improved, while the prices paid index also rose sharply to 20.8, an increase of 11.3 points.

—Jeff Cox

Citi says a recent stock pullback in a large Mexico-based telecommunications company presents a buying opportunity.

The firm upgraded América Móvil to buy from neutral on Thursday and forecasted more than 26% upside. Analyst Andrés Cardona also highlighted the company’s stock buyback program.

Shares added nearly 1% Thursday during premarket trading.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge noted that a recent sell-off in U.S. Treasurys might have gone too far.

“Treasury yields continue to push higher, undermining investor confidence, but we continue to think the slump in bonds is overdone,” he wrote in a note Thursday. This is due to “our view that people are too nervous about a reacceleration of inflation and too upbeat on a material reacceleration in growth.”

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 5 basis points Thursday, and it’s up roughly 50 basis points over the past month.

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 0.4% in early trade, with construction and material stocks shedding 0.8% to lead losses while miners bucked the general downward trend to add 0.8%.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Australia climbed to 3.7% in July, up from the 3.5% seen in June and higher than the 3.6% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The employment to population ratio decreased to 64.3%, and participation rate also fell to 66.7%.

The employment rate has been listed by the Reserve Bank of Australia as one of the key metrics that it will consider in its monetary policy decisions.

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s Premier Li Qiang said Wednesday the country would work to achieve its economic targets for the year, according to an official readout.

His remarks came a day after China reported disappointing data for July, prompting some economists to warn of rising downside risks to the country’s gross domestic target of around 5% growth.

Speaking during a State Council meeting Wednesday, Li also said efforts should be made to “organically combine” security with development — in the context of promoting business overall. That’s according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese readout.

— Evelyn Cheng

Japan’s trade balance slipped into deficit territory in July, a month after after recording its first surplus in about two years in June.

The country’s July trade deficit stood at 78.7 billion yen, reversing a 43 billion yen surplus in June and lower than the 24.2 billion surplus expected from a Reuters poll of economists.

However, July’s deficit was 94.5% lower compared to the 1.42 trillion yen deficit recorded in July 2022.

Japan’s exports fell 0.3% year on year, while imports saw a 13.5% drop compared to the same period last year.

— Lim Hui Jie

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, sees more weakness ahead as the market undergoes a “much-needed” digestion of recent gains.

He expects the S&P 500 to drop to a 4,200 point level in a pullback that could last until the end of September, close to when the next Federal Reserve meeting is set to occur. With stocks losing their momentum and valuations becoming less extreme, Stovall expects investors to look toward the fourth quarter as the end of this “earnings recession.”

“I think that investors are responding to not to what the earnings did, but what happened below the surface, that there was a shortfall in sales, and that companies were offering moderated guidance going forward,” Stovall said. “I think that’s the concern. Will the the consumer eventually be tapped out? Is this, in a sense, an indication that the U.S. economy is indeed slowing?”

This will be the 55th quarter of the last 57 quarters in which actual results exceeded end-of-quarter estimates, Stovall said, adding that while companies’ earnings can be managed, their sales can’t be.

— Pia Singh

Check out the companies making headlines in after hours trading:

• Cisco Systems — Shares of the computer networking giant gained about 2% after posting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations. The company posted adjusted earnings of $1.14 per share, while analysts had forecast $1.06 per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue came out to $15.2 billion, exceeding expectations of $15.05 billion.
• VinFast Auto — Shares of the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker fell about 2%. Its shares jumped more than 250% Tuesday after VinFast went public through a SPAC deal, but the stock gave back some of those gains Wednesday and dipped 18.7%.
• Wolfspeed — Shares plunged 14% after hours following Wolfspeed’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, which missed expectations on the bottom line. The company posted an adjusted loss of 42 cents per share, while analysts called for a loss of 20 cents per share. Wolfspeed reported $236 million in revenue, however, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $223 million, according to Refinitiv.

Read the full list here.

— Pia Singh