Early Look

Friday, August 15, 2025

U.S. futures are looking higher the S&P 500 on track for fresh record highs (its 18^th of the year), the S&P trying to make it a 4^th straight day of gains, led by a surge in Dow futures after shares of component UnitedHealth (UNH) soars more than 12% overnight. Quarterly 13F filings showed several high-profile investors, including Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management, and David Tepper’s Appaloosa were among those taking stakes in the health insurer in Q2 lifting shares. Wall Street’s main indexes were little changed on Thursday, even after a hotter-than-expected producer prices (PPI) report dampened investor expectations for potential interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. The report showed producer prices increased the most in three years in July due to a surge in the costs of goods and services, suggesting a broad pickup in inflation was imminent. While traders trimmed their Fed rate-cut expectations for the rest of the year to 57.3 basis points, from around 63 bps just before the report, the view of a 25-bps cut for September remains intact. Most S&P sectors actually closed lower on Thursday, but large cap tech Mag 7 names (AMZN, META, GOOGL, MSFT) outperformed, helping keep major averages higher. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index surged 729 points to 43,378, the Shanghai Index gained 30 points to 3,696, the Hang Seng Index declined -249 points to 25,270. In Europe, the German DAX is up 53 points to 24,430, while the FTSE 100 was little changed at 9,181. Later this morning another heavy dose of economic data with retail sales, industrial production, and confidence data as stocks look to close out another week in the “green”. Semiconductors worth watching with equipment name AMAT down over -14% on results/guidance dragging down peers (KLAC, LRCX). On the commodities front, crude prices slipped to around $65 a barrel with attention on a meeting in Alaska between U.S. President Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, that markets hope could pave the way for a resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -11.01 points, or 0.02%, to 44,911.26
• The Nasdaq Composite dipped -2.47 points, or 0.01%, to 21,710.67
• The Russell 2000 Index declined -28.98 points, or 1.24%, to 2,299.08

• 8:30 AM ET                  Import Prices M/M for August…est. 0.0% (prior +0.1%)
• 8:30 AM ET                  Export Prices M/M for August…est. +0.1% (prior +0.5%)
• 8:30 AM ET                  Retail Sales M/M for July…est. +0.5% (prior +0.6%)
• 8:30 AM ET                  Retail Sales – Less Autos M/M for July…est. +0.3% (prior +0.5%)
• 9:15 AM ET                  Industrial Production M/M for July…est. 0.0% (prior +0.3%)
• 9:15 AM ET                  Capacity utilization for July…est. 77.5% (prior 77.6%)
• 10:00 AM ET                Business Inventory M/M for June…est. +0.2% (prior 0%)
• 10:00 AM ET                University of Michigan Sentiment. Aug-Prelim…est. 62.0 (prior 61.7)
• 10;00 AM ET                University of Michigan 1-yr and 5-yr inflation expectations
• 1:00 PM EST                Baker Hughes Weekly Rig count data

• Japan’s economy expands more than expected in second quarter as exports remain resilient. Japan’s economy expanded 0.3% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter of 2025. On a year-over-year basis, Japan’s GDP expanded 1.2% in the second quarter. The GDP beat can be mainly attributed to net exports, which contributed 0.3 percentage points to GDP.
• 13F Filing Highlights at Berkshire Hathaway showed: New Buys: UNH (5M), LEN (7M), NUE (6.6M), DHI (1.4M), ALLE (781K); Adds to: POOL, STZ, CVX, HEI/A; Reduces: CHTR, FWONK, AAPL (6.67%), BAC (4.17%), DVA; Exits: TMUS
• People’s Bank of China Plans To Reduce Banks’ Liability Costs quote: “PBOC: To lower banks’ liability cost”

• Lennar (LEN) and DH Horton (DHI) shares rise in homebuilders after Berkshire Hathaway revealed news stakes in both in 13F filings last night; 7M share stake for LEN and 1,4M for DHI.

• Red Cat (RCAT) Q2 EPS loss (-$0.15) vs. est. loss (-$0.12); Q2 revs $3.22M vs. est. $7.72M; Ended the quarter with cash and accounts receivable of $66.9M.
• The Metals Company (TMC) Q2 EPS ($0.20) vs est. ($0.21); total cash end of qtr approx $115.8Mm.
• T1 Energy and specialty glass maker Corning (GLW) reached a deal that will establish a fully domestic solar supply chain, connecting polysilicon, wafers, cells, and panels manufactured in the United States

• Nu Holdings (NU) Q2 EPS $0.13 vs. est. $0.14; Q2 revs $3.7B vs. est. $3.67B; said in Q2 expanded customer base to nearly 123 million with over 4.1 million net additions, and maintaining activity rate above 83%; the engagement drove revenues to $3.7B, representing an 85% annualized growth rate.
• Nucor Corp. (NUE) shares rose after Berkshire Hathaway revealed a 6.6M share stake.

• Hims & Hers (HIMS) shares fell overnight after Bloomberg reported that for more than a year, the FTC has been investigating Hims & Hers Health’s business practices, including whether it has made it too hard for customers to cancel subscriptions https://tinyurl.com/35ahvwbb
• Omeros Corp. (OMER) Q2 EPS ($0.43) vs est. ($0.48); end of qtr cash and equivalents $28.7Mm.
• UnitedHealthcare (UNH) shares rose overnight after 13F filing showed David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management increases stake in company by +1,300%, now owns 2.45M shares worth $665M. Separately, Berkshire Hathaway revealed a 5M share stake as well. Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management also bought UnitedHealth shares & calls worth ~$115.4M in Q2’25.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday it is reinstating a federal task force for safer childhood vaccines after 27 years. The original task force was created by Congress under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 to improve the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines administered to American children. It was disbanded in 1998 and has been inactive ever since.

• Apple Inc. (AAPL): Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc cuts share stake in Apple Inc by 6.7% to 280M shares as per 13F filing.
• Globant SA (GLOB) Q2 adj EPS $1.53 vs. est. $1.52; Q2 revs rose 4.5% y/y to $614.2M vs. est. $613.45M; guides Q3 EPS adj at least $1.53 vs. est. $1.55 on revs at least $615M vs. est. $618.78M; Q2 IFRS Gross Profit Margin was 35.4% compared to 35.7% y/y and Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit Margin was 38.1%.
• Quantum Computing (QUBT) Q2 EPS ($0.26) vs est. ($0.06) on revs $61K vs est. $100K, 43% gr mgn; end of qtr cash and equivalents $348.8Mm.
• SanDisk (SNDK) Q4 adj EPS $0.29 vs. est. $0.03; Q4 revenue rose 12% y/y to $1.9B vs. consensus $1.83B; Q4 gross margins grew to 26.2% from 22.5% q/q GAAP; guides Q1 EPS $0.70-$0.90 vs. est. $0.79 and revs $2.1B-$2.2B, vs. consensus $1.98B.