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Thursday's Markets | |
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S&P 500 6,502 (+0.32%) |
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Nasdaq 21,705 (+0.53%) |
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Dow 45,637 (+0.16%) |
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Bitcoin 112,035 (+0.14%) |

Stock Advisor recommendation Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) rocketed 11% higher in post-market trading thanks to reporting results showing an 8% increase in revenue from $1.625 billion last quarter.
- "We're excited about the road ahead … because of the go-to-market, industry cloud and platform foundations we've built over the last decade." CEO Andrew Anagnost believes Autodesk can scale with artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly and is ready for the design sector to further converge with AI.
- Revenue projections for the full year represent approximately 15% annual growth: Fool analyst Jason Moser said, "At first glance, things look pretty good. The company beat all guidance leadership set a quarter ago and raised full-year guidance across the board. Revenue of $1.763 billion grew 17% from a year ago."
Business Insider reports Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is pushing to release its next-generation Llama AI model by the end of the year, the first major project for the Superintelligence Labs team.
- Llama 4.X aims to fix bugs and revive the existing model: The current artificial intelligence (AI) model has underwhelmed since its release in April, as it has not kept up with competitors when it comes to reasoning or following instructions.
- "We're also working on our next generation of models that will push the frontier in the next year or so." CEO Mark Zuckerberg commented on one bigger-picture focus for the new team, which could zero in more on personal superintelligence, providing humans with advanced AI assistants.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he would support an interest rate cut at the September central bank meeting and anticipates additional cuts over the next six months.
- "With underlying inflation close to 2% … proper risk management means the FOMC should be cutting the policy rate now." Waller also cited longer-term inflation expectations as being firmly anchored -- and chances of further weakening in the labor market increasing -- as reasons to act now.
- Market pricing suggests agreement with Waller's comments: According to the CME FedWatch tool, the probability of a 0.25% rate reduction next month stands at 85.1%, with just over two cuts priced through to the end of the year.
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) fell over 14% in pre-market trading after releasing results with a weak data center forecast, despite quarterly revenue jumping 58% versus the same period last year.
- 95% of transactions in the quarter were from repeat borrowers: Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) is up by almost 16% ahead of the market opening on a strong earnings beat that showed increasing card adoption and merchant AI uptake, with high customer retention.
- 2.9% increase in the average customer spending ticket size: SA rec Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) rose over 4% following market close, thanks to reporting a 9.3% quarterly revenue increase, highlighting robust consumer engagement.
Due 8:30 a.m. ET, the July reading for the Fed's preferred inflation gauge -- core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) -- is expected to hit 2.9%, marking the highest level since February.
- "Anything short of a major upside surprise is unlikely to derail expectations for a September cut." Iped Ozkardeskaya, an analyst at Swissquote, notes that attention is shifting more toward softening labor market data, but says there's no guarantee inflation can be contained.
- "AI-related product revenue is now a significant portion of revenues from external customers." Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) released results ahead of the market opening, with revenue and earnings per share missing expectations and a clear focus on investing in AI products going forward.
Well, well, well. The last time we published our Stock Advisor Rankings, the S&P 500 closed at a record high. And with our most recent list of monthly rankings, which the team thinks members should look to first when investing new money, published yesterday, it's happened again!
What's the likelihood that the S&P 500 will hit a fresh all-time high at the end of next month as well? Debate with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying.