Tech Ruling, Q2 Earnings Help Boost Hump Day Market

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Markets swung higher in the final half-hour of trading today, which was a mixed bag for the major indexes, even with the upswing. The Dow had fallen -250 points intra-day, but closed -24, or -0.05%. The S&P 500 ramped up from a flat close, +32 points, +0.51%. The Nasdaq, which benefited from a court ruling on Alphabet GOOGL yesterday, finished +218 points, +1.02%, and the Russell 2000 slipped -2 points, -0.095%.

The Alphabet ruling, while also allowing Google’s relationship with Apple AAPL to continue, may have rescued more than simply the monolithic hold over the Search business. Think about it this way: had the ruling forced Alphabet to split up segments of its conglomerate, it may have spelled an unravelling for Big Tech in general over time. Perhaps this is the sigh of relief we saw in today’s trading session.
 

Salesforce, American Eagle Beat in Q2

After today’s close, Salesforce.com CRM posted beats on both top and bottom lines on the company’s Q2 report this afternoon. Earnings of $2.91 per share easily surpassed the $2.77 in the Zacks consensus and $2.56 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $10.24 billion outpaced the $10.13 billion analysts were looking for. 

However, guidance on both top and bottom lines for the ongoing quarter and full fiscal year have come in a bit lackluster. Guidance for Q3 earnings is in-line with previous expectations, but quarterly revenue guidance now puts the Zacks consensus on the very high end of the expected range. Shares, as a result, are trading down -4% in the after market, compounding the stock’s -23.6% loss year to date.

American Eagle AEO more than doubled earnings expectations this afternoon, posting 45 cents per share versus the 20-cent Zacks consensus. Revenues of $1.28 billion outperformed the $1.23 billion anticipated, largely on the back of the controversial — but highly successful — Sydney Sweeney jeans ad campaign. Shares have now swung to positive territory year-to-date, shooting up +23% in late trading today alone.
 

A Wrap-Up on Today’s Market Activity

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for July this morning came in lighter than expected at 7.2 million job openings. This is the lowest print since September of last year, signaling a constricting labor market, at least as of mid-summer this year. This was far below estimates of 7.4 million.

Factory Orders, also for July, came in as expected at -1.3%, which is still better than the previous month’s unrevised -4.8%. And the latest Beige Book cited rising costs — both from tariffs and also insurance and utilities — in the overall little-changed report from the prior month, which saw more modest growth than modest declines by region. 
 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Thursday

Another big day awaits us tomorrow in the market. Automatic Data Processing ADP reports private-sector payrolls for August, which are expected to come down to 75K from 104K reported for July. Weekly Jobless Claims will likely demonstrate its model of consistency. Q2 Productivity, the July Trade Deficit and S&P Services and ISM Services round out a busy morning of economic reports.

Regarding earnings, Broadcom AVGO, lululemon LULU and Docusign DOCU will be among those putting out quarterly numbers. Broadcom looks for big profits and sales on the AI trade, while LULU and DOCU both expect negative earnings growth year over year.

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