Thursday, September 18, 2025
Major market indexes closed at all-time highs across the board today, with the small-cap Russell 2000 notching a new closing high for the first time since November 2021. The Dow grew +124 points, +0.27% to 46,142; the S&P 500 went up +31 points, +0.48% to 6631; the Nasdaq surged +209 points, +0.94% to 22,470; and the Russell 2000 cranked up +62 points, +2.60% to 2467.
Bond yields also continued their upward climb today — from +4.08% on the 10-year at the start of the session (it had touched just below 4% earlier in the week) to +4.12%, and +3.57% on the 2-year, up 6 basis points (bps) earlier this week at +2 bps from today’s open. Lowered interest rates from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is the clear catalyst for all these moves, as are the nod toward future cuts from the Fed.
NVIDIA Invests $5B into Intel
In a new co-development deal between two of the world’s largest tech behemoths,
NVIDIA NVDA has sunk $5 billion into
Intel INTC to join NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and its x86 ecosystem. The deal is projected to bring $150 million in annual notebook sales, in what appears, even at these lofty numbers, to be something of a trial partnership between the two giants.
This deal comes just weeks after the Trump administration announced a 10% government stake in Intel common stock, worth $8.9 billion. Today’s deal shot INTC shares up nearly +23% — its best single-day of trading in four decades. NVIDIA shares grew another +3.5% today, up +31% year to date and one of the biggest gainers over the past two years, as it asserted itself as the top investment in AI technology.
FedEx Reports Earnings Results After the Close
Delivery and logistics major
FedEx FDX outpaced expectations on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q1 results after the closing bell today. Earnings of $3.83 per share zipped past the $3.65 in the Zacks consensus, and the $3.60 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $22.24 billion easily surpassed the $21.78 billion analysts were expecting.
Revenue guidance for the full fiscal year was revised up to +4-6% from +1.2% earlier, even as the midpoint for earnings guidance came down a tad. Non-GAAP Operating Margins were also ahead of consensus, and shares of FDX ramped up +7.6% on the news in late trading.
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Intel Corporation (INTC): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report FedEx Corporation (FDX): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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