Equities were moving higher in a comfortable but controlled manner on Tuesday. That is until more Brexit news hit the wires. It sapped the bulls’ momentum in the stock market today. Although it pushed the S&P 500 lower on the day, it hasn’t derailed the overall rally — yet.
Long story short, the United Kingdom’s government lost its “bid to fast-track Brexit deal so it passes before Oct. 31 deadline.” The government still seems intent on leaving the European Union, but it’s just one more development that impacts the U.S. market at the moment.
Reading too much into today’s Brexit-driven action is not likely recommended by many investors. However, the turmoil in high-growth stocks is something to note.
A few weeks ago, Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) was being put through the wringer. Now its Shopify’s (NYSE:SHOP) turn. Shares fell about 7% at one point, with notable losses in Alteryx (NYSE:AYX), The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) and others also present in Tuesday’s session.
It raises the question of whether this group has truly bottomed or if there’s more downside on the way. The pain was certainly a talking point in the stock market today.
The other talking point? Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB).
Biogen Earnings and Alzheimer’s
BIIB shares exploded higher on the day, but it’s been an interesting day. The company began the morning by reporting its third-quarter results. Earnings of $9.17 per share beat estimates by 90 cents. Revenue of $3.6 billion grew 5% year-over-year and topped analysts’ expectations by $70 million.
Solid quarter. But it’s the company’s progress with its Alzheimer’s treatment that had shares bursting higher by some 40% in pre-market trading.
Alzheimer’s is known for being a disease that drug companies constantly attempt to cure, only to fail in their endeavors. For Biogen to be making progress on this front is encouraging to investors. In fact, the company feels so confident with the treatment that it submitted it for approval.
If approved, the opportunity is obviously enormous. If it’s rejected, it will surely deal a painful blow to the BIIB stock price. For the stock’s part, shares finished higher by “just” 26.1% as investors weigh the risks and rewards in the stock now.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) was a notable mover in the stock market today, rallying about 6.6%. The move came on an intra-day spike after management had reportedly said they expect the company to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis in the fourth quarter of 2021. That’s about one year ahead of consensus expectations.
Not surprisingly, Uber (NYSE:UBER) stock moved higher on the day too, up about 3.6%.
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) couldn’t live up to expectations on Tuesday morning. The company missed on earnings and revenue expectations, as well as U.S. comparable-store sales results. On the plus side, global comps topped estimates as McDonald’s international unit did well. Still, the report disappointed investors, sending shares lower by 5%.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) briefly topped $200 per share and hit new 2019 highs on Tuesday. However, it couldn’t hold onto its gains, finishing lower by 20 basis points.
The move comes after the company unveiled its Aerial software development kit aimed at building 5G wireless access networks. Given the fact that it’s Nvidia, it comes as little surprise it will operate on GPU memory. But the reason investors like it? Nvidia already has a few new partnerships.
That includes Red Hat’s — now owned by International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) — OpenShift platform, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Changes at the Helm
Under Armour (NYSE:UAA, NYSE:UA) founder and CEO Kevin Plank will step down on Jan. 1. Patrik Frist, president and COO, will replace Plank as CEO at that time. Plank will shift his role to executive chairman and brand chief. UAA shares actually climbed on the news, finishing higher by 6.4%.
Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) head of commercial airplanes Kevin McAllister is leaving the company after the 737 MAX issues. While not a change at the top, he is the most senior executive leader to leave Boeing since the incidences occurred and the 737 MAX was grounded globally.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long ROKU, TTD and NVDA.
