Stocks Fall for Second Straight Day as Investors Await News on Tariffs, Fed Decision; Palantir Plunges After Earnings

Tesla Falls as Bad News About Europe Sales Keeps Coming

35 minutes ago

Tesla (TSLA) shares slid Tuesday, extending Monday’s decline as bad news continues to pile up about the electric vehicle giant’s sales in Europe.

Tesla vehicle registrations, often used as a proxy for sales, declined 46% in Germany and 62% in the United Kingdom in April compared to a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by industry groups in the respective countries.

The data comes a day after similarly disappointing figures out of Spain, which showed that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y declined in April. Registrations in the month were down 55% to 81% in other European countries like Belgium and Sweden, Bloomberg  reported Tuesday.

The declines come even as Tesla has ramped up production of its revamped Model Y, which was released earlier this year and some analysts hoped would lead to a sales boost. The company said when it reported first-quarter production and deliveries last month that its changeover to manufacturing the new Model Y cost it several weeks of production.

Tesla has been the target of protests in recent months as people in the U.S. and abroad have looked to voice their displeasure about CEO Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration. Musk said during last month’s earnings call that he plans to scale back his government work to one or two days per week this month, and focus more on Tesla.

Tesla shares were down 2% in recent trading, and have lost more than 30% of their value so far this year.

–Aaron McDade

Constellation Energy Soars as AI Demand Boosts Revenue

1 hr 39 min ago

Constellation Energy (CEG) shares soared Tuesday as the nuclear power utility beat operating revenue forecasts and kept its 2025 outlook steady despite weaker-than-expected profit, as it continued to benefit from AI-related electricity demand.

Constellation reported first-quarter operating revenue rose more than 10% year-over-year to $6.79 billion, while analysts at Visible Alpha were looking for $5.44 billion. However, adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.14 came in below expectations. Still, the company affirmed its previous full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $8.90 to $9.60.

CEO Joe Dominguez said Constellation “is working hard to meet the power needs of customers nationwide, including powering the new AI products that Americans increasingly are using in their daily lives and that businesses and government are using to provide better products and services.” Dominguez noted that both former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump repeatedly emphasized that “it is vital for our national security and for our economy that America lead the AI race, and I am so proud that Constellation is playing such an important role.” 

The company added that its $26.6 billion purchase of natural gas and geothermal energy firm Calpine announced in January is on track to be completed by the end of the year. 

Including today’s 11% surge, shares of Constellation Energy are up about 23% since the start of the year. The stock nearly doubled in 2024, making it one of the top performers in the S&P 500, as it benefitted from booming AI demand.

–Bill McColl

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Stock Sinks as Costs Soar

2 hr 26 min ago

Shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) tumbled Tuesday, a day after the biotech firm reported worse-than-expected results as costs increased.

Vertex posted first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $4.06, with revenue rising 3% year-over-year to $2.77 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for $4.19 and $2.83 billion, respectively.

U.S. revenue grew 9% to $1.66 billion in part because of higher prices. However, outside the U.S. revenue dropped 5% to $1.11 billion because of a decline in sales in Russia, where the company said it is “experiencing violation of its intellectual property rights.”

Total expenses skyrocketed nearly 40% to $2.14 billion, which Vertex blamed mostly on “continued R&D investment in support of multiple mid- and late-stage clinical development programs and increased commercial investment to support the launch of JOURNAVX,” its non-opioid pain medicine. In addition, it also had a $379.0 million intangible asset impairment charge associated with its experimental diabetes treatment VX-264, which it won’t be advancing for additional clinical development.

Vertex raised the low end of its full-year revenue guidance to $11.85 billion from $11.75 billion as it sees continued growth in demand for its cystic fibrosis drugs, including the recently launched Alyftrek. The company did not change its upper end outlook of $12.0 billion.

Vertex shares were down 11% recently. Even with today’s slide, the stock is up 10% in 2025.

–Bill McColl

DoorDash Drops After Revenue Miss, Deal News

3 hr 23 min ago

DoorDash shares are sinking Tuesday after the food-delivery company posted first-quarter revenue that undershot analysts’ forecasts.

DoorDash—which separately announced that it was buying U.K. firm Deliveroo for nearly $4 billion and restaurant booking platform SevenRooms for $1.2 billion—had announced yesterday that it was moving forward its results to before markets opened Tuesday instead of after the bell Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based company reported Q1 revenue of $3.03 billion, below the $3.10 billion expectation of analysts polled by Visible Alpha. Earnings per share of $0.44 topped estimates of $0.39.

For the second quarter, DoorDash sees Marketplace GOV—the total dollar value of orders completed on its Marketplaces—of $23.3 billion to $23.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA between $600 million and $650 million. Analysts expect $23.5 billion and $633.1 million, respectively, per Visible Alpha.

DoorDash shares sank more than 8% in early trading Tuesday. The stock is still up 12% since the start of the year, handling outperforming the S&P 500.

–Nisha Gopalan

Will the Strength in Corporate Earnings Last?

4 hr 11 min ago

Some market watchers warn that investors are underestimating the pain that’s just over the horizon.

Solid earnings reports rolled in last week, helping the S&P 500 notch its longest winning streak in two decades. Growth has handily exceeded expectations so far this quarter. And share-buyback announcements have surged to a record, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis, marking another sign of strength.

The outlook for corporate America has remained resilient despite all the uncertainty   created by President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Analysts have cut their earnings expectations for the current quarter by 2.6%—more than average but not apocalyptic, according to Deutsche Bank analysts led by Chief Strategist Binky Chadha.

But there’s a catch. “Many companies are either not incorporating the tariff impact into their guidance or suspending it given the uncertainty, and in our reading, analysts are, in turn, waiting for more clarity before adjusting numbers,” the analysts wrote in a note on Friday.

The absence of tariff-impact forecasts, they suggest, is why they see “significant potential downside to consensus earnings estimates.”

Read the full article here.

Palantir Levels to Watch Amid Post-Earnings Sell-Off

4 hr 58 min ago

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) raised its full-year outlook but disappointed investors with mostly in-line quarterly results, sending shares in the analytics software provider sharply lower in premarket trading Tuesday.

The company late Monday reported first-quarter revenue of $884 million, up 39% year-over-year and above the analyst consensus. Adjusted earnings per share of 13 cents, rose from 8 cents per share a year earlier, in line with Wall Street’s estimates. Investors may have been looking for more, after the AI darling posted blowout results in February and November.

Ahead of the highly anticipated earnings report, Palantir shares were up 64% since the start of the year and had soared more than five-fold over the past 12 months. The stock has been boosted by optimism that the software maker would benefit from increasing enterprise AI deployments and federal initiatives to improve government efficiency. 

After setting their record high in mid-February, Palantir shares consolidated within a falling wedge before breaking out above the pattern last month. More recently, the stock has rallied to its highest level since mid-February but found significant selling pressure around its record high as the relative strength index (RSI) crossed into overbought territory.

Indeed, the stock looks set to continue its retreat from this important technical  location on Tuesday, possibly forming a double top pattern in the process.

Investors should watch major support levels on Palantir’s chart around $97, $83 and $66, while also monitoring a key overhead area near $125.

Palantir shares were down 8% at around $114 in recent premarket trading.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Major Stock Futures Point to Lower Open

5 hr 41 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.7%.

S&P 500 futures were off 0.9%.

Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.1%.