Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise on US-Japan deal hopes, with Tesla and Google on deck

Sales of existing homes dropped more than expected in June, the latest sign that record-high prices and elevated mortgage rates are extending the housing market’s deep freeze, Yahoo Finance’s Claire Boston reports.

Boston writes:

Read the full story here.

Meme stocks are running wild again.

Some of the latest highfliers — Krispy Kreme (DNUT), Opendoor (OPEN), and Kohl’s (KSS) — all have one key thing in common: They are heavily shorted stocks.

This means investors have been betting the next price move for these names will be lower, and some strategists suggest that this week’s meme surge is merely the latest pillar of a consistent theme during the S&P 500’s 25% rally over the last three months.

“A lot of what has outperformed significantly [since the market bottom], obviously the memes, but the heavily shorted stocks of every variety,” Charles Schwab chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.

“So I think there may be that also added attempt on the part of the retail trader to press those shorts and force a repositioning on the part of speculators and institutions.”

Short sellers have lost just shy of $355 billion since the market bottom on April 8, according to data from S3 Partners. That includes more than $100 billion in losses since Yahoo Finance last published S3’s data on May 22.

Read more here.

Tech earnings season kicks off in earnest on Wednesday when Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) reports its results after the bell — and AI will once again dominate the conversation — Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley reports.

Howley writes:

Read the full story here.

Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), and Nissan (NSANY) stocks surged on Wednesday morning on confirmation that the Trump administration and Japanese government struck a trade deal, Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian reports.

Subramanian writes:

Read the full story here.

Wendy’s (WEN) stock climbed nearly 5% Wednesday after spiking 11% earlier in the morning.

Reddit users on r/wallstreetbets discussed squeezing the stock in a string of comments late Tuesday, with one user saying Wendy’s “could be the next meme.”

Meanwhile, GoPro (GPRO) and Krispy Kreme (DNUT) early Wednesday appeared set to be the latest stars of a meme stock resurgence.

Wendy’s hit its lowest closing price in nearly a decade on Monday, with shares ending the trading session at $10.30.

The fast food chain has reported earnings falling in three of the past four quarters. In its most recent quarterly results, Wendy’s reported sales below Wall Street’s expectations amid “a challenging consumer environment.”

MARA Holdings (MARA) stock sank nearly 11% after the crypto miner announced a proposed $850 million debt offering.

The company said it would use the proceeds, in part, “to acquire additional bitcoin.”

Lately, companies and bitcoin treasuries have tested investor sentiment on using debt and equity to fund their bitcoin purchases. Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) and GameStop (GME) fell earlier this year after announcing they were issuing debt — and also common stock, in Trump Media’s case — to fund bitcoin acquisitions.

Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co analyst Gustavo Gala said in a recent series of notes to clients that fixed income investors have shown limited interest in the Strategy’s (MSTR) convertible debt and preferred shares used to fund its bitcoin purchases, writing in early June that Strategy has “a limited runway” to continue its approach.

Despite Wednesday’s decline, MARA shares are up nearly 7% for 2025. Still, that’s less than fellow crypto miner Riot Platforms’ (RIOT) 37.5% gain and CleanSpark’s (CLSK) 36% climb.

Kohl’s (KSS) stock fell more than 12% Wednesday morning after a meme stock craze pushed shares up nearly 38% the day prior.

In an analysis on Tuesday, S3 Partners said Kohl’s is a “battleground stock” because it has equal amounts of active long and short positions.

“With both the long and short sides equally balanced there is inherently more volatility in the stock, there is a greater chance of seeing sudden and severe spikes in stock prices much like the sudden drop in a see-saw when one side jumps off suddenly,” Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3’s head of predictive analytics, wrote.

US stocks rose at the market open on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) moved up roughly 0.6%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) edged up around 0.2%.

The gain sets the S&P 500 on track for its third record close in a row. The broad benchmark eked out a slight gain to notch back-to-back all-time highs on Tuesday in a mixed day for stocks.

Economic data: MBA mortgage applications (July 18); Existing home sales (June)

Earnings: Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Tesla (TSLA), Chipotle (CMG), Alaska Airlines (ALK), AT&T (T), Fiserv (FI), Freeport-McMoran (FCX), GE Vernova (GEV), General Dynamics (GD), Hasbro (HAS), IBM (IBM), O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), QuantumScape (QS)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

AT&T stock slides despite subscriber surge; Tesla, Google on deck

Trump gets Japan deal, but EU digs in with $100B response

How the dollar’s drop could scramble Trump’s agenda

Trump to launch hands-off ‘action plan’ to win AI race

Google earnings on deck: AI results wanted, not just hype

The protein boom is only beginning

Krispy Kreme, GoPro jump as meme stock rally continues

AT&T beats profit estimates as bundled plans boost subscribers

Hilton lifts 2025 profit forecast on US demand recovery

Here are some top stocks trending on Yahoo Finance in premarket trading:

Krispy Kreme (DNUT) stock rose 22% before the bell after its name was boosted on social media a day after retail traders snapped up Kohl’s (KSS) shares.

Camera maker GoPro (GPRO) shares rose 43%, per Reuters short interest in the stock recently stood at 7.7%. Investor interest in heavily shorted stocks has grown after Kohl’s jumped 38% on Tuesday amid heavy retail buying.

Constellation Energy Corporation (CEG) stock rose 4% premarket after PJM Interconnection released results from its 2026-2027 capacity auction. The grid operator set record prices at $329.17 per megawatt-day, raising total capacity costs to $16.1 billion from $14.7 billion last year.

The return of meme stock mania doesn’t appear like it will end on Wednesday.

Some of the highest-trending ticker pages on Yahoo Finance this morning are meme crowd favorites Kohl’s (KSS), Rocket (RKT), and Krispy Kreme (DNUT). As of 6 a.m. ET, Rocket and Krispy Kreme are each up double-digit percentages in premarket.

“The phenomenon of meme stocks isn’t going away. I feel like the genie’s out of the bottle. And it’s just become a way for a certain subset of everyday investors to trade, and that’s completely fine,” Ritholtz Wealth Management strategist Callie Cox said on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid (watch below).

Makes sense!

Given how hard the stock market has rallied, any company reporting guidance that is perceived as subpar will get punished.

A good example of that will play out with Texas Instruments (TXN) in today’s session.

The stock is getting pounded premarket, down 12% after third quarter guidance on earnings per share that was 14 cents below consensus on the low end. TXN blamed weak demand in the auto market (heard the same in GM’s (GM) outlook on Tuesday).

Executives at the key chipmaker for producers of cars and factory equipment said they didn’t know how much of the second quarter’s jump in revenue was down to customers trying to get ahead of tariffs, per Reuters.

Whatever the case, TXN’s outlook is putting pressure on similar names in the space: Microchip (MCHP), Analog Devices (ADI), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), and On Semi (ON).