NEWS
Another Day, Another All-Time High

That makes forty new highs for the S&P 500 this year, a pace that puts it on track to have the most of any year ever. Big tech continues to pull the market higher, with traders wondering when laggards like Amazon and Netflix will join the party. Let’s see what you missed. 👀

Today's issue covers the latest stocks soaring on AI news, Gary Gensler’s update on spot Ethereum ETFs, and the struggle for luxury retailers selling discretionary goods. 📰

Here's today's heat map:

5 of 11 sectors closed green. Technology (+0.79%) led, & energy (-0.92%) lagged. 💚

Producer prices (PPI) declined 0.20% MoM, reversing April’s 0.50% rise and beating expectations for a 0.10% jump. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, was flat MoM vs. expectations for a 0.30% increase. 🔻

Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims rose to a nine-month high last week, with some analysts saying that the next few weeks’’ data will determine whether this is driven by California’s new minimum wage law and other factors. Or if this is the start of a broader softening in the labor market. 💼

GameStop’s annual shareholder meeting had to be delayed after heavy traffic crashed its host’s servers. In classic meme stock fashion, the meeting began 48 minutes late and was “immediately adjourned” due to technical issues preventing shareholders from joining. Despite that, GameStop shares rose sharply on the day. 🙃

Speaking of games, Dave and Buster’s fell 11% after the entertainment giant’s first-quarter revenues missed expectations by a wide margin. 🎮

Tesla shares continued to rebound as CEO Elon Musk indicated he had the votes needed to secure his $56 billion pay package (confirmed after the bell). Still, legal battles remain regarding this pay package…and a new issue, shareholders suing him for starting a competing artificial intelligence (AI) company. 🔋

Tyson Foods remains under pressure following the news that it’s suspended CFO John R. Tyson, who was arrested for the second time in two years for drinking-related infractions. This adds more uncertainty to an already challenging environment for the chicken giant. 🐔

Paramount Global shares fell another 7% on news that Mario Gabelli's legal threat played a significant role in the company’s potential $8 billion deal with Skydance Media falling apart. Meanwhile, Warner Bros Discovery dropped following news that Liberty Global is acquiring enough shares to take a controlling interest in the company. 📉

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic dipped another 14% after the board of directors approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split to push its price back above the $1 required to remain listed on the major U.S. exchanges. 🚀

Other active symbols: $AVGO (+12.27%), $SMCI (+12.44%), $BTDR (+20.71%), $MSOS (-5.98%), $MNKD (+6.55%), & $DDC (-25.97%). 🔥

Here are the closing prices: 

EARNINGS
Add Adobe To The AI-Hype List…

Just like it was cool to add “blockchain” or “crypto” to your business during the last cycle, artificial intelligence (AI) has become the phrase to fix all of your businesses’ problems. And today, we’ve got two fresh examples. 🦾

The first is software giant Adobe, which reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.48 on revenues of $5.31 billion. Both beat expectations of $4.39 and $5.29 billion, with revenues growing 10% YoY.

Net new digital media annualized recurring revenue rose to $487 million, well above its $440 million forecast. Its total digital media ARR of $16.25 billion was helped by its recent AI push. 📊

CEO Shantanu Narayen said, “We’re driving strong usage, value, and demand for our AI solutions across all customer segments and seeing early success monetizing AI technologies across our Digital Media and Digital Experience businesses.”

However, the company declined to provide any material measures of the contribution its AI efforts have made to its financials. Executives said they want to be “thoughtful” about how they approach reporting. However, they shared that adoption continues to rise, citing the nine billion images created to date with Adobe’s Firefly AI software.

It also raised the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance and ratcheted its earnings guidance by about 2%. 🔺

That forecast update and commentary around AI was enough for the market to send Adobe shares up 15% after the bell and Stocktwits community sentiment into “extremely bullish” territory. 🐂

Meanwhile, Adobe wasn’t the only one capitalizing on the AI hype. Book publisher John Wiley & Sons saw shares rise 12% as its cost-cutting efforts paid off, and it began to realize AI’s potential via data sales.

It benefited from a $23 million content-rights project for training generative AI models, noting it will realize another project with a second large tech company in fiscal 2025. 🤑

The company's data-selling business helped buoy results and allowed executives to raise their full-year 2025 guidance (in addition to beats in the current quarter).

However, some analysts remain concerned about generative AI’s long-term negative impact on the company’s core products, given that students and teachers are already heavily using ChatGPT and other tools. 🤨

Shares are rebounding from multi-year lows but still stuck in a long-term range. Still, Stocktwits users are optimistic about the potential, with sentiment hitting “extremely bullish” territory for the first time this year. 📚