OVERVIEW
The Weekend Rip: February 23, 2025

It was a volatile week in the markets, with stocks moving around on earnings and macro concerns. 😬 

Let's recap and prep you for the week ahead. 📝

What Happened?

📆 On Monday, U.S. markets were closed for President’s Day.

🪙 On Tuesday, investors searched for value at all-time highs, with Nike and Intel turnaround stories taking hold. Crypto was hit by LIBRA’s $4.5 billion rug pull, Baidu boomed after earnings, and IQ slumped.

💊 On Wednesday, Hims & Hers Health stole the show after announcing a major acquisition. Carvana crashed despite crushing earnings, and Fiverr, SolarEdge, and Etsy moved sharply following their quarterly results.

⚠️ On Thursday, Celsius soared after outlining an acquisition and plan to reignite growth. After reporting results, Alibaba, Walmart, Unity, and Jumia saw major moves, with Walmart’s warnings around tariffs hitting the consumer segment hard.

🤮 On Friday, the market fell ill over virus concerns, which put healthcare stocks on center stage. The Department of Justice is investigating UnitedHealth Group’s Medicare billing practices, Hims & Hers tumbled, and BlueBird Bio took a buyout. Plus, it was a frisky Friday in crypto following a $1.4 billion hack.

🤩 This week's Stocktwits Top 25 showed underperformance vs. the major indexes.

Here are the closing prices: 

Bullets From The Weekend 📰

😡 Homebuilder confidence falls as rates stay near 7%. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was below 7% for the fifth straight week, but homebuilder confidence remains subdued. Supply remains constrained, keeping prices high in most major markets. With affordability low, the steady labor market and the economy humming, the housing market lacks a catalyst to drive activity. Yahoo Finance has more.

📉 The office-to-apartment conversion trend continues. The pipeline for new apartments in old offices continues to expand. However, developers completed less than 7% of conversions underway in 2024 due to the time, money, and government approvals needed for them to succeed. New York remains the hottest market, with a 59% YoY unit change, followed by Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other major city centers. More from Axios.

☢️ HP’s Humane acquisition causes some fallout. The hardware startup that had most of its assets acquired by HP for $116 million is immediately discontinuing sales of its $499 AI Pins and discontinuing use of these devices. It offers customers who have bought the device in the last 90 days a refund. As for employees, some received job offers from HP, but many others who worked closer to the AI Pin devices are out of a job. TechCrunch has more.