U.S. stocks rise and oil prices slip as some calm returns to markets
Traders Michael Capolino, left, Fred Demarco, center, and Edward McCarthy work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK — Some calm is returning to Wall Street.
U.S. stocks are rising in early trading Monday, while oil prices are giving back some of their initial spurts following Israel's attack on Iranian nuclear and military targets at the end of last week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 240 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite added 1%.
Israel and Iran are continuing to attack each other, but hopes that the fighting could remain contained helped send the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude down about 1.5%.
Jiang Junzhe, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
25 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Could Solana Overtake Ethereum by 2026?
Every bull market has its David-and-Goliath subplot. In crypto right now, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is the nimble rising star that's aiming to take the crown from the heavyweight champion, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). The prize is becoming the smart contract platform that mainstream capital chooses to use first. Both coins have surged in the past three years, though Solana's gain has been faster, sparking talk of a coming "flippening," where its market value might eclipse Ethereum's. Is the chatter just noise, or is there a signal here that investors should heed? Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » Why Solana is going to keep closing the gap Crypto users and investors tend to be an impatient bunch. Effectively, that means that when they're evaluating a new chain, its speed comes first. In that vein, independent benchmarks show that Solana consistently pushes thousands of real user transactions per second (TPS), and also that it can burst beyond 50,000 TPS when stressed with a high volume of load. In contrast, Ethereum's base layer still confirms a block every 12 to 13 seconds, limiting it to double‑digit values of TPS before needing to try to shunt users to costlier Layer 2 (L2) chains, which often require different tooling to interact with. Velocity attracts users. In September 2024, Solana logged 3.2 million daily active wallet addresses versus Ethereum's 410,000. The same pattern holds this year, with the numbers hardly changed. Per DeFiLlama, a crypto data aggregator, Solana handled $2.2 billion of decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) volume in the last 24 hours as measured in the afternoon of June 24. That's almost on par with Ethereum's $2.5 billion, despite Ethereum commanding nearly four times the total value locked (TVL) on its chain. The takeaway here is that new capital is likely to flow to where it can transact the fastest, and Solana is punching in the same weight class as Ethereum despite its significantly smaller size. Revenue data tell the same story. Between June 23 and June 24, Ethereum generated about $1.3 million in chain revenue and $2 million in decentralized application (dApp) revenue. Solana brought in $121,000 in chain revenue and and nearly $4 million in app revenue. In other words, Solana's apps are already earning roughly double what Ethereum's do, while its market cap is only about 25% as large. The metric of profitability per dollar of network value is thus working significantly in Solana's favor. The market cap gap also is narrowing. Ethereum's market capitalization hovers near $291 billion, while Solana's sits at about $77 billion. To outrank Ethereum today, Solana would need a roughly 280% price increase. That sounds steep, yet Solana has posted gains of that magnitude in shorter stretches before. What could stall the flippening (and why it still might happen anyway) Despite Solana's significant gains, Ethereum is hardly standing still. Its latest upgrade package, Pectra, went live on May 7, bundling 11 improvement proposals that expand block space, streamline wallet user experience, and raise the staking caps. Average gas (user) fees are now down since the update, though transaction speeds are roughly the same as before. The upgrade thus blunts Solana's cost advantage and potentially buys Ethereum time to work on its speed. Beyond the performance of its core tech, Ethereum's moat is its developer community. It still commands the largest pool of app developers and liquidity in crypto finance, though Solana added more new developers than Ethereum in 2024. Those network effects buy Ethereum even more breathing room to iterate and copy useful features that competitors debut. And the capital on its chain is likely to be at least a bit sticky. So could SOL really tack on 280% in six quarters to flip Ethereum? It might, if macro liquidity surges, and if it wins against its rival in key growth segments like artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Barring that confluence of factors, a flippening is vastly more plausible in the 2029‑2030 window than it is within the next couple of years. For long‑term investors, the right approach is straightforward. Solana offers higher growth potential at the cost of higher execution risk. Ethereum offers a sturdier, slower‑growing base that is still innovating and could still offer substantial returns. Holding both coins would hedge the unknowns, but if you're forced to pick one horse for outperformance over the next five years, Solana looks like the better bet. Should you invest $1,000 in Solana right now? Before you buy stock in Solana, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Solana wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to175%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
The Stock Market Just Did Something for the Sixth Time Since 1957. History Says It Signals a Big Move in the S&P 500 in the Next Year.
Investors have experienced an exceptionally volatile market environment this year. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) suffered its fifth-worst two-day decline in history after President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs in early April, erasing $6.6 trillion in wealth. However, the benchmark index then staged one of its fastest comebacks after Trump paused the most severe tariffs for 90 days and moved to reduce the trade tensions with China that he'd previously ratcheted up. The S&P 500 rose by 6.2% in May, its best performance during that month since 1990. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » More impressive, the S&P 500 advanced 20.5% during the two-month period that ended on June 9. Since its inception in 1957, the index has only achieved a two-month return above 20% five times before. And in each of those cases, it delivered substantial additional gains in the next six months and the next year. History suggests the stock market will rocket higher in the next year The S&P 500 is considered the best barometer for the overall U.S. stock market due to its scope and diversity. The index measures the performance of 500 of the largest U.S. companies. Its components span all 11 market sectors and together account for about 80% of domestic equities by market value. The chart below shows the end dates for the five previous two-month periods when the S&P 500 gained 20% or more. It also shows how the index performed during the six-month and 12-month periods that followed them. S&P 500 Achieves 20%-Plus Return in 2 Months Forward 6-Month Return Forward 12-Month Return Feb. 6, 1975 10% 28% Oct. 6, 1982 20% 32% Dec. 7, 1998 11% 19% April 30, 2009 20% 36% May 18, 2020 21% 40% Average 16% 31% Data sources: YCharts, Carson Investment Research. In all five cases, the index kept rising. It gained an average of 16% in the next six months and 31% in the next year. On June 9, the S&P 500 closed at 6,006. If its performance from there matches the historical average: The index will advance by 16% from 6,006 to 6,967 by Dec. 9, 2025. That would be a 14% gain from its current level of 6,125. The index will advance 31% from 6,006 to 7,868 by June 9, 2026. That would be a 28% gain from its current level. Of course, the standard disclaimer applies here: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. But there is no harm in leaning into historical patterns so long as investors maintain a long-term mindset. Trump's tariffs could still derail the stock market again in the coming months The S&P 500 tumbled as much as 19% earlier this year when Trump started making radical changes to U.S. trade policy. The index has nearly recouped those losses and currently trades within a percentage point of its record high. But that does not mean tariffs will have no further impact on the stock market. The tariffs imposed to date have raised the average tax on U.S. imports to its highest level since 1941. Most economists think those duties will raise consumer prices and slow the country's economic growth. In fact, the pre-tariff consensus estimate was that U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by 2.3% this year, but the post-tariff consensus estimate is that it will increase by just 1.4%, according to Bloomberg. In early July, investors will get fresh monthly data on job openings, payrolls, unemployment, and inflation, and Trump's 90-day pause on his tariffs is due to expire on July 9. The market evidently has high expectations for the economic data considering the rebound the S&P 500 has already experienced, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump is likely to push back his self-imposed deadline to allow for trade negotiations to continue. However, if the economic data disappoints or Trump forges ahead with his draconian tariffs, the stock market could fall sharply. Investors need to keep that possibility in mind when they make decisions. Never buy a stock you are not prepared to hold through volatility. As Warren Buffett once advised, "You've got to be prepared when you buy a stock to have it go down 50%." Should you invest $1,000 in S&P 500 Index right now? Before you buy stock in S&P 500 Index, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and S&P 500 Index wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to175%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025
Globe and Mail
2 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Should You Forget SoundHound AI and Buy 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Right Now?
SoundHound AI (NASDAQ: SOUN), a developer of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered speech and audio recognition tools, has been a polarizing investment ever since its public debut three years ago. The bulls were initially impressed by its rapid growth, expanding customer base, and the disruptive potential of its tools, which could be customized for restaurants, vehicles, consumer electronics, and other markets. Nvidia 's minor investment in the company raised even more green flags. However, a lot of SoundHound's growth was driven by its acquisitions rather than its organic improvements -- and it remained deeply unprofitable. It also faces stiff competition from similar voice recognition platforms, and many investors fled after Nvidia sold its entire stake earlier this year. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect SoundHound's revenue to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48%. They also expect its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to turn positive by the final year. That's a promising growth trajectory, but it's still richly valued at 20 times this year's sales, so any bad news could easily sink its stock. Instead of investing in SoundHound AI, it might be smarter to invest in two other AI-oriented stocks that are on firmer ground: Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET) and Micron (NASDAQ: MU). 1. Arista Networks Arista Networks is a top networking hardware and software company. But unlike its larger competitor, Cisco, which locks in its customers with proprietary hardware and software, Arista uses off-the-shelf chips and open-source software that are compatible with a broad range of hardware. It also sells low-latency switches, optimized for hyperscale data center and cloud networks, and its CloudVision platform enables those clients to easily monitor their own cloud deployments. Arista's flexible, modular, and scalable strategy made it a top choice for cloud giants like Meta Platforms and Microsoft. So, while Cisco might be a better one-stop shop for enterprise and campus customers, Arista is a more focused play on the booming cloud and AI infrastructure markets. From 2019 to 2024, Arista's revenue rose at a CAGR of 24%, while its adjusted net income increased at a CAGR of 30%. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and earnings per share (EPS) to grow at a CAGR of 19% and 15%, respectively. That growth should be driven by the soaring need for cloud and AI infrastructure upgrades, its gradual expansion into the enterprise and campus markets to challenge Cisco, and the rising adoption of its integrated security services. Arista's stock isn't cheap at 39 times this year's earnings, but it could still have plenty of room to grow. 2. Micron Micron is one of the world's largest producers of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) and NAND memory chips. It controls smaller slices of both markets than South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix, but Micron manufactures slightly denser DRAM chips with its 1-beta process. That technological edge makes it a top choice for performance-oriented cloud and AI companies. Micron is a cyclical company that follows the memory market's boom and bust cycles. Its last bust occurred in 2023, when the PC market lapped its pandemic-driven acceleration, the 5G smartphone upgrade cycle cooled, and more data centers prioritized their purchases of Nvidia's AI-oriented graphics processing units (GPUs) over new memory chips. But from fiscal 2024 (which ended last August) to fiscal 2027, analysts expect Micron's revenue and EPS to grow at a CAGR of 23% and 148%, respectively. The company's growth is accelerating again as the PC and smartphone markets stabilize and more data center customers install solid-state drives (SSDs) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to support the latest cloud and AI applications. That's an impressive growth trajectory for a stock that trades at just 13 times next year's earnings. Micron is likely trading at that lower valuation because it's a cyclical stock. However, it still has plenty of upside potential in this boom cycle as the cloud and AI markets generate fresh tailwinds for its business. Should you invest $1,000 in SoundHound AI right now? Before you buy stock in SoundHound AI, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and SoundHound AI wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to175%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025
