Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Booz Allen Hamilton — Shares of the consulting firm lost 15% after Booz Allen Hamilton said it would cut roughly 2,500 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, citing a slowdown in some government spending under the Trump administration and expected ongoing pressure on its business in the first half of the fiscal year. Intuit — Shares of Intuit, which owns TurboTax and QuickBooks software, popped 7.5% after the company reported strong quarterly results . Intuit said its revenue in the fiscal third quarter increased 15% to $7.8 billion. Apple — The tech giant’s stock slid 2.6% after President Donald Trump threatened that Apple will have to pay a tariff of 25% or more for iPhones made outside the U.S. Production of Apple’s flagship phone happens primarily in China, but the company has been shifting manufacturing to India amid Trump’s trade war. Nuclear stocks — Stocks tied to nuclear energy got a bump after Reuters reported , citing sources, that Trump will sign orders to boost nuclear power as soon as Friday. Shares of Oklo and NuScale popped 24% and 14.5%, respectively, while Cameco rose 9%. Constellation Energy added 2.8%. Ross Stores — Shares fell 11% after the off-price retailer withdrew its full-year forecasts , citing uncertainty around tariffs. Ross Stores’ second-quarter earnings guidance was also below Wall Street’s expectations. Deckers Outdoor — The Ugg boots maker saw its shares drop 19% after Deckers declined to provide full-year guidance for fiscal 2026, citing “macroeconomic uncertainty related to evolving global trade policies.” Wolfspeed — Shares of the semiconductor components maker plunged 13%. The company is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks. StepStone Group — The investment firm climbed more than 4% after results for the fiscal first-quarter beat expectations. StepStone reported adjusted earnings per share of 68 cents, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting 44 cents per share. Adjusted revenue of $295.9 million was also ahead of a $229.4 million projection. Workday — Shares of the human resources software company dropped 11.8%. Workday issued second-quarter subscription revenue forecast of $2.16 billion, which came in line with the consensus estimate of analysts polled by StreetAccount. Tesla — The electric vehicle maker fell slightly even after Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives lifted his price target on Tesla shares ahead of the company’s expected robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, next month. “The golden age of autonomous is now on the doorstep for Tesla,” the analyst said. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Yun Li and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Investors always pay close attention to bonds, and what the latest movement in prices and yields is saying about the economy. Right now, the action is telling investors to stick to the shorter-end of the fixed-income market with their maturities.
“There’s lots of concern and volatility, but on the short and middle end, we’re seeing less volatility and stable yields,” Joanna Gallegos, CEO and founder of bond ETF company BondBloxx, said on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
The 3-month T-Bill right now is paying above 4.3%, annualized. The two-year is paying 3.9% while the 10-year is offering about 4.4%.
ETF flows in 2025 show that it’s the ultrashort opportunity that is attracting the most investors. The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) and SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 T-Bill ETF (BIL) are both among the top 10 ETFs in investor flows this year, taking in over $25 billion in assets. Only Vanguard Group’s S&P 500 ETF (VOO) has taken in more new money from investors this year than SGOV, according to ETFAction.com data. Vanguard’s Short Term Bond ETF (BSV) is not far behind, with over $4 billion in flows this year, placing with the top 20 among all ETFs in year-to-date flows.
“Long duration just doesn’t work right now” said Todd Sohn, senior ETF and technical strategist at Strategas Securities, on “ETF Edge.”
Long-term treasuries and long-term corporate bonds have posted negative performance since September, which is very rare, according to Sohn. “The only other time that’s happened in modern times was during the financial crisis,” he said. “It is hard to argue against short term duration bonds right now,” he added.
Sohn is advising clients to steer clear of anything with a duration of longer than seven years, which has a yield in the 4.1% range right now.
Gallegos says she is concerned that amid the bond market volatility, investors aren’t paying enough attention to fixed income as part of their portfolio mix. “My fear is investors are not diversifying their portfolios with bonds today, and investors still have an equity addiction to concentrated broad-based indexes that are overweight certain tech names. They get used to these double-digit returns,” she said.
Volatility in the stock market has been high this year as well. The S&P 500 rose to record levels in February, before falling 20%, hitting a low in April, and then reversing all of those losses more recently. While bonds are an important component of long-term investing to shield a portfolio from stock corrections, Sohn said now is also a time for investors to look beyond the United States with their equity positions.
“International equities are contributing to portfolios like they haven’t done in a decade” he said. “Last year was Japanese equities, this year it is European equities. Investors don’t have to be loaded up on U.S. large cap growth right now,” he said.
The iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU) is up 25% so far this year. The iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) Japan ETF is up 25% over the last two years.
Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi in the last week reported record net profit for a second-straight quarter, bolstering several analysts’ conviction on the Hong Kong-listed stock. In absolute dollar terms, Xiaomi’s earnings are still a fraction of Apple’s . But the Chinese company has a larger smartphone market share in China , and has built an electric vehicle business, while the iPhone maker dropped its car plans . Apple in recent months has also come under pressure from the Trump administration over its overseas supply chain. Apple shares are down 20% year-to-date to around $200. Xiaomi’s have gained more than 45% to 50.95 Hong Kong dollars ($6.50) a share. Following Xiaomi’s earnings report on May 27, Jefferies analysts raised their price target to 73 HKD, up from 69.50 HKD previously — for upside of 43% from Friday’s close. The analysts attributed the company’s earnings beat to outperformance in “AIoT.” The category refers to Xiaomi’s appliances, which incorporate artificial intelligence functions and can be controlled remotely over the internet using an app. Xiaomi’s adjusted net income for the first quarter was 10.68 billion yuan ($1.48 billion), beating the expected 9.48 billion yuan, according to a FactSet analyst poll. Revenue of 111.29 billion yuan also came in above the 108.49 billion yuan predicted by the poll. In smartphones, Xiaomi has become more conservative about the global outlook, but the Jefferies analysts pointed out the company will likely continue to gain market share in the high-end China market with its new Xring O1 chip. Xiaomi officially revealed the chip on May 22 and said it would power its new 15S Pro smartphone, which sells for far less than Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro in China. CEO Lei Jun claimed at the event that Xiaomi’s Xring O1 Apple’s A18 Pro on several metrics, including the ability to operate a game with less heat. Smartphones account for just under 40% of Xiaomi’s revenue. Appliances and other products make up nearly 22%. “We believe appliances represent major upside in the next two years, but [Xiaomi’s electric SUV] YU7 sales will be [the] key [short-term] catalyst,” the Jefferies analysts said. Xiaomi revealed its YU7 SUV at the same May 22 event. While the company didn’t announce a price, it said an official launch would be held in July and that the new car would come with a longer driving range than rival Tesla’s Model Y. “We believe the launch of YU7, scheduled for July 2025, will likely be the most important catalyst for Xiaomi this year,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a May 27 report. They expect the SUV can garner a higher price point than Xiaomi’s SU7 electric sedan that hit the market last year. “If sales volume is strong, it could help Xiaomi achieve higher ASPs, better margins, and ongoing earnings growth,” the Morgan Stanley analysts said. They rate Xiaomi overweight and have a price target of 62 HKD. In addition to the YU7 release this summer, several analysts said they are looking forward to Xiaomi’s investor day, scheduled for June 3. Those are both potential positive catalysts, Macquarie said. “We believe Xiaomi is a beneficiary of rising EV demand, changing consumer behavior, and industry consolidation in China.” “The company is widening its core business product offerings, expanding overseas and controlling [operating expenses] to drive profitability,” the report said. Macquarie rates the stock outperform, with a price target of 69.32 HKD. JPMorgan analysts kept their neutral rating, however, as they said Xiaomi’s ecosystem-related revenue growth was the slowest among major categories — not supportive of a high valuation in their view. They cautioned that while Apple was able to gain value once services started driving growth instead of hardware, Xiaomi has seen accelerating hardware growth while services has grown more slowly. Their price target is 60 HKD, still about 18% above where the stock closed Friday. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.