CLOSING BELL

The market spent climbed Thursday, after starting the day in the red, but the Dow ended up hitting record highs after yet more U.S. Iran peace hopes.

Nvidia still sat at the center of the watch board after its giant quarter, but Stocktwits attention spread wider than the mega-cap trade. China EV earnings pulled in NIO, Walmart became the retail stress test, and AI infrastructure chatter stretched from chips into data centers and architecture.

On Stocktwits, the broader watched board was led by $NVDA, $MSFT, $NIO, $WMT, quantum names, and a fresh batch of community heat in $SLS and $FCEL.

Today’s Briefing:

• Stock News: Nvidia and Microsoft kept AI mega-cap attention pinned

• Earnings: NIO gave China EV traders a fresh profitability argument

• Retail News: Walmart turned a strong quarter into a valuation debate

• Sector News: Quantum stocks ripped back onto the speculative board

• Industry News: Applied Digital and Arm kept AI infrastructure chatter broad

AFTER THE BELL
AI Keeps Its Crown 🧠

Nvidia kept the AI mega-cap trade parked at the top of the Stocktwits watched board Thursday after another monster quarter, even as Jensen Huang made the China problem impossible to ignore. Microsoft sat right beside it, a reminder that every AI chip debate eventually wanders back toward cloud capacity.

The RIP: $NVDA ( ▼ 1.77% ) led the watched board with 647.3k watchers. $MSFT ranked second with 533.7k watchers. Nvidia reported Q1 revenue of $81.62B, up 85% year-over-year, adjusted EPS of $1.87 vs. $1.76 expected, and Q2 revenue guidance of $91B vs. $86.79B expected.

The split matters. Nvidia beat without China data center compute in its outlook, while Huang told CNBC the company has “largely conceded” China’s AI chip market to Huawei under export restrictions. Stocktwits stayed 86% bullish anyway, but even bulls are watching whether Nvidia can keep compounding outside a market it once counted as a major data center prize.

Wall Street still pounded the table after the print. Citi kept a Buy rating and $300 target, arguing Nvidia’s new data center split gives better visibility into hyperscale demand versus AI cloud, industrial, and enterprise growth, while Vera CPUs could add $20B in sales this year and open a $200B CPU market by 2030. Stifel lifted its target to $282, Benchmark moved to $335, Truist raised to $307, and Baird pushed the fresh high-water mark to $500. 🧠

Top Video: Is NVIDIA Stock a Buy After This Muted Earnings Reaction?

Top Posts

• @JOEYBUYDEN: “$NVDA Baird Raised PT from $300 to $500!” Post

• @EderT: “$NVDA is not going to crash. Insane earnings… The bubble is not Nvidia.” Post

Check $NVDA: AI crown or China ceiling →

AI Spills Wider 🏗️

Applied Digital and Arm kept the watched board from turning AI into a two-name dinner party Thursday. Applied had the cleaner catalyst, signing another giant hyperscaler lease for another major AI factory, while Arm caught fresh analyst fuel around the chip architecture side of the buildout.

The RIP: $APLD ( ▲ 21.51% ) rose +21% after a 15-year Polaris Forge 3 lease added about $7.5B of base contracted revenue and pushed contracted AI factory capacity to 1.2 GW across four campuses. $ARM ( ▲ 16.17% ) climbed about +12% after Bernstein started coverage with an Outperform rating and $300 target.

That spread is the point. Nvidia’s earnings kept the AI factory story hot, but Applied Digital turned it into a backlog story with the same investment-grade hyperscaler returning for a second 300 MW campus, while Arm bulls are betting agentic AI and custom silicon keep royalty demand moving. Stocktwits stayed bearish on $APLD and nearly split on $ARM, which tells you traders like the theme more than they trust every valuation attached to it. 🏗️

Bring $ARM: picks or shovels →

SPONSORED BY CHARTVPS
Active traders lose an estimated $5,000/mo to slippage they can’t see

Most active retail traders focus 95% of their attention on strategy. But execution is where the actual money is made – or lost.

On the E-mini S&P 500, a single tick of slippage is $12.50. A scalper running 20 trades a day, losing one tick per fill, pays $250 daily in slippage they likely never see on a trade confirmation. That’s $5,000 a month. Most of those traders are running on a generic VPS – or trading from a laptop at home. Both work fine for the workloads they were built for. Neither is built for trading.

ChartVPS is. Exchange-adjacent servers in Equinix NY7, TY2, LD4; CoreSite CH2. Sub-millisecond execution. 24/7 uptime and experienced human support. Used by 6,000+ active traders across 67 countries.

The Daily Rip exclusive: 75% off the first month with code STOCKTWITS75, through August 1.

ChartVPS is a hosting service for active traders. Past performance of any trading strategy is not indicative of future results. Discount code expires August 1, 2026; valid for first-month service only.
*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

STOCKS
Quantum Gets Uncle Sam Bucks ⚛️

Quantum stocks shoved their way back into the speculative conversation Thursday after Washington reportedly lined up funding and equity stakes for the sector. D-Wave, Rigetti, Infleqtion, IBM, and GlobalFoundries gave traders a real catalyst to chase instead of another science fair promise.

The RIP: $QBTS and $RGTI jumped about +25%. $INFQ surged about +30%, $IONQ rose +12%, and $IBM climbed about +7%. The Commerce Department package totals $2B, with $1B for IBM, $375M for GlobalFoundries, and $100M each expected for D-Wave, Rigetti, and Infleqtion.

That is a different quantum pitch: not just hype around future computing, but government money, proposed equity stakes, and an IBM backed quantum foundry effort tied to the Chips and Science Act. Stocktwits still had $QBTS and $RGTI sentiment leaning bearish into the rip, which makes the tape even messier once the first funding spike cools. ⚛️

Weigh $QBTS: funding spark or frenzy →

Walmart Meets The Bar 🛒

Walmart, the retail giant that has spent the year winning defensive money, beat on sales Thursday and still got smacked. The problem was not whether shoppers showed up. It was whether the premium multiple could survive a guide that left less room for heroics.

The RIP: $WMT ( ▼ 7.27% ) fell about -7%. Q1 revenue rose 7.3% to $177.8B vs. roughly $174.6B expected. Adjusted EPS was $0.66, in line with estimates. Q2 adjusted EPS guidance came in at $0.72-$0.74 vs. $0.75 expected.

That reaction is the useful part. Walmart’s higher-margin growth engines still looked good, with advertising, e-commerce, and memberships helping push the quarter, but higher fuel costs and a softer profit outlook gave investors a reason to punish a stock priced like the best house on the retail block. Stocktwits stayed bullish with high message volume anyway, with dip buyers arguing the post-earnings bruise is an entry, not a crack in the consumer resilience story. 🛒 

Join $WMT: value bid or bruise →

MACRO NEWS
Minutes Show Cuts Meet The Vigilantes 🏦

The Fed minutes from Wednesday made the market’s rate-cut fantasy look even thinner Thursday, with bonds already pushing borrowing costs higher before policymakers do anything at all. Inflation from oil, tariffs, and supply stress has turned “hold” into the dovish option.

“A majority of participants highlighted, however, that some policy firming would likely become appropriate if inflation were to continue to run persistently above 2 percent,” the Federal Open Market Committee minutes said.

The RIP: Fed funds target range held at 3.5%-3.75% in April. The 2-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.1%. The 10-year nearly touched 4.7% Wednesday. Freddie Mac’s average 30-year mortgage rate climbed to 6.51% from 6.36% a week earlier. FedWatch priced a 41% chance of a December hike.

“Higher Treasury yields continued to push mortgage rates higher last week, weighing on affordability and overall application activity,” Bob Broeksmit, Mortgage Bankers Association president and CEO, said.

The contradiction is sitting inside the minutes. Many officials wanted to strip the statement of its easing bias, while the published language still left room for “additional adjustments” that markets spent months reading as cuts. Bonds are now writing their own policy memo anyway: higher long yields hit $TLT first, squeeze small caps through $IWM. 🏦

TRENDING ON STOCKTWITS
Pops & Drops

• $WYFI ( ▲ 22.16% )  WhiteFiber ⚡: surged +34% after Q1 revenue grew 31%

• $FCEL ( ▲ 30.47% )  FuelCell ⚡: soared +31% after data center power trade reignited

• $TTWO ( ▲ 0.62% )  Take-Two ⚡: climbed +6% after GTA VI bookings watch heated

• $WDAY ( ▼ 3.76% )  Workday ⚡: jumped +6% after Q1 earnings beat landed

• $ZM ( ▼ 2.69% )  Zoom ⚡: climbed +5% after quarterly earnings hit tape

• $CSCO ( ▲ 3.37% )  Cisco: rose +3% after AI order rally extended

• $DECK ( ▲ 4.46% )  Deckers ⚡: climbed +3% after earnings brought Hoka focus

• $NIO ( ▲ 0.18% )  NIO ⚡: edged +0% after margins strengthened in Q1

• $BULL ( ▼ 5.44% )  Webull ⚡: fell -4% ahead of quarterly results

• $CTRA ( ▼ 8.62% )  Coterra: slid -9% after Devon merger selling lingered

• $INTU ( ▼ 20.02% )  Intuit: cratered -20% after layoffs stoked AI fears

ST EDITOR’S PICKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🌐

📈 Get data-driven investing insights and our biggest IBD Digital discount of the year––over $200 off*

😨 Memorial Day weekend travel: The busiest days to fly and drive

🏠️ Trump postpones AI executive order signing: ‘I didn’t like certain aspects’

💰️ SpaceX IPO Filing Shows Elon Musk’s Company Holds More Bitcoin Than Tesla

📺️ Meta has reportedly laid off 8,000 employees

🐿️ Anthropic, Microsoft in talks for AI chip deal after $5 billion investment

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here. 

WHAT’S ON DECK
Tomorrow’s Top Things 📋

Macro: Michigan Consumer Sentiment Final (2:00 PM ET), Fed Waller Speech (3:00 PM ET). 📊

Pre-Market Earnings: $GSL Global Ship Lease Inc, $BAH Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. ☀️

After-Market Earnings: $NXXT Nextnrg Inc, $BJ BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc. 🌙

P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.

Get In Touch 📬

Want to see some change? Email Kevin Travers feedback, follow him on Stocktwits. Refer a friend for this quarter’s edition of The RIP Forecast!

Terms & Conditions 📝

Securities Disclaimer: STOCKTWITS IS NOT A TAX ADVISOR, BROKER, FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE TAX, LEGAL, FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND NOTHING ON THE SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS AN OFFER TO SELL, A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, OR A RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY SECURITY. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital and not capital required for other purposes. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should also consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. The content is to be used for informational and entertainment purposes only and the service does not provide investment advice for any individual. Stocktwits, its affiliates and partners specifically disclaim any and all liability or loss arising out of any action taken in reliance on content, including but not limited to market value or other loss on the sale or purchase of any company, property, product, service, security, instrument, or any other matter. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks and that discussions of any security published on the Service will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which content is published on the service have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Read the full terms & conditions here. 🔍
Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter does not hold positions in any of the securities or assets mentioned. 📋