Stock market today: Live updates

Apple just sent out invites for its September press event, where it’s expected to announce the iPhone 15 and new Apple Watches.

The new iPhone models, likely branded as the iPhone 15, are expected to use a USB-C charging port. Some of the new devices Apple debuts could be made out of titanium, according to reports.

Shares of Apple were up nearly 2% on the day.

— Yun Li, Kif Leswing

Shares of Ginkgo Bioworks surged more than 21% after the biotechnology company announced a five-year cloud and AI partnership with Google Cloud.

Through the deal, the company aims to create new AI tools for biology and biosecurity applications powered by Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform.

Shares of parent-company Alphabet were last up more than 3%.

— Samantha Subin

The push for a spot bitcoin ETF took a big step forward on Tuesday when a court ruled against the Securities and Exchange Commission in a lawsuit with Grayscale.

The court decision does not automatically trigger the creation of a spot bitcoin ETF, but the lawsuit was seen as a key roadblock to such a fund.

Cryptocurrencies and related stocks soared following the ruling. Shares of Coinbase jumped 13%. The price of bitcoin rose 6%.

— Jesse Pound

The U.S. Dollar is up 0.5% against the Japanese Yen at 147.24, the highest level of the year. This marks the Dollar’s highest level against the Yen back to Nov. 7, 2022 when it traded as high as 147.56 against the yen.

The Nikkei is down -2.85% in August, on pace for the worst month of the year back to Dec. 2022, when the Nikkei lost -6.7%.

The Japan ETF (EWJ) is down almost -4.6% month to date, on pace for the first negative month in six. The decline has been led by Sysmex, Yamaha, Olympus and more, which have lost almost 20% or greater this month.

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

It’s time to start loading up on U.S. stocks and other risk assets, HSBC said.

“A key difference to a month ago is that our short-term sentiment and positioning index is now way off contrarian sell territory and much more neutral now,” Kettner said in a Tuesday note. “So we think this presents a pretty good tactical entry point into risk assets, above all into US equities.”

Notably, the analyst pointed out that the U.S. economy has largely gone from “strength to strength,” especially when compared to Europe and other parts of the world.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

Investors were jumping into stock funds last week as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite snapped three-week losing streaks, according to Bank of America.

“Clients were net buyers of US equities ($3.7B) for a fourth straight week. But clients bought ETFs and sold single stocks, opposite of the previous three weeks’ trend of stock inflows outpacing ETF inflows,” Bank of America strategist Jill Carey Hall said in a note to clients.

The inflows to equity ETFs is a notable change from earlier this month, when funds were enduring outflows.

The equity buying came from both retail and institution clients, and in both small caps and large caps, according to Bank of America. However, clients did sell mid-cap stocks.

— Jesse Pound

Economic data capturing the state of consumer confidence came in notably cooler than economists anticipated in August.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index came to 106.1 for August. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecasted a reading of 116.

That also marks a pullback from July, which was revised to 114.  Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, noted that August’s data erased the back-to-back increases seen in June and July.

“August’s disappointing headline number reflected dips in both the current conditions and expectations indexes,” she said. “Write-in responses showed that consumers were once again preoccupied with rising prices in general, and for groceries and gasoline in particular.”

— Alex Harring

The number of open job postings fell to 8.8 million in July from 9.5 million a month prior, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. That’s also the lowest level since March 2021.

The report points to more stability in the labor market and could provide clues on where the Federal Reserve might take its monetary policy outlook.

— Fred Imbert

Wall Street analysts are saying there weren’t many big surprises on a list of drugs that will be subject to Medicare price negotiations. Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said the most notable inclusions were Merck‘s Januvia, Johnson & Johnson’s Stelara and AstraZeneca’s Farxiga as well as insulins.

“Stelara [, a Crohn’s disease treatment,] and Farxiga [, a type 2 diabetes drug,] are big surprises as these 2 products may be facing generic/biosimilar competition ahead of 2026 discounts,” Bansal wrote, adding that the two drugs may ultimately be excluded from the final list.

The exclusion of Pfizer’s Xtandi is a “minor positive” for the company. The drug, which treats prostate cancer, had been expected to be included on the list.

The analyst added inclusion of Januvia shouldn’t be a big hit to Merck as the type 2 diabetes medication was expected to face generic challenge in May 2026 anyway.

At the moment, the stocks appear to be taking the news in stride, with only modest movement in premarket trading. That said, many of these stocks have logged declines for the year. Pfizer shares are down 29% year to date, while Bristol-Myers’ stock has shed 14% of its value over that time.

Bristol’s Eliquis, which protects against blood clotting, is on the list. It is one of several companies that has sued to blog implementation of the law.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

First Bancshares is now “an attractive combo of offense and defense,” according to Davidson.

Analyst Kevin Fitzsimmons upgraded the regional bank to buy. He maintained his price target at $34, which implies almost 19% upside from Monday’s close. 

Shares are still down more than 8% year to date following a sharp sell-off beginning in March. However, the stock has rallied 10.6% on the back of a better-than-expected second-quarter earnings report.

“The bank boasts solid defensive characteristics, including favorable comps vs. peers on funding and liquidity, while capital and credit quality remain solid,” Fitzsimmons said in a Tuesday note. “At the same time, FBMS seems incrementally upbeat on loan pipelines, and appears poised to continue demonstrating above-peer core profitability.

First Bancshares is now “an attractive combo of offense and defense,” according to Davidson.

Analyst Kevin Fitzsimmons upgraded the regional bank to buy. He maintained his price target at $34, which implies almost 19% upside from Monday’s close. 

Shares are still down more than 8% year to date following a sharp sell-off beginning in March. However, the stock has rallied 10.6% on the back of a better-than-expected second-quarter earnings report.

“The bank boasts solid defensive characteristics, including favorable comps vs. peers on funding and liquidity, while capital and credit quality remain solid,” Fitzsimmons said in a Tuesday note. “At the same time, FBMS seems incrementally upbeat on loan pipelines, and appears poised to continue demonstrating above-peer core profitability.

These are the companies making the biggest moves before the bell:

Read the full list of stocks moving before the bell here.

— Samantha Subin

Best Buy shares rose more than 1% in premarket trading Tuesday after it posted strong quarterly results.

The electronics retailer reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.22 for its fiscal second quarter on revenue of $9.58 billion, beating expectations of $1.06 on revenue of $9.52 billion.

The company also tempered expectations for the rest of the year, pointing to a lull in post-pandemic spending on home appliances, computer monitors and other electronics.

— Melissa Repko, Tanaya Macheel

Want some context on how tough August has been for stocks? Here’s a stat: Monday marked the first time all month that the S&P 500 posted consecutive gains. The broader market index climbed 0.6% on Monday after gaining nearly 0.7% during Friday’s session.

For the month, the S&P 500 is down 3.4% — on pace for its biggest one-month slide since December.

— Fred Imbert

U.S. Treasury yields declined on Tuesday as investors braced themselves for a series of key economic data releases due this week that will shed light on the latest developments around inflation and the labor market, and could inform the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy moves.

At 4:30 am ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by more than two basis points to 4.1922%. The 2-year Treasury yield was last trading at 4.9979% after falling by over one basis point.

Yields and prices move in opposite directions and one basis point is equal to 0.01%.