Stock market today: Tech stocks rise, bitcoin hits record high as market looks to regain m

May 21, 2025

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Updated 19 mins ago

US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as cryptocurrencies surged, with bitcoin (BTC-USD) rallying to a fresh record of over $109,000, and bond yields continued to climb. Investors weighed a flare-up in US-China tensions over chips and assessed retail earnings highlighted by Target (TGT) for insight into the economic impact of President Trump’s tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 0.8%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped about 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose about 0.3%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq staged a rebound in the late morning as tech stocks led the indexes off their session lows.

Markets are reassessing, with the S&P 500 snapping a six-day run of gains as relief over the surprise US-China trade truce faded. Meanwhile, growing concern about the US deficit and ballooning debt has intensified attention on discussions around Trump’s tax-and-spending bill.

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Markets are keeping a close eye on Trump’s giant tax bill, as Republicans try to appease all factions of their splintered caucus. Anxieties about the budget bill and the US debt have helped push up US bond yields. The 30-year Treasury yield (^TYX) jumped back above the key 5% level on Wednesday, with 10-year yields (^TNX) back above 4.5%.

Meanwhile, the US and China have begun feuding over chips again, less than two weeks after agreeing to a temporary pause in tariff hostilities. The Trump administration’s warnings against using AI chips by Huawei have undermined the recent trade talks in Geneva, China said, putting the fragile trade deal at risk and reviving worries about economic fallout.

Tariffs are in focus for Target’s first quarter results, after Trump told retailers they need to “eat” the costs of duties and not pass them on to customers.

The discount retailer missed badly on quarterly earnings and cut its full-year outlook, but its top executives repeatedly declined to say whether Target will follow Walmart (WMT) in passing on costs of tariffs via price hikes.

Currency concerns also have alarm bells ringing as the US dollar fell to a two-week low, with traders eyeing the ongoing G-7 meeting for signs the Trump administration may favor a weaker currency.

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Canada Goose (GOOS) stock rose nearly 30% on Wednesday after the luxury coat maker posted strong first quarter results.

Read more from Yahoo Finance Canada’s Jeff Lagerquist.
Alphabet (GOOG,GOOGL) stock led a tech rally on Wednesday as shares rose nearly 5%. The move higher comes after multiple announcements from the company at its Google I/O conference on Tuesday that has Wall Street more bullish on the tech giant’s AI prospects.

The company announced new AI glasses and new AI capabilities for its search product during the event on Tuesday.

“We come away from Google I/O incrementally positive as we believe Google is leading in many areas of AI with Gemini at the top of foundational model leaderboards,” JPM analyst Doug Anmuth wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday morning.
Bitcoin rose to an all-time high above $109,000 per coin on Wednesday and cryptocurrency stocks followed the world’s largest cryptocurrency higher.

Bitcoin passed its old record high just after 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Take a look at what happened to shares of Coinbase (COIN), a bitcoin exchange, as well as bitcoin miners MARA Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT).
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rallied more than 4% on Wednesday to hit a new all-time high of $109,468 per coin, according to Yahoo Finance data.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency extended gains on Wednesday as investors digested growing trade tensions between the US and China while looming concerns over the US debt crisis boiled as well.
The S&P 500’s (^GSPC) macro moment may be over.

As tariff news whipsawed markets to start the second quarter, stocks moved roughly in unison. In April, the one-month correlation of stock movements within the benchmark index soared to nearly 0.7, a level only seen in the past five years when the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in 2022 and during the onset of the pandemic.

But as President Trump has dialed back the height of his tariffs on other nations, the correlation between stocks in the S&P 500 has tumbled to about 0.16. Piper Sandler chief investment strategist Michael Kantrowitz wrote in a note to clients that this is a sign that the market is shifting from a macro-driven market, where headlines on US trade policy have produced massive swings, to a market driven by company-specific fundamentals.

“After two months of macro-dominated markets, we’re likely to continue seeing markets, economic outlooks and sentiment stabilize,” Kantrowitz wrote on Wednesday. “We are transitioning to a backdrop with mixed data and mixed views. This should keep market correlations low, as stocks should trade more with micro fundamentals and note entirely on macro headlines like we saw earlier this year.”

He added that “many of the macro fears that remain are more likely to be issues that differentiate stocks rather than dominate all of them.”
CoreWeave (CRWV) stock is ripping higher again on Wednesday. Shares were up more than 10% in early trading and have now soared about 50% in the past five sessions.

The move higher comes after CoreWeave’s first quarterly financial update as a public company revealed a revenue forecast far above Wall Street’s expectations a week ago.

In a research note on Wednesday, Citi analyst Tyler Radke boosted his 12-month price target to $94 from a prior target of $43. Radke noted his now anticipating “a cadence of strong [financial results]beats in the near term” for the Nvidia-backed AI play.

But after a more than 100% rally since its IPO, Radke’s new price target merely reflects roughly where CoreWeave stock was changing hands on Wednesday.

“While we’d argue a portion of the re-rating is justified, given strong Azure/hyperscaler numbers and capex, we reiterate our Neutral/High Risk rating as we’d like to see more progress on profitability and more customer diversification,” Radke wrote.
Target (TGT) shares fell more than 7% in early trading after the company posted earnings results that were weaker than expected and warnrf of a potential drag from tariffs.

Read more on Target’s results from Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi here.

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Long-term Treasury yields continued to surge in the aftermath of Moody’s US credit downgrade.

The 30-year Treasury yield (^TYX) rose above the closely watched 5% level on Wednesday morning. It also briefly broke above that threshold on Monday before retreating,

Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:

Read more here.
More losses are weighing on UnitedHealth Group stock (UNH), which traded % lower an hour ahead of the opening bell.

First, HSBC downgraded UnitedHealth shares to Reduce from Hold and slashed its price target by around 45% to $270, a Street low. The analysts cited UnitedHealth’s leadership change and pulled guidance as risks to earnings going forward.

Also on Wednesday, the Guardian reported that the healthcare conglomerate secretly paid nursing homes thousands in bonuses to help cut hospital transfers for ailing residents, per Reuters. The move is said to have saved the company millions while risking the health of residents.

UnitedHealth, which is the largest Dow (^DJI) component by weight, has been a drag on the index recently. My colleague Anjalee Khemlani detailed a timeline of UnitedHealth’s downward spiral over the past two years, which you can read here, as a cyberattack, the killing of its health insurance business’s CEO, and a DOJ investigation have set shares back.
Lowe’s stock (LOW) popped 2% on Wednesday after delivering earnings that beat subdued expectations after years of post-pandemic struggles.

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma writes:

Read more here.
Target (TGT) stock fell over 3% premarket on Wednesday after the retailer reported first quarter results that came in shy of Wall Street’s expectations.

Target earnings again fell behind the pace set by rival retailer Walmart (WMT), offering a tough comparison.

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Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:

Read more here.
Shares of Wolfspeed (WOLF) plunged over 60% on Wednesday on the heels of a report that the semiconductor supplier is getting ready to file for bankruptcy within weeks.

The company is pursuing a Chapter 11 plan as it struggles to tackle its debt pile, per The Wall Street Journal report.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.
Traders faced a widespread outage to Bloomberg’s terminal early on Wednesday morning that hampered a UK auction of government debt, per several media reports.

The disruption and delays to the markets data service took hold at around 4:30 a.m. ET and weren’t fixed until about 6 a.m.

The Financial Times reported:

Read more here (premium).
Economic data: MBA Mortgage Applications (May 16)

Earnings: Baidu (BIDU), Canada Goose (GOOS), Snowflake (SNOW), Target (TGT), TJX Companies (TJX), Urban Outfitters (URBN), VF Corporation (VFC), Zoom (ZM), Lowe’s (LOW)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

How Trump could push retailers to ‘eat’ tariff price hikes

Target slashes guidance amid DEI fallout and tariffs

US-China tensions over chips put trade truce at risk

What’s next for Tesla as Musk enters a new phase

Lowe’s rises as it reports better than expected Q1 earnings

Bloomberg terminal outage hits traders

US-China tensions over chips risk hurting trade truce

‘Fortnite’ returns to Apple App Store after 4-year battle

Nvidia CEO: US curbs on AI chip exports to China ‘a failure’
The dollar (DX=F) sank to a two-week low overnight Tuesday as the US’s mounting debt concerns continue to impact the greenback. A Group-of-7 meeting currently underway in Banff, Canada, has brought the administration’s approach towards buoying the dollar to the minds of investors.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.
CNN has reported that Israel is in its final stages of preparing an attack on Iran, leading to oil prices jumping.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

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