S&P 500, Nasdaq Futures Pause Near Record Highs: Why SPCX, AMAT, SNDK, CSCO, CAPR, SLS, ONDS Stocks Are In Focus

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained improved to ‘bullish’ on SPY and remained ‘bearish’ on QQQ.

• S&P 500 index notched another record close on Thursday, as softer PPI data helped cool near-term Fed rate hike fears. 
• Friday’s retail sales could test the fresh Fed optimism. 
• Capricor surged nearly 100% premarket after Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded the stock and sharply raised its price target.

U.S. stock futures took a breather early Friday after the S&P 500 closed at a record high in the previous session. Cooler-than-expected July PPI helped ease concerns about another near-term Federal Reserve rate hike. 

As of 4:30 a.m. ET, Nasdaq futures rose 0.1%, S&P 500 futures were flat with a positive bias, and Dow and Russell 2000 futures were down 0.1%.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, has moved to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ a day ago, and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, has remained ‘bearish.’

AI Trade In The Spotlight

Workday (WDAY) remained in the spotlight following reports that Silver Lake is considering an acquisition. Dan Niles believes that the potential Workday deal could put a floor under pressured software stocks, while Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora pushed back on the idea that AI represents an existential threat to cybersecurity. 

Salesforce (CRM): JPMorgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $250 price target, and it sees its core business accelerating in the second half of fiscal 2027. 

SanDisk (SNDK) shares rose 4% in early premarket trade after laying out long-term targets calling for mid-to-high-teens revenue growth and about 50% adjusted free-cash-flow margins through fiscal 2030.

That puts Micron (MU) and SK Hynix (SKHY) in focus alongside SanDisk.

Applied Materials (AMAT) fell 5% in early premarket trading despite a quarterly earnings beat and outlook raise.

Cisco (CSCO): Analysts have raised price targets post-earnings, with the bull case centered on an AI-driven networking supercycle. 

CoreWeave (CRWV): Michael Burry says his current short load is "maybe even more aggressive" than in 2020, but added that he won’t short CoreWeave, calling it a leading "Memesville" stock. 

Space Stocks Are Buzzing 

SpaceX (SPCX): SEC filing showed Elon Musk owns 6.42 billion shares, representing a 48.4% stake. Elon Musk later noted that some of the shares depend on "extremely crazy good outcomes." 

Rocket Lab (RKLB): Shares are gaining attention after the company showed progress on testing its reusable Neutron "Hungry Hippo", while a new Space Force deal added a boost. 

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS): Shares gained ahead of its earnings report Monday. A FCC filing revealed that it has been granted a 30-day Special Temporary Authority to test 800MHz spectrum recently licensed to T-Mobile.

Trending Stocks

Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR) surged 99% in early premarket trade after Cantor Fitzgerald made a dramatic reversal, upgrading the stock to Overweight from Neutral and raising its price target to $28 from $3.50. The bullish call follows Capricor's latest regulatory update on deramiocel and comes after the company said its roughly $238 million cash position is sufficient to fund operations for at least the next 12 months. 

Sellas (SLS) and ImmunityBio (IBRX) are drawing attention after Vanguard Group increased its major stakes in both cancer biotechs during Q2.

UMAC, RCAT, ONDS, AVAV and KTOS: Drone and defense stocks are in the spotlight after President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on imported drones and components. 

Lululemon (LULU) is heading for its worst week since June after its Chief AI and Technology Officer, Ranju Das, exited the company ahead of Heidi O'Neill's September takeover as CEO.

Other tickers trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing included Netflix (NFLX), CorMedix (CRMD), Nvidia Corp (NVDA), and UiPath (PATH).

What Else To Watch Friday

On the economic front, investors will be watching for the release of retail sales and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (preliminary).

On the earnings front, Datavault AI Inc. (DVLT), Outlook Therapeutics Inc (OTLK), NRX Pharmaceuticals Inc (NRXP), New Era Energy & Digital Inc. (NUAI), and Nakamoto Inc. (NAKA), are among those reporting today.

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