Retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained constructive despite rising geopolitical friction: ‘bullish’ on SPY and ‘neutral’ on QQQ.

  • Wall Street ended August on a weaker footing on Monday, with rising oil prices and Treasury yields reviving concerns about inflation and the Federal Reserve’s rate path. 
  • Apple begins its CEO transition, with John Ternus taking over from Tim Cook, while its legal fight with OpenAI continues. 
  • Palo Alto Networks and Dell Technologies trend ahead of earnings today.

U.S. stock futures were lower early Tuesday as investors kicked off September cautiously after a strong August. 

Tensions remain elevated after President Trump ruled out nuclear action against Iran, calling it “totally defeated militarily,” while oil prices pushed higher. However, he has continued to threaten further action against Iran, while saying the U.S. is still getting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. 

As of 4:30 a.m. ET, Nasdaq futures were down 0.6%, while S&P 500, Dow and Russell 2000 futures were down 0.3%. 

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

10-year Treasury yield surged to 4.7%, reaching its highest level since January 2025 despite Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defending U.S. debt performance. 

Tech Stocks To Watch 

Nvidia (NVDA): Reports suggest that Anthropic has signed a $35 billion cloud deal with Nvidia-backed Lambda. Meanwhile, Hut 8 (HUT) shares rose 2% in early premarket trade on news of a 700MW Texas data center campus, leased by Nvidia, that will host Lambda’s compute infrastructure for Anthropic.

Micron Technology (MU), SanDisk (SNDK) and SK Hynix (SKHY): Memory stocks are facing a fresh test following reports that China’s CXMT has begun small-scale production of HBM3E, the high-bandwidth memory used in advanced AI processors. 

Apple (AAPL) enters a major transition with John Ternus officially taking over as CEO from Tim Cook today. Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly asked a U.S. court to accelerate discovery, alleging new evidence shows OpenAI used its trade secrets and attempted to destroy evidence.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Dell Technologies (DELL): Trending on Stocktwits ahead of their post-market earnings report. 

Trending Stocks

Tesla (TSLA): Outperformed EV peers with an 18% gain in August. Retail interest is rising amid Cybercabs hype and ahead of the September 3 Robotaxi event.

AST SpaceMobile (ASTS): Japan’s communications ministry approved regulatory frameworks for the 700 MHz Rakuten-ASTS satellite network.

Rocket Lab (RKLB): Shares were under mild pressure in early premarket trade amid a weather-induced launch delay. Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bought 200K shares on Monday.

ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX) & GE Vernova (GEV): Oil stocks remain in focus after the White House detailed a historic Venezuela oil agreement granting North American Blue Energy Partners 100-year field concessions.

Sellas Life Sciences (SLS): Retail traders brace for an “M&A rampage” following Eli Lilly’s $2.9B deal for Merida Bio. The biopharma is preparing the final analysis of its Phase 3 REGAL trial for galinpepimut-S in acute myeloid leukemia following the 80th event, while topline data from its Phase 2 SLS009 trial is expected in Q4. 

Robinhood (HOOD): Shares rose 3% in early premarket trade after CEO Vlad Tenev announced Robinhood Banking crossed $4B in assets and launched Agentic Trading for crypto.

Uber (UBER): Initiated with a Buy rating and $100 price target at Rosenblatt, with analysts citing that its recent weakness has created an attractive entry point into a high-quality compounding platform. 

NIO Inc. (NIO): Shares are in focus ahead of Q2 earnings after Onvo brand deliveries dropped 46.4% year-over-year.

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO): GTA 6 leaks continue ahead of the game’s November 19 launch. 

Other tickers trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing included Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Oklo (OKLO).

What Else To Watch Tuesday

On the economic front, investors will watch the release of the S&P Global Final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) at 9:45 am ET, followed by the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and construction spending at 10:00 am ET.

On the earnings front, ZenaTech (ZENA), Rezolve AI (RZLV), Medtronic (MDT), Heidmar Maritime (HMR), Regis Corp (RGS), among others, are scheduled to report before the bell, while MongoDB (MDB), Credo Technology (CRDO), and GitLab (GTLB) are due after the close. 

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