MW Robinhood missed the S&P 500 again. But Trump's megabill may be more important for the stock.

By James Rogers

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has touted 'Trump accounts' for newborns as opening the door to a new generation of investors

Robinhood Markets Inc.'s shares fell Thursday, after the financial-services platform once again missed out on membership in the S&P 500 index. But investors should perhaps focus more on President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending megabill, which could have much bigger implications for the company.

Despite predictions that Robinhood (HOOD) could join the S&P 500 SPX, S&P Dow Jones Global Indices announced instead Wednesday that Datadog Inc. (DDOG) will replace Juniper Networks Inc. on the index, following the latter's acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE)

Robinhood's stock ended Thursday's holiday-shortened trading session down 3.7%, after surging 18% over the prior three sessions to close Wednesday at a record high. The last time the stock got snubbed by the index, it fell 2% on June 9 to $73.40. It ended Thursday's session 28.6% above that closing price.

But Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the Senate this week, could be more significant for Robinhood than the investor validation that comes with joining the S&P 500.

The bill contains a provision to create tax-deferred investment accounts for newborn American children. These "Trump accounts" for newborns would be seeded with a one-time government contribution of $1,000 and would track a stock index, while allowing for additional private contributions of up to $5,000 per year.

"This will afford a generation of children the chance to experience the miracle of compounded growth and set them on a course for prosperity from the very beginning," the White House said in a recent statement.

Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL) Chief Executive Michael Dell, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) CEO David Solomon and Uber Techologies Inc. $(UBER)$ CEO Dara Khosrowshahi have lauded the move, with Dell describing it as "a simple yet powerful way to transform lives."

For Robinhood, the accounts could open up an entirely new customer base.

"What Robinhood can bring to the table here is our technology and product resources," company CEO Vlad Tenev said during a recent interview with CNBC.

Robinhood currently serves more than 26 million Americans ages 18 and over, Tenev explained. "This would extend that to every newborn child, which is about 3.7 million per year, with a brokerage account with $1,000 in it that's passively invested in the S&P 500," he said.

Robinhood, Tenev added, has a working demo of what the program's app could look like, and is also looking to "educate the kids" about financial literacy and America's capitalist system.

Tenev also gave a glimpse of the app on X, formerly Twitter, on June 9. "Robinhood is ready to go, and we can bring our technology and product development resources to bear to deliver these accounts under budget and ahead of schedule to the 3.5 million+ newborns in America each year!" he wrote.

It has been an eventful few days for Robinhood. The company's stock soared earlier this week after it launched U.S. stock and ETF tokens for customers in the European Union. Shares hit another record high Wednesday after Paul Atkins, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, described the company's stock-tokenization efforts as an "innovation."

Robinhood, like Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) and Strategy Inc. (MSTR) (formerly known as MicroStrategy), is seen as a beneficiary of a crypto-friendly Trump administration. Set against this backdrop, Robinhood shares are up 153.4% in 2025, outpacing the S&P 500's gain of 6.8%.

-James Rogers

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July 03, 2025 13:38 ET (17:38 GMT)

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