By Francesca Fontana
The Score is a weekly review of the biggest stock moves and the news that drove them.
Kohl's
Meme-stock mania is back.
Beaten-down stocks such as Kohl's, Krispy Kreme and Opendoor Technologies have taken off recently, as individual investors pile into heavily shorted equities.
The stocks' cult followings and their outsized gains mirror the performance of GameStop and AMC Entertainment during the original pandemic-era meme-stock frenzy.
After the retailer received significant social-media attention overnight, Kohl's on Tuesday more than doubled at the open. The stock ended 38% higher Tuesday.
Online house-flipper Opendoor also soared in recent days as social-media users rallied around the company, and its shares jumped 43% Tuesday.
The craze continued Wednesday. GoPro shares soared 57% and Krispy Kreme jumped 20% despite no clear impetus to buy.
Verizon's strong earnings helped power the S&P 500 higher Monday.
The telecommunications giant beat profit and revenue expectations in its latest quarter and raised its earnings guidance for the year. The company also raised its forecasts for free cash flow and cash flow from operations.
Verizon was one of several major companies whose robust quarterly results helped lift stocks to new highs during Monday's session.
While Verizon lost lucrative postpaid phone connections, the company said wireless service revenue -- its largest business -- rose 2.2% year-over-year to $20.9 billion.
Verizon shares rallied 4% Monday.
Alphabet and Tesla on Wednesday kicked off earnings season for the Magnificent Seven.
Google parent Alphabet reported a jump in revenue driven by cloud growth and signaled that its search-engine business is resilient in the face of artificial-intelligence offerings like OpenAI.
Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said that Google's "AI Overview" tool now has over 2 billion monthly users, up from 1.5 billion users in its last quarterly update.
Alphabet shares added 0.9% Thursday.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker posted a 12% drop in quarterly revenue and a steeper fall in net income. Tesla shares dropped 8.2% Thursday.
The so-called "Magnificent Seven" group of supercap tech stocks also includes Apple, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Nvidia.
What's eating Chipotle?
In recent years, the chain's results have held up better than many other restaurant companies. Chipotle's customers -- many of whom tend to have more disposable income than other fast-food chains -- continued to spend on burritos despite rising menu prices.
But the chain on Wednesday posted its steepest quarterly drop in same-store sales since the 2020 slowdown in restaurant demand. Chief Executive Scott Boatwright said on an investor call that declining consumer confidence, plus tough comparisons to strong sales last year, played into the drop.
Chipotle shares sank 13% Thursday.
The U.S. and Japan struck a trade deal on Tuesday, driving Japanese auto stocks higher.
Under the deal, President Trump said on social media that he would set his so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% for the country, and Japan will invest $550 billion in the U.S.
The truce sparked optimism for other players in the global auto industry, sending shares of Korean and European carmakers higher as investors anticipated similar agreements for other U.S. trading partners.
But Japanese auto makers led the way. American depositary shares of Toyota jumped 14% Wednesday, their biggest move since the market turmoil of 2008.
This year has been tough for airlines, but some are weathering the storm better than others.
American Airlines on Thursday forecast a third-quarter loss, and reissued its annual profit guidance with a lower target than it had in January -- before the onset of trade turmoil and a domestic travel slowdown.
That same day, Southwest said about $1 billion in earnings before interest and taxes it had anticipated this year have been wiped away.
Meanwhile, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have dominated industry profits, thanks to their expansive global networks and aggressive appeals to more affluent customers. American and Southwest have been hit harder due to their reliance on weaker domestic travel.
American shares sank 9.6% Thursday.
Our weekly markets news roundup is now part of the WSJ's What's News podcast. Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Check out What's News in Markets at wsj.com/podcasts or wherever you listen.
Write to Francesca Fontana at francesca.fontana@wsj.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2025 17:36 ET (21:36 GMT)
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