Salesforce slides, Figma flops after earnings: Morning Buzz

Stock were mixed and little changed in early trading, reflecting uncertainty ahead of the highly anticipated Friday jobs report, but moved into the green as the morning progressed. Markets are digesting weaker labor market signals as initial jobless claims increased 8,000 to 237,000 in the week ended August 30, which was a little higher than expected.

Salesforce has weighed on sentiment, sliding after delivering a cautious third-quarter revenue outlook that rattled confidence in its AI monetization ramp-up.

On the commodities front, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have issued warnings that erosion of Federal Reserve independence based on political interference could push gold prices toward a staggering $5,000 per ounce, a massive leap from current levels near $3,600.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists, compiled by The Fly, and subscribe to the Fly By on YouTube to get ahead of the open each morning.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Salesforce (CRM) shares slipped after the company posted “a solid Q2 with beats across the board,” but Q3 guidance was only in line with consensus
• HP Enterprise (HPE) shares are rising after the company beat sales and profit expectations in its fiscal Q3
• American Eagle (AEO) shares are soaring after the clothing retailer reported better-than-expected Q2 revenue, boosted by demand following its ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney
• Figma (FIG) fell after the software design company forecast annual sales that failed to impress in the company’s first report since it went public in July
• T. Rowe Price (TROW) is rising after announcing a strategic collaboration that will see Goldman Sachs (GS) invest up to $1B in common stock with the intention to own up to 3.5% of the shares

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Apple (AAPL) upgraded to Neutral at MoffettNathanson with headwinds having faded
• Brinker (EAT) upgraded at Evercore ISI, here’s why
• Seaport downgraded AMD (AMD) to Neutral on slowing AI accelerator growth
• Duolingo (DUOL) downgraded to Neutral at DA Davidson on decelerating user growth
• RBC Capital upgraded Leidos (LDOS) to Outperform

3. AROUND THE WEB:

• JPMorgan (JPM) will launch its digital retail bank, Chase, in Germany next year, stepping up its expansion in Europe after its entry into the UK in 2021, Bloomberg says
• President Donald Trump’s administration said it was “very troubled” Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s divestment of Caterpillar (CAT) and is now engaging Norway’s government, Reuters reports
• U.S. District Judge John Chun has ruled Amazon (AMZN) must face a class action lawsuit accusing the company of imposing inflated fees on third-party sellers that have been passed on to customers, Reuters says
• Unilever’s (UL) CEO Fernando Fernandez plans to replace a quarter of the company’s top 200 managers to eradicate what he described as “pockets of mediocrity” at the group, FT reports
• Kerrisdale Capital stated on X that the firm is short Pure Storage (PSTG)

4. MOVERS:

• Aquestive (AQST) gains after announcing the FDA informed the company that an advisory committee meeting is not required for Anaphylm Sublingual Film
• Ciena (CIEN) increases after reporting Q3 results and providing guidance for FY26, with CEO Gary Smith commenting, “We delivered another strong quarterly performance”
• Nektar (NKTR) higher after Sanofi (SNY) reported Phase 3 data for amlitelimab
• Endava (DAVA) falls in New York after reporting Q4 results and providing guidance for Q1 and FY26
• Dole (DOLE) lower in New York after announcing an 11.917M share offering

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE:

• C3 AI (AI) reported Q1 results, with EPS and revenue missing consensus
• Asana (ASAN) reported Q2 results and provided guidance for Q3 and FY26
• PagerDuty (PD) reported Q2 results and raised its guidance for FY26
• Credo Technology (CRDO) reported Q1 results, with EPS beating consensus
• Shoe Carnival (SCVL) reported Q2 results, with CEO Mark Worden commenting, “Our Q2 results demonstrate meaningful progress”

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 0.44%, or 200.58, to 45,471.81, the Nasdaq was up 0.36%, or 78.29, to 21,576.02, and the S&P 500 was up 0.42%, or 27.16, to 6,475.42.