Multiple U.S. Stocks See Sharp Intraday Moves: BlackRock Up 7%, PayPal Surges 17%
Miles Bennett
More than a dozen major US stocks swung sharply on Wednesday, with PayPal surging 17% on a $53 billion takeover bid and BlackRock jumping 7% on a blowout quarter, while memory chips and insurers sold off hard — a single session that lays bare how fast capital rotates during earnings season.
Whose earnings beat the hardest?
BlackRock rose over 7% after posting adjusted EPS of $13.91, topping LSEG's estimate of $12.59 by more than 10%. Revenue also beat.
Morgan Stanley reported Q2 EPS of $3.46 versus the $2.94 consensus, setting record quarterly revenue and profit.
BNY Mellon gained nearly 3%, beating on both earnings and revenue. The bank guided for double-digit full-year 2026 revenue growth but flagged that expenses will run higher than previously expected.
This means → three financial giants delivered upside surprises on the same day, pulling first-wave earnings-season capital toward the highest-certainty corner of big financials.
Why did PayPal spike 17% in a day?
Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that payments company Stripe and private-equity firm Advent made a joint $53 billion bid for PayPal at roughly $60.50 per share. The offer was submitted earlier this month.
In plain terms = PayPal did not rally on its own results — someone wants to buy it. Stripe plus PE money put up a price well above the market.
This reflects an acceleration of payments-industry consolidation. Stripe chose "buy the incumbent" over building alone, signaling that top players already see organic growth as too slow.
Apple hit a record — who else benefits?
Apple climbed about 4% to an all-time high after Apple Intelligence — Apple's in-house AI feature suite — cleared Chinese regulatory approval for use on iPhones in China. No launch date has been set.
Partners Alibaba rose 5% and Baidu gained 2% — both will serve as Apple's local AI partners in China.
This means → China's greenlight for Apple AI benefits more than Apple itself in the near term. The market is pricing in which local partner captures Apple's traffic flow.
What other stocks moved higher?
Cava, a US fast-casual restaurant chain, gained 5.5% after Morgan Stanley upgraded it from equal-weight to overweight, calling its valuation "defensive" and the company "one of the strongest fundamental stories in restaurants."
Lionsgate Entertainment rose over 6%. Reuters reported the studio is exploring a sale, with France's Bolloré Group and Banijay Group among potential buyers.
Lucid Group, the EV maker, rebounded 19% after management denied reports it was considering bankruptcy protection or going private, calling the coverage "completely inaccurate" and saying liquidity is sufficient to fund operations into next year.
Why did memory chips sell off together?
Micron, Seagate, and Western Digital each fell about 8%; SanDisk dropped over 11% — extending a pullback after the prior session's sharp rally.
The deeper pressure came from competition fears: reports that Chinese memory-chip maker CXMT saw strong demand for its Shanghai listing stoked concern over capacity expansion by Chinese rivals.
This means → the memory-chip narrative is shifting from "AI drives demand" to "who is ramping supply" — once the supply story takes over, the valuation ceiling gets repriced.
Insurance and beyond — who fell the hardest?
Progressive slid over 7% after reporting June net income down 31% year-on-year. Its combined ratio — a measure of how much an insurer spends for every dollar of premium collected — rose from 86.6% to 90%. Allstate fell 4%; Travelers dropped nearly 2%.
Pentair, a water-treatment equipment maker, plunged over 17% on a Q2 preliminary earnings warning: adjusted EPS of roughly $1.12, far below the FactSet consensus of $1.48.
Elevance Health, a health insurer, fell 10% despite beating revenue estimates and nudging full-year guidance higher — this reflects that the upside was already priced in, turning good news into a sell-the-fact reaction.
SpaceX fell for a fourth straight session, dropping below its $135 IPO price intraday for the first time.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.