Stock Market Live September 25: S&P 500 (VOO) Tumbles on Improved Jobs Report
Key Points
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported jobless claims falling in the third week of September.
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GDP estimates are up, giving investors a second positive indicator the economy is improving today.
Live Updates
Thursday Wrap-up
Amazon Delivers $2.5 Billion
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) will pay $2.5 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission, alleging the e-commerce giant tricked customers into signing up for Amazon Prime without their consent.
$1 billion will go to the government as a civil penalty, but Amazon will refund its customers only $1.5 billion. That’s a little over one week’s worth of profits for Amazon.com.
With the FTC complaint now put to bed, Amazon stock is rising 0.1% today.
Chewy Is a Good Dog (Yes He Is)
MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Morton says he’s “betting on an underdog” with Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) stock, and upgrading it to buy. “Chewy is the ecommerce pet industry pure play and the company is fighting alone against the retail giants all battling for their bite of ~$1,700 in annual spend per pet household.”
“Chewy [is] demonstrating an ability to meet or beat consensus forecasts on customer net additions through 2025 and 2026,” adds the analyst, predicting”the volatility on Chewy’s quarterly customer additions should decrease with the company garnering ~30% of the industry’s gross customer additions.”
Chewy stock is up 1.5%.
CSX Chugs Right Along
In happier news, Wells Fargo analyst Christian Wetherbee just upgraded train operator CSX (Nasdaq: CSX) to overweight with a $40 price target.
“Recent operational headwinds are clearing and new commercial agreements (and customer diversification efforts) will likely drive volume outpeformance,” predicts the analyst, “just as volume growth is likely to decelerate at other US rails.”
CSX stock is up 0.9% on the upgrade.
Accenture Wins, Then Accenture Stock Loses
Also reporting earnings this morning is Accenture (NYSE: ACN). The IT consultant beat earnings by six cents with a $3.03 per share fiscal Q4 2025 profit, and reported better than expected revenue as well — $17.6 billion.
On top of all that, Accenture forecast fiscal 2026 earnings between $13.52 and $13.90, the entire range being well above analyst projections of $12.88. Even so, Accenture stock is down 0.7% in early trading.
The Voo is also now down 0.7%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that first-time unemployment filings declined by 14,000 week over week. Unemployment claims in the week ended September 20 were 218,000 (seasonally adjusted), which was also below the 235,000 economists had predicted.
CNBC called the jobs data “solid,” noting that Q2 gross domestic product was also revised higher, to 3.8%, painting a picture of a stronger economy… with potentially less need for interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Investors didn’t like the sound of that at all, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is down 0.5% premarket Thursday.
Not all’s well in the jobs market however. This morning, Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) announced a $1 billion restructuring plan that will involve closing about 1% of the company’s 11,400 North American locations, and the layoff of 900 store workers (bringing total layoffs at the coffeehouse chain to 2,000 this year).
Starbucks stock is so far about flat premarket.
Earnings
Builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) beat earnings by eleven cents last night, reporting a fiscal Q3 profit of $1.61 per share on $1.6 billion in sales. Management forecast that by the end of fiscal 2025, however, its sales will be only $6.1 billion or $6.2 billion, less than the $6.3 billion that Wall Street is looking for.
KB Home stock is down more than 1% premarket.
On the other hand, CarMax (NYSE: KMX) just reported that it missed Q2 earnings by forty cents. The used car dealer earned only $0.64 per share in Q2 2025, and its sales of $6.6 billion fell far short of the $7 billion predicted.
CarMax stock is crashing hard on the bad news, down 18% premarket.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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