WSJ Your Money Briefing - What’s News in Markets: Meme Stock Frenzy, Chipotle Stumbles, Toyota Rises

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Which companies’ shares are under the sway of meme traders this summer? And why did Chipotle’s sales alarm investors? Plus, why did a trade-war development boost shares of Japanese automaker Toyota? Host Francesca Fontana discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them.Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No frills, delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. Hey listeners, your money briefing is on a break, but we'll be back with more personal finance information for you in the future. Until then, here's the news moving markets this week. Hey listeners, it's Saturday. July 26th. I'm Francesca Fontana for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News and Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it.

Earnings and meme stocks. That is what comes to my mind when I think about this past week, as investors digested a slate of quarterly reports from tech giants, airlines, restaurants, and more. And yes, you heard me right, the market has fully debuted meme stock. season two. The first season, I'm sure you'll recall, being the frenzy that surrounded stocks such as GameStop and Bedbath and Beyond. So what stocks are getting memeified this time around? Well, I'm going to leave you in suspense for a few minutes. First, let's zoom out. How the index is due? Well, this week started strong, with Verizon's earnings helping boost the SMP 500 to a new high on Monday, and the index just kept on rallying. On Friday, the S&P notched its 14th record close of

2025, and the NASDAQ notched its 15th. And on a weekly basis, the Dow rose 1.3%. The SMP rose 1.5%. And the NASDAQ rose 1%. All right, where was I? Meme stocks. You guys, the The Redditors are so back. This time around, they have dialed in on stocks like retailer coals, donut chain Krispy Kreme, and online house flipper open door. Some of them may seem a little goofy, but they all have some common ground, right? Meme traders are seeking out the cheap, beaten down, heavily shorted stocks. And, just like we saw last time, we saw some big jumps this week.

Let's see. Coles on Tuesday more than doubled at the open and then closed 38% higher, and Open Doors also been on a tear, and its shares jumped 43% that day. And the craze just continued into Wednesday, GoPro, you know, the company that makes those cool cameras and stuff, its shares jumped 57%, and Krispy Cream rose 20%. Of course, with this kind of volatility, it's not surprising to see some pulling back and pushing forward the rest of the week, but on a weekly basis, Coal's still gained 34% and Krispy Cream gained 41%.

Rearning season has been pretty strong so far, but two companies that disappointed are Tesla and Chipotle Mexican Grill. So we're talking electric cars and burrito bowls. Elon Musk's EVMaker posted earnings late Wednesday, and its sales sure could use a jump start. It posted a 12% drop in quarterly revenue and an even steeper fall in net income. And the next day, we saw Tesla shares fall 8.2%. And on the week, the stock fell 4.1%. Then there was Chipotle.

Now, as we know, people are tightening their purse strings and we're seeing restaurant demand pulling back. But usually, Chipotle's customer base is steady, since many of its fans tend to have more disposable income and will still swing by for chips and queso and all of that, even as menu prices go up. Not this quarter, though. On Wednesday, the company posted its steepest quarter we drop in same store sales since the 2020 slowdown in restaurant demand. And that took a sizable bite out of its share price. On Thursday, Chipotle's shares dropped 13.3 percent, and for the week, the stock dropped,

Oh, wow, that's neat. 13.3%. Now, it wouldn't be what's news in markets 2025 if I didn't talk about the trade war, right? Yes, that's what I thought too. So let's talk about Toyota, the Japanese carmaker whose U.S. traded shares jumped on Tuesday's trade deal between the U.S. and Japan. Fun fact, Japan is the third largest auto exporter to the U.S. after Mexico and South Korea. Under the deal, President Trump said on social media that he'd set his so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% for the country and that Japan will invest $550 billion in the U.S. And so U.S. traded shares of Toyota jumped 14% on Wednesday, and on a weekly basis, they gained roughly 12%.

And now you know what's news in markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in The Score. in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show is produced by Zoe Colkin with supervising producer Tali Arbell. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next Saturday.