GameStop’s cards beat its storeses

Welcome to LazyListen. This is The Daily Rip for today. Markets dipped Tuesday as geopolitical tensions flared, pushing oil prices sharply higher and reviving inflation worries.

Attacks on Saudi oil facilities sparked a nearly three percent jump in crude futures, marking the longest rally since fighting began in March. Crude is now flirting with the hundred-dollar-a-barrel mark again. S.

Navy vessels over the Labor Day weekend, even capturing an unmanned submarine, adding to the risk-off mood. The Dow slid just over one percent, the S&P 500 dropped half a percent, and the Nasdaq held mostly steady. Energy stocks led the gains, benefiting from the oil spike, while health care lagged, falling two and a half percent.

Qualcomm was a standout, buoyed by a new deal with Amazon that sent its shares up more than three percent and sparked buying across related chip and optical networking stocks. Now, let’s dive into the biggest story of the day: GameStop’s latest earnings and what’s really driving the stock. GameStop reported second-quarter results that leaned heavily on collectibles as its traditional video game sales continued to slide.

The company posted adjusted earnings of twenty-seven cents per share, but revenue dropped nineteen percent year-over-year to just over seven hundred ninety million dollars. The bright spot was collectibles, which surged fifty-seven percent and now make up forty-five percent of total sales. Net income jumped to nearly three hundred million dollars, but that included a big gain from selling part of its eBay stake, offset by losses on digital assets.

Despite the profit beat, shares fell about one and a half percent in regular trading and slipped further after hours. Store closures, the sale of its French operations, and tough comparisons to last year’s Nintendo Switch 2 launch weighed on sales. The company’s pivot toward collectibles and trading cards is clearly paying off, but it hasn’t yet offset the decline in core gaming revenue.

On the big-picture front, GameStop’s ambitious plan to buy out eBay remains stalled. The company offered about one hundred twenty-five dollars per share for eBay in May, valuing the deal at roughly fifty-five billion dollars. But eBay’s board quickly rejected the bid, citing doubts about GameStop’s ability to finance the acquisition.

At current prices, GameStop holds around four billion dollars in eBay stock and nine billion in cash—far short of the funds needed. Raising the rest would require issuing over a billion new shares, more than tripling the current share count, which would heavily dilute existing shareholders. The company didn’t mention the buyout plan in its earnings call, suggesting the deal is on ice for now.

Shifting gears to tech, Qualcomm stole the spotlight with a major deal to supply Amazon with custom chips for artificial intelligence workloads and data-center networking. The partnership includes developing optical connections capable of moving data at blistering speeds—up to one point six terabits per second. Qualcomm’s stock jumped over six percent before the open and closed up more than three percent.

Amazon can buy up to twenty-five million shares of Qualcomm at a set price, tying the deal to as much as sixty billion dollars in potential business, though that figure is a ceiling, not guaranteed revenue. I. data-center space.

The market quickly extended the rally to related companies that build the optical infrastructure connecting these data centers. I. hardware ecosystem.

Even storage names like Seagate saw a lift, though they’re a looser fit. In health care, Novartis took a hit after its twelve-billion-dollar bet on a new drug for myotonic dystrophy failed a key Phase 3 trial. The drug did not show significant improvement over placebo, sending Novartis shares down nearly fourteen percent on heavy volume.

This setback adds to a string of recent clinical disappointments for the Swiss pharma giant, including failures in cardiovascular and other programs. The company reaffirmed its mid-single-digit sales growth target through 2030 but acknowledged its pipeline faces mounting pressure, especially as blockbuster drugs like Entresto approach patent expiration. Beyond the headlines, a few quick movers caught attention.

System1’s shares surged thirty-four percent after its MapQuest app added two million users in a week, reviving interest in the once-forgotten navigation platform. Despite the user growth, the company still faces challenges with declining revenue and liquidity. S.

intelligence agency director as president, signaling a push into defense markets. However, traders on social platforms remained skeptical, keeping sentiment cautious. m.

Eastern. Investors will be parsing the language for clues on inflation, interest rates, and the central bank’s next moves. Earnings reports from retailers like Chewy and Academy Sports will also be in focus, alongside updates from biotech and industrial names.

I. chip deal standing out, and fresh challenges in pharma from Novartis. The tech and energy sectors showed pockets of strength, while health care struggled.

Tomorrow’s Fed update could set the tone for the rest of the week. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time on LazyListen.