Humana Falls as US to Step Up Medicare Advantage Audits
1 hr 8 min ago
Shares of Humana (HUM) and other health insurers fell Thursday after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans to take a more “aggressive” approach to auditing Medicare Advantage plans.
The agency said it will undergo a “significant expansion” of its auditing efforts and audit all eligible Medicare Advantage plan contracts for each payment year, as well as invest more resources to complete audits faster.
“We are committed to crushing fraud, waste and abuse across all federal healthcare programs,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said. “While the Administration values the work that Medicare Advantage plans do, it is time CMS faithfully executes its duty to audit these plans.”
Shares of Humana, which offers Medicare Advantage plans, declined over 5% in recent trading. Aetna parent CVS Health (CVS) was down 3%, while UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and Cigna (CI) each declined about 1%.
In a post on X, UnitedHealth said, “We welcome CMS’s announcement to audit every Medicare Advantage plan each year.”
Humana, CVS, and Cigna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UnitedHealth’s move extends losses Wednesday amid worries about potential cuts to Medicare, and a report from The Guardian alleging the insurer paid secret bonuses to nursing homes in order to reduce hospital transfers for residents and lower costs.
Solar Stocks Slide as Tax Bill Slashes Green Subsidies
2 hr 20 min ago
Renewable energy stocks tumbled after the House of Representatives passed a tax bill that effectively nullifies many Biden-era green energy initiatives, a move seen as deeply damaging to the solar sector.
Shares of SunRun (RUN) plunged 40%, while Enphase Energy (ENPH) dropped 19% to lead S&P 500 decliners. NextEra Energy (NEE) stock slid 9%, and First Solar (FSLR) was off about 5%.
The House on Thursday morning passed a tax and spending bill that would end tax credits for wind and solar projects in 2029, years earlier than a previous version of the bill. The bill also requires projects to begin construction within 60 days of the bill’s passage to qualify for those credits, a next-to-impossible timeline for any infrastructure project.
Jefferies analysts in a note Thursday called the bill a “sledgehammer” to the Inflation Reduction Act, 2022 legislation that established tax incentives to spur clean energy investment. The bill makes claiming most IRA tax credits “truly untenable,” Jefferies said, and is a “worse than feared” outcome for the solar industry.1
SunRun was particularly hard hit by a last-minute addition that excludes companies that rent residential solar equipment to customers from earning certain tax credits.
The bill now moves to the Senate. Jefferies expects the Senate to focus on Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) language, which restricts tax benefits for companies with supposed ties to hostile governments, and the phaseout timeline of clean electricity credits.
Jefferies expects the stocks of domestic solar companies like First Solar to outperform competitors due to the House bill’s more aggressive FEOC language. However, the entire industry may be “adrift” for weeks before the Senate releases its own markup of the bill, its analysts wrote.
UnitedHealth Levels to Watch as Stock Still Under Pressure
3 hr 31 min ago
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) shares continued losing ground this morning after tumbling yesterday following a report accusing the company of paying secret bonuses to nursing homes.
Adding to pressures facing the embattled health insurance giant and others in the sector, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it plans a “significant expansion” of its auditing efforts for Medicare Advantage plans.
Since reaching their April high, UnitedHealth shares have lost about half their value, weighed down by multiple challenges—including a Justice Department investigation of the heath insurer for Medicare fraud, its CEO’s abrupt departure, and the company’s withdrawal of its full-year guidance.
Since UnitedHealth’s countertrend rally ended in early April, the stock moved lower for five consecutive weeks, coinciding with the relative strength index sliding into oversold territory.
The stock rallied earlier this week, but has since pared most of those gains to form a gravestone doji. While chart watchers typically associate it as a bearish candlestick pattern, a gravestone doji can also indicate a bullish reversal, especially if it emerges after an extended downtrend, such as on UnitedHealth’s chart.
It’s worth pointing out that trading volume has surged over the past two weeks, potentially signaling capitulation selling, an event that can mark the end of a steep decline.
Investors should watch key support levels on UnitedHealth’s chart around $292 and $249, while also monitoring resistance levels near $325 and $365.
The stock was down nearly 1% at just above $300 in recent trading.
This Chip Stock is Soaring on an Nvidia Partnership
4 hr 8 min ago
The Nvidia fairy dust worked its magic on another obscure tech stock on Thursday.
Shares of Navitas Semiconductor (NVTS) more than doubled in value after the company announced it would partner with Nvidia (NVDA) to develop “high-efficiency, scalable power delivery for next-generation AI workloads.”
Navitas, which bills itself as “the only pure-play, next-generation power-semiconductor company,” reported revenue of $83.3 million last year, and booked a net loss of about $84.6 million, or 46 cents a share.
The company went public via SPAC merger in October 2021 at a price of nearly $13. After hitting an all-time high of $20 that November, shares slumped and on Wednesday closed at $1.91, about 30 cents above their all-time low from earlier this year.
Navitas was just one of several companies Nvidia named as a partner when it unveiled a new power distribution architecture on Tuesday in an announcement that largely flew under Wall Street’s radar. The company said it was also working with chipmakers Infineon (IFNNY) and Texas Instruments (TXN), as well as power company Eaton (ETN) and data center service provider Vertiv (VRT).
Navitas is far from the first obscure company to be thrust into the spotlight by an Nvidia affiliation. Shares of Serve Robotics (SERV) nearly tripled in value in one day last year after Nvidia disclosed a 10% stake in the robotics company. Chinese autonomous driving company WeRide (WRD) got a similar boost from an Nvidia investment earlier this year.
Shares of Navitas were up more than 120% at $4.24 in recent trading. Thursday’s pop moved the stock into positive territory for the year.
Advance Auto Parts Stock Soars on Strong Results, Outlook
4 hr 57 min ago
Advance Auto Parts (AAP) shares skyrocketed Thursday morning after the company maintained its full-year outlook despite the impact of tariffs.
The retailer posted a first-quarter adjusted loss of 22 cents per share, far smaller than the Visible Alpha consensus expectation of an adjusted loss of 78 cents per share. Net sales of $2.58 billion fell 7% year-over-year but the result also was better than analysts’ estimates.
Advance Auto Parts affirmed its full-year adjusted earnings per share (EPS) outlook of $1.50 to $2.50 on net sales from continuing operations of $8.4 billion to $8.6 billion, both higher than what analysts projected. The “guidance assumes current tariffs remain in place for the remainder of 2025,” the company said.
CEO Shane O’Kelly attributed the reiterated outlook to the retailer’s “performance to date, expected progress on our strategic initiatives for the balance of the year and our planned mitigation actions for the tariffs currently in effect.” Advance Auto Parts imports some parts from Canada, China, and Mexico.
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Advance Auto Parts shares were up 47% in recent trading. Despite the surge, the stock is still in negative territory for 2025.
Nike Set to Resume Selling on Amazon, Raise Prices
5 hr 45 min ago
Nike (NKE) is resuming the sale of its products on Amazon (AMZN), with the sportswear giant also reportedly set to hike prices amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Nike stopped selling its clothes and sneakers directly on Amazon in 2019 so it could focus on its direct business amid concerns about counterfeit products on Amazon’s third-party marketplace, CNBC noted.
“While independent sellers have listed some Nike inventory in our store for many years, Amazon will soon begin sourcing a much wider range of Nike products directly to expand our selection for U.S. customers,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Investopedia. “We value independent sellers, and we’re providing an extended period of time for the small number of sellers affected to sell through their inventory of overlapping items.”
Nike didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Information was the first to report Nike’s plan to sell on Amazon for the first time since 2019.
Nike, which sources most of its footwear from China and Vietnam, also plans to raise retail prices at its U.S. stores between $2 and $10 on average, Women’s Wear Daily reported. The company’s hit Air Force 1 sneakers and children’s lines won’t face price hikes, the report said.
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Shares of Nike were up nearly 2% in early trading. The stock, a Dow component, has lost nearly a fifth of its value since the start of the year.
Bitcoin Levels to Watch as Cryptocurrency Keeps Surging
6 hr 17 min ago
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) surged above $110,000 for the first time on Wednesday, surpassing its previous record set just before President Donald Trump’s January inauguration, and has continued moving higher this morning.
The cryptocurrency gathered momentum after the Senate on Monday voted to advance a bill that establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a longtime crypto skeptic, said the bank would allow clients to buy bitcoin.
The digital asset has also received a boost recently from growing demand from corporate treasuries. Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), which popularized the idea, purchased an additional $765 million worth of Bitcoin last week, bringing the value of its holdings in the cryptocurrency to more than $63 billion.
These latest developments reinforce expectations that Washington remains committed to developing a crypto-friendly regulatory framework and highlight the accelerating corporate acceptance of digital assets.
Since bottoming out last month, bitcoin’s price has trended higher within a rising wedge, a chart pattern that signals a potential reversal upon a breakdown. Moreover, it’s worth pointing out the move higher has occurred on decline trading volume, indicating that larger market participants may remain on the sidelines.
However, more recently, the price has edged toward the pattern’s upper trendline in a move that has coincided with the relative strength index crossing into overbought territory. In another win for BTC bulls, the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day MA on Wednesday to form a golden cross, a chart event indicating further upside.
Bars pattern analysis projects a bullish price target of around $120,000. Investors should also monitor crucial support levels on bitcoin’s chart around $107,000, $100,000, and $92,000.
Bitcoin was trading at $111,300 recently, after hitting a fresh high of just under $112,000 this morning.
Read the full technical analysis piece here.
Major Index Futures Point to Lower Open
7 hr 3 min ago
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.5%.
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S&P 500 futures were off 0.4%.
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Nasdaq 100 futures also declined 0.4%.
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