Charter Communications Jumps as Subs Top Estimates Charter Communications (CHTR) stock soared to lead S&P 500 gainers Friday after the company added more mobile phone lines and lost fewer video customers than analysts had expected in the first quarter. The owner of Spectrum cable, internet, and phone services generated $13.74 billion in revenue, up slightly year-over-year and above the $13.68 billion Visible Alpha forecast. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $8.42, up nearly 12% from the year-ago quarter but still 7 cents shy of estimates.
Charter added 514,000 mobile phone lines in the quarter, better than the roughly 477,000 that analysts were expecting. The company lost 60,000 internet subscribers, more than expected, but about 9,000 of those losses were due to the January wildfires in California. The company also lost fewer video subscribers than estimated at 181,000, much improved from the 405,000-subscriber decline a year ago.
Charter said its narrowing loss was "driven by new and simplified pricing and packaging," like its bundle that gives cable subscribers access to the ad-supported tier of a number of streaming services. TradingView Charter shares were up 11% in late trading. With today's surge, the stock has moved back into positive territory for 2025.
-Aaron McDade Stocks Trigger '100% Accurate' Bullish Signal The stock market just hit a milestone that some market watchers say is a sure sign of more gains ahead. Stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday completed a Zweig Breadth Thrust (ZBT), which is realized when the share of rising stocks increases from a moving average of less than 40% to more than 61.5% within a 10-day period. The rare occurrence, which has only been seen 19 times in the last 80 years, is considered a sign of increasing market momentum driven by broad bullish sentiment.
The Charging Bull sculpture near the New York Stock Exchange. Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images "This signal has been 100% accurate since WWII, with the S&P 500 higher 6- and 12-months later every single time," according to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. Looking at the last 19 ZBT signals, the S&P 500 has averaged a 6-month return of 14.8% and a 1-year return of 23.4%, according to Detrick.
Stocks have rebounded from their "Liberation Day" slump amid optimism that the White House is eager to defuse tensions with China, which the administration has slapped with tariffs totaling 145% this year. The S&P 500 was up slightly on Friday after rising more than 1.5% in each of the last three sessions. Not everyone is sold on ZBT’s predictive power.
Technical analyst Tom McClellan, in 2015, examined Breadth Thrusts between 1929 and 1934 and found them to be much less reliable bullish signals. The first signal in this period came in November 1930, and it did precede a strong upswing. "But its bullish effect petered out after just a few months, and the bear market was back on," McClellan wrote.
Over the next two years, four more Breadth Thrusts failed to break the bear market. "It was only in April 1933 that there was finally a good signal that led to follow-on buying," McClellan said. But that signal was followed by two more in 1934 that didn’t come to much.
McClellan was writing in 2015, when a ZBT signal was triggered just months after stocks hit a record high. "I cannot offer much in the way of optimistic commentary about this current ZBT signal," McClellan wrote, "especially since it has occurred at a point that appears to be the early stage of a new downtrend." Stocks did rise after that ZBT signal, but it was one of the weakest ZBT rallies on record, with the S&P 500 up just 1.4% and 7% over the next 6 and 12 months, respectively, according to Detrick's data.
-Colin Laidley Gold Levels to Watch as Metal Retreats From Record High Gold (XAUUSD) lost ground again Friday, extending a bumpy ride for the precious metal. Gold surged to its all-time high of near $3,500 early Tuesday before plunging on Wednesday, as investors digested headlines on tariffs and investors reassessed their appetite for risk. The price of gold has gained about 25% since the start of the year, boosted by worries that tariffs could slow economic growth and reignite inflation, sending investors flocking to the safe-have asset that is often seen a hedge against rising prices.
After gold hits its record high earlier this week, it staged a dramatic intraday reversal to form a bearish shooting star candlestick pattern. The recent downside move also coincided with a steep drop in the relative strength index (RSI) below overbought levels, indicating a strong momentum shift. Source: TradingView.com.
Zooming out, the commodity has trended sharply higher since mid-December, replicating a basic Elliot Wave pattern with five distinct price swings, which is then typically followed by a corrective phase. Investors should watch key support levels on gold's chart around $3,145, $2,955, and $2,790, while also watching a critical overhead area near $3,500. Gold was down 1.8% at $3,290 an ounce in recent trading.
Read the full technical analysis piece here. -Timothy Smith Tesla Extends Gains as US Loosens Self-Driving Car Rules Tesla (TSLA) shares jumped Friday, extending a rally that followed CEO Elon Musk's pledged to spend more of his time focusing on the company and less working with the federal government, as the Trump administration moved to loosen rules around self-driving cars. The stock was up over 9% in recent trading, making it one of the top-performing stocks on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Friday.
The Trump administration said Thursday it would loosen rules governing autonomous vehicles, in an effort to help U.S. firms compete with Chinese rivals. “This Administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy said in a release. “As part of DOT's innovation agenda, our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.” The move would benefit Tesla, which has long touted autonomous cars as central to its growth prospects.
Musk said during the company's earnings call Tuesday that Tesla expects to be selling fully autonomous rides in Austin, Texas, in June, with that business expanding to other cities this year and becoming financially material in the second half of 2026. Tesla shares have been rallying since the call, as investors focused on Musk's commitment to spend more time at Tesla, and the company's plans for a cheaper model and fully self-driving vehicles, rather than its weaker-than-expected results. Tesla shares have lost nearly one-third of their value since the start of 2025, far outpacing the decline of the benchmark S&P 500 index.
TradingView With Friday's gains, shares have added about 17% this week. Still, the electric vehicle maker’s stock has lost 30% of its value since the start of the year. -Nisha Gopalan Alphabet Climbs as Analysts Raise Targets on AI-Driven Growth Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) climbed Friday as several analysts raised their price targets for the stock after the tech giant delivered better-than-expected quarterly results and touted the early success of AI features.
Alphabet's Class A shares were up 2% at $165 in recent trading, propelling it into the ranks of the best-performing stocks on the S&P 500 Friday. Citi analysts raised their price target to $200 from $195, pointing to growing usage and monetization of AI features in Search, including AI Overviews, which Google said has reached 1.5 billion monthly users roughly a year after launch. “We believe Google’s GenAI search tools are gaining traction,” Citi said.
Bank of America, which likewise raised its price target to $200, said Google also “has data and distribution advantages” against rivals like ChatGPT developer OpenAI in terms of driving AI usage growth. Wedbush boosted its target to $200 as well, calling out Google’s growth potential “as investors gain more comfort related to the current macro environment, regulatory risk, and the impact of generative AI on Google Search.” Meanwhile, Jefferies analysts reiterated a price target of $200, while JPMorgan maintained a target of $195. CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during the company’s earnings call Thursday that Alphabet still plans to spend $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, most of which is expected to go toward building out the company's AI infrastructure.
The investments “should help us have a more resilient organization, irrespective of macroeconomic conditions," Ashkenazi said. T-Mobile US Sinks on Slow Phone Subscriber Growth Shares of T-Mobile US (TMUS) tumbled early Friday after the cellphone service provider said it added fewer wireless customers than expected and warned that customers would have to pay more if new tariffs raised phone prices. The company reported that it had 495,000 new postpaid phone customers in the first quarter, a drop of 37,000 from the year before.
Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for 499,000. In addition, the postpaid "churn rate," a key metric for the industry, rose 5 basis points to 0.91%. Adding to the concerns for investors were comments by CEO Mike Sievert, who toldYahoo!
Finance that T-Mobile is closely watching the situation with potential tariffs on cellphones, and said that if they happen and are significant, "that's going to have to be borne by the customer. I mean, our model isn't prepared for something like that." The news offset the carrier’s better-than-expected financial results.
T-Mobile posted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.58 on revenue that grew nearly 7% year-over-year to $20.89 billion, both above forecasts. The company increased its full-year outlook for core adjusted EBITDA and raised the lower end of its guidance ranges for net cash provided by operating activities and adjusted free cash flow. TradingView T-Mobile shares were down more than 9% recently, cutting the stock's year-to-date gain to about 7%.
-Bill McColl Major Indexes on Track for Winning Week With three straight days of big gains under their belt, major U.S. stock indexes entered Friday's session on track to post weekly gains for the second time in the last three weeks. Through Thursday's close, the Dow had gained 2.4% so far this week, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up 3.8% and 5.4%, respectively. Though sizable, this week's gains are still lower than those recorded the week before last.
The indexes remain in the red for the month, though the Nasdaq is just barely so. Through Thursday's close, the Nasdaq Composite was down less than 1% in April, while the S&P 500 and Dow were off 2.2% and 4.5%, respectively. TradingView
