Shares of oil and gas services firm Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) rallied as much as 4.7% on Friday, before settling into a 3.4% gain as of 12:30 p.m. ET.

Halliburton is the third-largest oilfield services company in the world, so any time oil prices go up, it's a recipe for potential further investment by oil companies in exploration, completion, and production enhancement services.

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So, it's no surprise that Halliburton was rising when oil prices spiked on Friday, following Israel's strike on OPEC+ country Iran.

Israel pummels Iran's nuclear and military capabilities

Last night and early this morning, Israel struck Iran's nuclear facilities and military complexes, along with targeted assassinations of top Iran Revolutionary Guard military officials and nuclear scientists.

While details are still becoming known, it's pretty clear the Israeli strikes have been very devastating for Iran. Of note, Iran is the fourth-largest oil producer in the OPEC+ cartel, and the world's third-largest producer of natural gas.

On Friday, oil prices were up 6.3% on the news of the strikes, even though a spokesperson for Iran said that the Israeli strikes hadn't targeted oil production facilities or refineries within the country -- only military and nuclear facilities. Nevertheless, the prospect of an escalating regional war in the oil-rich Middle East still led to a spike in oil prices today, which had fallen substantially to begin the year.

Halliburton stock is cheap, but also for a reason

Amid the recent downturn in oil prices, Halliburton has delivered fairly lackluster results, with revenue down 6.7% in its recent quarter. That being said, Halliburton's stock valuation is also very low, at just 9.2 times trailing earnings and about 8.6 times this year's earnings estimates, with a dividend yield of 3.1%.

Like most oil stocks, Halliburton doesn't have great growth prospects, and is also cyclical. However, Halliburton and other oil stocks can effectively serve as a hedge against global wars that threaten oil supplies, as we're seeing today, while also paying a dividend along the way.

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Shares of Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) rallied 20% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence .

Coupang reported first quarter earnings in the early part of the month, and while results may have looked mediocre on the surface, they were actually much better than advertised.

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Stocks in general also generally climbed in May, as April's trade tensions eased somewhat, adding an additional tailwind.

Coupang promises 20% growth this year

In its first-quarter report, Coupang grew revenue 11%, which missed expectations, although earnings per share of $0.06 beat expectations by $0.01. Yet while that headline revenue figure "missed," that was likely due to a massive currency effect. In constant currency of largely the Korean won, Coupang's growth was actually 21%.

Coupang's main products segment, largely reflecting its Korean e-commerce services, grew 6% to $6.9 billion and 16% in constant currency, with customers up 9% from last year. Meanwhile, Coupang's smaller Developing Offerings, which include international e-commerce, the Eats delivery platform, Play, Fintech, and luxury e-commerce platform Farfetch, grew 67% to $1.0 billion, or 78% in constant currency.

Management also showed its confidence by authorizing a $1 billion share repurchase program.

The two big positives were one, management's projection for 20% revenue growth in constant currency for the full year, which means it's optimistic the current growth cadence will continue despite economic uncertainty. Second, Coupang showed impressive margin expansion in the quarter. In Q1, gross margins expanded 2.1 percentage points, with product segment gross margins up 3.0 percentage points, while adjusted EBITDA margins expanded 0.88 percentage points and product EBITDA margins grew 0.81 percentage points.

E-commerce stocks usually suffer from low margins, so that margin expansion was a big positive sign.

Coupang continues to execute, but the stock looks expensive

After its recent run, Coupang's market cap has rallied to over $51 billion, or over 200 times earnings and 130 times this year's earnings estimates. While the company appears to be dominating the Korean e-commerce market, it looks like investors are anticipating some of its other developing offerings to become big businesses as well.

That being said, this past quarter showed promising execution and margin expansion from Coupang's team. So, it's not a surprise to see the stock higher, as consumer-oriented stocks largely recovered from the April tariff-related malaise.

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EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) shares were bouncing back today, up 10% as of 2 p.m. ET.

EchoStar's shares have been under severe pressure since the beginning of the year, but especially in the past week. That's because management decided to not make two separate interest payments on its debt, as it awaits a decision from the FCC regarding its spectrum. Management has a 30-day grace period to do so before the company is technically in default.

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The spectrum debate has to do with the pace of EchoStar's 5G rollout, and is also indirectly linked up with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Can EchoStar bounce back?

Back in May, the new Trump-appointed FCC director sent a letter to EchoStar, stating that the extension it was granted to complete its 5G network buildout by the prior administration was under review. EchoStar had purchased valuable spectrum years ago, on the terms that it would build a 5G network to increase competition in the industry. However, EchoStar's buildout has been slow, which is perhaps not surprising, given its declining legacy business in satellite TV.

In an interesting wrinkle, Musk's SpaceX had led a campaign to win more satellite spectrum for its own services, including the spectrum held by EchoStar. That may have played a part in the FCC's initiation of a review, given Musk's ties to the Trump administration.

However, late yesterday, EchoStar issued a press release introducing its new Boost Mobile Celero tablet, the Celero5G TAB, a low-cost tablet that takes advantage of EchoStar's 5G network. While normally not that significant, the announcement of a new 5G product could go a ways toward making EchoStar's case to the FCC that it deserves to keep its spectrum.

Furthermore, it appears Musk's relationship with the Trump administration is now on the outs, given Musk's storm of posts today criticizing the administration and Republicans in Congress for the deficit expansion in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" making its way through Congress.

If Musk and Trump have a falling out, then the FCC may not aggressively pursue EchoStar's spectrum on behalf of SpaceX, if SpaceX's campaign was in fact a motivating factor in initiating the review.

EchoStar is a high-risk, high-reward turnaround play

EchoStar's stock has been punished severely, so it could make for a turnaround play if in fact it's able to deploy 5G to more areas and grow its low-cost Boost Mobile offerings. However, its high debt, declining legacy satellite TV business, and unresolved battle with the FCC remain big risks.

Betting on a big recovery is a highly risky proposition, and only appropriate for speculators at this point.

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Shares of Navitas Semiconductor (NASDAQ: NVTS) rocketed 164.2% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Entering the month, Navitas has been a small designer of gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) chip designs. These niche chips had primarily targeted electric vehicles and electrified infrastructure. But given the recent downturns in these markets, Navitas had seen its revenue go into reverse and its bottom line continuing to lose money.

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But in mid-May, Nvidia named Navitas as a key partner for Nvidia's upcoming Kyber data center infrastructure, which will be a new architecture to support Rubin-based sever racks beginning in 2027.

While other power chip providers were also named, the fact that Navitas was so small, at just $350 million or so market cap at the time of the announcement, caused a massive rally in the stock.

Navitas then used the opportunity to sell stock and bolster its balance sheet, extending its runway, likely until the 2027 time frame.

Nvidia helps out the tiny Navitas

As Nvidia explained in a May 20 blog post, the current 54 V DC power distribution systems in today's data centers will push up against their physical limits as AI server racks go to needing 200 kilowatts to power next-generation AI chips.

To counter this, Nvidia is developing a ground-up redesign of data centers to an 800 V HVDC power architecture. Nvidia also noted that it was collaborating with a number of power chip and infrastructure companies early on as it develops the new data center power infrastructure, which Nvidia plans to unveil in 2027 for its upcoming Rubin-based systems.

The following day, Navitas published its own blog post explaining how the new 800 V architecture will use both Navitas' SiC chips in the power room of data centers, which convert AC grid power to DC power for the data center, and then GaN-based power converters at the server rack level.

The day of the blogs, May 21, Navitas rocketed 150% higher, before retreating. But then the following week, Navitas disclosed it had exhausted its $50 million equity at-the-market sales facility, and that it had filed for a new $50 million facility. Normally, when a company notes it has and will dilute shareholders, the stock goes down. But since Navitas' stock had gone up so much, investors viewed the capital raise as a positive, in that it fortified Navitas' balance sheet to bridge more of the time gap between now and 2027.

Navitas is an intriguing story, but risky

While the prospect of a small company partnering up with Nvidia is highly tantalizing, there weren't any financial terms disclosed in the announcements. That makes sense, as the platform isn't even fully developed yet, and revenues from the venture aren't likely to come before 2027.

So it's hard to say right now if Navitas has moved too far, too fast. Still, last month's cash raise will bolster Navitas' balance sheet, giving it more time to build out its platform in anticipation of the 2027 Kyber rollout.

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Shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) rallied 24.1% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

While Nvidia reported an earnings beat late in the month, that post-earnings gain only amounted to a small portion of May's gain.

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Before the earnings release, Nvidia, like many technology stocks, rallied in a big way when tariff tensions eased in mid-May, after the U.S. and China announced a détente in their trade dispute, paving the way for talks. Around that time, the Trump administration also made deals for significant AI chip sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Nvidia is part of the art of the deal

Like many technology and semiconductor stocks, Nvidia rallied in a big way after May 12, when U.S. and China agreed to ratchet down their tariffs on each other. The U.S. lowered its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to just 30%, which incorporates the 10% universal tariff and extra 20% tariff meant to penalize China for the flow of fentanyl to the United States.

Nvidia, like most stocks, especially technology stocks, rallied on the news, as these stocks had still yet to fully recover after the post-"Liberation Day" stock market crash on April 2.

The immediate "relief rally" was soon followed by the announcement of large AI deals the Trump administration struck with both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, Humain, a division of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, will build a 500 MW AI cluster, composed of "several hundred thousand" Nvidia GPUs, which will be deployed over the next several years. In addition, a deal was soon reached with the UAE's G42, whereby Nvidia will be able to ship 500,000 Nvidia chips, starting this year.

These big deals in the Middle East probably boosted Nvidia's growth expectations, as the current administration also officially nixed the Biden administration's "AI diffusion rule." That rule was supposed to go into effect May 15 and was to limit AI chip sales to certain countries depending on their friendliness to the U.S., as well as the potential for chips to be smuggled to adversaries such as China.

Yet while the administration relaxed chip sales to countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it erected even stronger barriers to China. In April, the Trump administration banned the sale of Nvidia's H20 chip to China, which was a modified version of Hopper deemed appropriate for the Chinese market. But without guidelines for a replacement, Nvidia had to take a $5.5 billion inventory charge to its H20 inventory.

Despite the Hopper limitation, Nvidia was still able to beat expectations for its fiscal first quarter ending in April and reported on May 28. In the quarter, revenue grew 69% to $44.1 billion, with adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share up 33% to $0.81. The lower profit growth was due to the H20 writedown, but Nvidia was able to beat expectations anyway.

All in all, the results seemed to reassure investors that the company should be able to manage geopolitical tensions, and that its supply issues ramping the new Blackwell chip have largely been resolved.

Bear and bull cases swirl about

After May's recovery, Nvidia trades at 44 times earnings and 31 times forward earnings.

That's a reasonable multiple if Nvidia can maintain its dominance in AI systems and find a way to regain some of its lost China revenue. This year, all eyes will be on the company's new Blackwell chip, as well as how Nvidia's customers innovate new and exciting AI use cases.

On the risk side, investors should watch for newer custom AI chips designed in-house by the cloud giants, which could continue to take share. While Nvidia is currently the dominant standard in neutral GPUs that work for a variety of uses cases, the emergence of custom chips that can run workloads at much lower prices could eventually slow down Nvidia's torrid growth.

So with Nvidia's stock now back closer to all-time highs, the risk-reward is more balanced today.

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Shares of government technology consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) fell on Wednesday, down as much as 4.9% before recovering modestly to a 4% decline as of 1:37 p.m. ET.

Booz Allen sold off by a double-digit number last Friday following its fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings release, before recovering a bit yesterday. But today, sell-side analysts downgraded their ratings and price targets, and these delayed negative takes from last week's earnings appear to be sending shares down again today.

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Goldman Sachs downgrades to sell

Today, analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded Booz Allen Hamilton shares from neutral to sell, while lowering the firm's price target on shares from $108 to $94. As of this writing, Booz Allen's stock price is $104.75.

The Goldman analysts downgraded shares because they now see medium-term earnings growth as "flat," given the new outlook from management on last Friday's conference call with analysts. On that call, management noted that it sees revenue growth between 0% and 4% in fiscal 2026 (ending in March 2026), down from 12.4% last year, with an adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings range of $6.20 to $6.55. That compares with $6.35 earnings last year.

If by "the medium term" Goldman means the one-year outlook, it's right on that front. And if that remains the growth rate for Booz Allen going forward, then yes, the current multiple of around 16.5 could be correct, or even a little high.

But there's a high likelihood growth resumes after this year

Goldman seems a bit short-term-oriented and pessimistic here, assuming this year's DOGE cuts are a one-time reset. Booz Allen projected a low double-digit decline in its civil business this year, which makes up 35% of its revenue. But that means its defense and intelligence businesses, which make up 65% of revenue, are still likely to grow in the double digits, in order for the whole company to reach management's 2% overall growth projection. Of note, Booz Allen has grown at an 11.7% organic rate over the past three years.

But if the civil business stabilizes after this year, it seems like Booz Allen should continue to resume its prior growth rate in 2027. That means its P/E multiple could go back to the low-20s, which has been about its average over the past decade.

Thus, long-term-oriented investors may wish to look at Booz Allen shares on this recent weakness.

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Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have positions in Booz Allen Hamilton and has the following options: short December 2025 $55 puts on Booz Allen Hamilton. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool recommends Booz Allen Hamilton. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Shares of quantum computing company IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) skyrocketed 37% on Thursday, after CEO Niccolo de Masi sat down with Barron's for an interview. During the interview, he outlined a lofty goal for the company, and even said that IonQ would be the "Nvidia" of quantum computing.

However, a mere aspirational comment like that shouldn't put this speculative stock up by this much. Delving into the interview, there really wasn't anything tangible to warrant this kind of stock price increase.

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An Nvidia mention gets you far

As we've seen over the past two years, whenever a stock is compared with Nvidia or has been shown to have received an investment from or partnership with the company, speculators tend to pile in. This happened just last week with respect to newly public "neo-cloud" CoreWeave, which skyrocketed after it was disclosed Nvidia had increased its position in the stock.

However, that can be a double-edged sword. After all, SoundHound AI plunged earlier this year when it was disclosed Nvidia had sold its entire stake in the company. SoundHound's stock hasn't recovered.

In the Barron's interview, De Masi said of the quantum computing industry: "I believe IonQ will be the Nvidia player. There will be other people that copy us and follow us; they have always copied and followed us."

No doubt, IonQ was the first publicly traded quantum stock, with IonQ's strategy focused on early commercialization through its trapped-ion process. Meanwhile, other competitors have taken other approaches they believe will ultimately win out, but may take longer to commercialize.

Later in the interview, de Masi predicted that someone would "pay hundreds of billions of dollars to buy IonQ," because he anticipates a major cloud computing provider will want IonQ's quantum technology in-house as a differentiator.

Given that the company's market cap was only around $8.75 billion heading into today, it's perhaps not surprising the stock is seeing a big surge on those comments.

But there's no "there" there -- yet

Investors should be very cautious of any quantum computing stock, and especially of chasing one on a day like today. For all of de Masi's talk, IonQ only generated $7.6 million in revenue last quarter, with a $32.3 million loss.

And for all the "Nvidia" parallels, it's very unclear how big the quantum computing market will be. Furthermore, Nvidia was able to develop its artificial intelligence (AI) GPUs and CUDA software almost completely unchallenged for 15 years, prior to the explosion of AI technology. However, IonQ not only has a slew of start-up competitors, but the large cloud players De Masi references mostly also have their own in-house quantum research as well.

Needless to say, this rally is largely based on hype, and could be driven by meme stock investors trying to force a short squeeze, with about 18% of IonQ's stock sold short. But as we've seen in the past, big surges like this can be fleeting. Quantum commercialization is still years away -- perhaps many years.

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Billy Duberstein and/or his clients has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Shares of solar stocks, including rooftop solar provider Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN), renewables-focused utility NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), and renewable power provider AES Corp. (NYSE: AES), plunged on Thursday, falling 40%, 9.1%, and 5.2%, respectively, as of 12:50 p.m. ET.

Solar stocks took it on the chin -- especially residential rooftop solar providers -- after the "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives this morning.

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Even worse than feared for solar and renewable energy

While it was expected that the bill would phase out some of the Inflation Reduction Act's renewable energy tax credits over time, the House bill was actually even worse than feared for the solar industry. The bill now phases out most clean-energy tax credits for utility projects either begun more than 60 days after passage or placed into service after 2028. The bill also restricts foreign entities' involvement in renewable energy projects, making it even more difficult for developers to deploy projects within the tight time frame.

This morning's bill was more restrictive than the version of the phaseout included in the House Ways and Means Committee version released May 12. Hence the reaction from utility solar and renewable companies like NextEra and AES. For instance, AES has 11.7 gigawatts of contracted energy projects that have been signed but are not yet operational, and only half are currently under construction. So, it's unclear how much of that backlog may be at risk.

But the bill was also much, much more dire for residential rooftop solar companies, throwing the entire industry into chaos. According to an earlier version of the bill, the tax credit for installing rooftop solar would be phased out for those who owned their systems, but would stay in place for homeowners and business owners who leased their systems -- which applied to the vast majority of rooftop solar deployments.

However, the bill that passed this morning also rolled back the tax credit for leased systems, which one Wall Street analyst called "disastrous" for the rooftop solar industry. Another claimed the bill as passed would mark "the end" of the U.S. rooftop solar industry as it is currently constructed.

That's why Sunrun, whose entire business is built around residential solar, is down a stunning 40% in a single day.

In addition to the phased-out tax credit, Sunrun also has exposure to imported components and modules, which will also now be taxed by the administration's recently implemented tariffs and could be affected by foreign partnership restrictions in the bill. Sunrun imports about 50% of its solar panels, and even its domestically purchased batteries and other components have exposure to Chinese supply chains. So, the recent tariffs and other limits on foreign components and partnerships in the bill could make things doubly bad for Sunrun.

But the bill isn't law yet

It should be noted that the One Big, Beautiful Bill has only passed the House, and by a single vote. The bill will now head to the Senate, where many Senators have expressed reservations about the current House provisions. So, investors should expect more Washington dealmaking and negotiation in the weeks ahead.

However, the passage of this bill with these worse-than-expected provisions is still a big net negative for any domestic solar player. Interested or current investors need to hope that some of the credits will be reintroduced in the Senate version and then passed after the two bills are reconciled.

As of now, I would stay away from solar-exposed stocks, especially rooftop solar names, until the dust settles.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025

Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Shares of Buffett holding Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) rallied 6.2% in Thursday trading.

Occidental reported earnings last night, with mixed results. However, investors focused on the profit metric, as Occidental displayed resilient production metrics with more efficient costs. Furthermore, and perhaps even more meaningful than the earnings report, oil stocks were generally up, as the administration announced a trade deal with the U.K. today, spurring optimism that a global tariff-induced recession may be avoided.

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Occidental does more with less

In the first quarter, Occidental reported revenue of $6.8 billion, up 13.7% year over year, and $0.87 in adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share (EPS). While the top line slightly missed, investors apparently took comfort in the solid bottom line, which beat expectations by a solid $0.11.

One can thank Occidental's technology chops for more efficiently turning profits, even in a lower oil price environment. In the company's presentation, management noted a 17% improvement in drilling duration per well in the Permian Basin, resulting in 18% lower costs per well. Management also divulged that as a result of efficiencies, it was reducing its Permian rig count by two, and also said it was lowering combined operating and capital expenditures by $350 million this year, with only "minimal" impact to production.

Of note, it was Occidental's huge, low-cost inventory in the Permian along with its commitment to technology enabling lower costs that drew Buffett to invest in the stock.

The lower costs were music to investors' ears, who have worried about profitability in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariff announcements. Since April 2, the price of oil has plunged as recession odds have increased.

However, there was also optimism over tariff and trade negotiations today, as Trump announced the administration's first trade deal, made with the U.K. In a press conference announcing the deal, Trump also said other deals were close to coming to fruition, and that this weekend's initiation of trade talks with China would be "very substantive," saying the current tariff on China "can't go any higher."

In response to the trade deal optimism, the price of oil rose 3.3%. That being said, today's oil price is still a hair below $60 per barrel. In the first quarter, Occidental realized an average price of $71.07.

Occidental has been a Buffett laggard

The current share price of Occidental is lower than Buffett's average price, so investors may realize an opportunity if Buffett turns out to be right on the name. That being said, it's still looking like oil and gas stocks may struggle this year.

After all, even if trade deals are struck, the universal 10% tariff on most countries will stick and is new this year, which could slow economic activity. Add in the fact that OPEC+ just increased its production quota two days ago, and the global oil industry appears on the verge of a price war.

That being said, Occidental appears to be one of the most efficient U.S. producers with lots of reserves in the Permian Basin. So, it should remain a strong house, but perhaps on a bad block, in 2025.

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Shares of semiconductor software design firm Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ: CDNS) rallied 17.1%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Cadence makes the electronic design automation software that chipmakers use to design chips. In addition, Cadence also has two other smaller but very high-growth segments in chip IP blocks, which chip designers can easily incorporate into their own designs, as well as overall system design and analysis software.

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While there was a lot of concern for tech stocks and specifically semiconductor stocks following April 2 "Liberation Day," Cadence reported strong Q1 earnings toward the end of the month and raised its full-year guidance. Moreover, management said it wasn't seeing any tariff-related change in customer behavior three weeks after April 2.

AI chip competition is overwhelming macro concerns

In the first quarter, Cadence reported revenue growth of 23.1% to $1.24 billion, meeting expectations, and adjusted non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share grew 34.2% to $1.57, coming in ahead of expectations. However, perhaps more important was that Cadence actually increased its revenue guidance for the full year to 12% growth at the midpoint, and $6.78 in adjusted EPS at the midpoint.

Coming off of April 2, many had feared the worst, especially for chip companies. However, CEO Anirudh Devgan noted Cadence hadn't noticed any change in its customers' behavior, saying:

We haven't seen any shifts in customers' behavior at this time, as they continue investing in their next generation designs, recognizing that today's R&D efforts are critical to deliver their groundbreaking products of tomorrow. Additionally, our ratable software business model, strong Q1 exit backlog and a predominantly recurring revenue mix, provide resilience and excellent visibility.

More and more companies are designing their own proprietary chips for various use cases to drive differentiation, whether it's the cloud providers or even new AI start-ups designing their own AI accelerators, or existing chip giants such as smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm trying to penetrate new verticals such as autos and PCs in order to diversify, for instance.

Even though Cadence's customers operate in a cyclical industry, given that custom chipmaking is usually a major strategic goal and it can take years for new designs to come to fruition, the research and development behind custom chipmaking going to Cadence is unlikely to get cut, even in a bad economy.

Cadence is a great company, but at a high price

Given its lower-risk, double-digit growth outlook, it's no wonder Cadence now trades at over 45 times this year's adjusted earnings estimates. That's certainly not cheap, but it is perhaps a fitting valuation for a company that has delivered low to mid-teens growth and margin expansion every year for the past six years.

In the age of AI, investors should probably expect great growth and margins for Cadence, and it should perform well over the long term. That being said, it may be hard for the stock to garner significant upside in the near-term, given its fairly full valuation.

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Shares of the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC)-focused exchange traded fund iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ: IBIT) rallied 14.3% in April, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence .

The IBIT is the most-traded and liquid Bitcoin ETF, and is run by Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), the largest asset manager in the world. IBIT is essentially a way to buy Bitcoin through traditional custodial entities, and its value tends to mirror the price of Bitcoin exactly.

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Bitcoin has often been touted as a store of value and hedge against geopolitical disaster or runaway inflation, similar to gold; however, Bitcoin hasn't really traded that way in the past. Typically, Bitcoin's performance has mirrored that of speculative technology stocks during past downturns.

However, the unique dynamics following April 2 "Liberation Day" tariffs led Bitcoin to actually display some hints of differentiated performance against tech stocks -- although like tech stocks, it also recovered as trade war fears ebbed toward the end of the month.

Is Bitcoin finally becoming a store of value?

Up until April 2, Bitcoin was having a pretty terrible year, performing relatively in line with the Nasdaq Composite index in anticipation of the April 2 tariff announcement.

Interestingly, following the April 2 tariff announcements, Bitcoin fell, but not as much as tech stocks did. Then from roughly April 8 to April 21, Bitcoin actually appreciated, even though tech stocks took another leg down, with Bitcoin actually mirroring the performance of gold during that time:

IBIT data by YCharts

After April 2, a few unusual things happened. Long-term bond yields went up even as the value of the dollar declined. Usually, when U.S. government bond yields rise, the dollar strengthens. But after the tariff announcement, bonds went up but the dollar declined. This is usually a phenomenon of emerging markets, and signaled perhaps international investors selling U.S. assets, as the U.S. became seen as a source of risk, which is rare.

With U.S. Treasuries perhaps not regarded as the safe haven they were and the dollar's supremacy in question, it's perhaps not surprising that Bitcoin, regarded by some as an alternative store of value, rallied.

What is interesting is that on April 22, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that there will probably be a "de-escalation" with China, stocks experienced a big relief rally. The price of gold, which had appreciated all year, declined slightly on the lowering of risk. However, Bitcoin actually rallied, in line with tech stocks.

So, it appears Bitcoin had the best of both worlds in April: It acted somewhat as a hedge against a weak dollar and U.S. financial instability, but also as a "risk-on" technology play when trends reversed.

Was April the start of a new chapter for Bitcoin?

While the price action in Bitcoin was nice to see in April, it's unlikely Bitcoin can act both as a "risk-off" hedge against global economic disaster but then also display the "risk-on" characteristics of tech stocks. Assets should really display one characteristic or the other. But Bitcoin is still a very young asset, so investors may still be figuring out its investment characteristics.

It should also be noted that when stepping back to the beginning of the year, Bitcoin has still mostly trended along with tech stocks, and has underperformed gold by a large degree. Gold, of note, has traditionally been hedge against global currency crises and runaway inflation.

IBIT data by YCharts

Therefore, April was a definitely interesting month for Bitcoin, in that it began to deviate somewhat from tech stocks in performance, and had inklings of being regarded as a "safe haven" against geopolitical turmoil. But as Bitcoin's underperformance relative to gold since the beginning of the year shows, Bitcoin is perhaps not quite at that level, yet. As of now, Bitcoin is acting somewhat in between the dichotomous assets of tech stocks and gold.

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Shares of Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) rallied 11.2% in April, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, vastly outperforming the broader S&P 500 index, which was down 0.7% in a highly volatile month.

After the shock of the April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcements, many stocks sold off. However, Uber managed to recover, as the company made several announcements with autonomous driving companies, and late in the month, its CEO said the company wasn't seeing signs of recession.

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Uber aims to become a key partner for robotaxi companies

Coming into this year, some had worried how Uber might fit in to the autonomous driving future. Waymo usage is currently on the rise in California and Austin, and Tesla aims to launch its autonomous robotaxi service next month. Uber does own some 23.5% of autonomous trucking technology company Aurora, but other than that, it doesn't have in-house autonomous technology anymore.

However, Uber made news on several fronts regarding autonomy in April. First, Uber and Volkswagen announced Volkswagen would deploy its autonomous Buzz ID minivans, powered by Volkswagen's in-house autonomous subsidiary Moia, exclusively on the Uber app in Los Angeles in 2026.

That news came on the heels of published data on Waymo's first month of operations in Austin. That's important for Uber because Waymo's March Austin launch was the first city launch made exclusively in partnership through the Uber app. According to Yipit Data, Waymo adoption in Austin's first month has been double that of Waymo's San Francisco launch a year and a half ago. That increased demand can likely be mostly attributed to Uber's dominant position in ride-hailing today, which bodes well for other partnerships with autonomous driving companies going forward.

No signs of recession yet

With the tariff-induced downturn in April, many also now fear recession, with possible consequences for Uber. However, at an economic summit in late April, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company hasn't seen signs of recession yet in its business. Moreover, Khosrowshahi pointed out that Uber may be more recession-resistant than some might think. In a recession scenario, Uber's labor costs would come down and prices would follow, spurring incremental demand.

Uber's price elasticity and apparent adaptability to the new age of autonomous driving were thus both positives for the month, thereby driving the company's share price higher in April. Uber investors will get their next bit of data on the company in its earnings release on Wednesday, May 7.

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Shares of silicon carbide chipmaker Wolfspeed (NYSE: WOLF) rocketed 26.9% on Monday. The move follows on a big up day last Wednesday as well.

Wolfspeed doesn't report earnings until May 8, and there wasn't any especially relevant company-specific news today. However, the beginning of earnings season has spurred some cautious optimism that Wolfspeed's end markets might be recovering.

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With such a sky-high short interest of 41% of shares outstanding and 64% of Wolfspeed's float as of April 15, it appears as though many short sellers have decided -- or have been forced -- to close out their positions, leading to a "short squeeze."

Texas Instruments sees an industrial and auto chip recovery

Wolfspeed has spent billions of dollars and taken on significant debt in order to build out silicon carbide (SiC) manufacturing capacity in the U.S. SiC is a difficult material to work with, but it also makes for a more conductive chip, which is especially useful in high-voltage, high-temperature applications like electric vehicles (EV) and other industrial infrastructure.

While a strong industrial and auto market seems far-fetched in light of the administration's tariff policies, industrial and auto chips have actually already been in a protracted downturn ever since interest rates shot up at the end of 2022 and into 2023. Starting in 2023, the industrial chip market saw seven straight quarters of declines. Over that time, Wolfspeed's stock has cratered under the weight of its ambitious investments and tepid demand. The stock cratered another 47% in March after it was suspected the company might not receive its expected $750 million in CHIPS Act money.

However, last week on April 23, chip giant Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN), which also has a high concentration in auto and industrial markets, noted it was seeing a "broad recovery across sectors and geographies," with low inventories across all end markets. Also encouraging was that TI executive Haviv Ilan said he believed the recovery was real and not just a pull-in to get ahead of impending tariffs.

While Texas Instruments doesn't make SiC chips as Wolfspeed does, it is known as somewhat of a bellwether in the industrial and auto chip markets. Thus, Wolfspeed's stock took off the next day on Wednesday of last week, and the rally held up through Friday.

So why the spike today? It's hard to say, but there's the potential that some hedge funds may have received margin calls over the weekend from banks and were therefore forced to close out more of their short positions by buying the stock back today.

The beginning of a massive recovery? Not so fast

Despite the past week's massive short squeeze that has lifted Wolfspeed's shares some 65% off of their lows to begin last week, investors should not take this as an "all clear." Wolfspeed is still heavily indebted, and it may not receive the promised CHIPS Act money, which could stress the company despite signs of an end-market recovery. Moreover, Wolfspeed has appointed a new CEO, who will begin his tenure this week on May 1. A new company head adds even more uncertainty.

There are other automotive/industrial chip plays with much less risk than Wolfspeed at the moment and which should also see a big upside if a recovery materializes. Investors would take much less risk with one of Wolfspeed's profitable rivals, rather than this loss-making meme stock, which is more like a lottery ticket at this point.

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Shares of solar inverter leader Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) plunged on Tuesday, down 14.2% as of 12:11 PM EDT, which was all the more notable as the Nasdaq Composite was up by a big 2.6% at that time.

Enphase not only missed analyst estimates for the quarter, but also guided below estimates for the current second quarter. Moreover, tariffs threaten the company's margins later in the year.

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Enphase whiffs

In the first quarter, Enphase reported 35.2% revenue growth to $356.1 million, along with adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share of $0.68, which was nearly double the year-ago earnings figure.

You might think 35% revenue growth and 100% earnings growth is a great number to post, but Enphase was actually lapping a phenomenally bad quarter at the very trough of the solar cycle last year. Thus, analyst expectations were even higher, at $362 million and $0.73 in earnings per share.

Moreover, management guided for essentially flat revenue this quarter, in a range between $340 million and $380 million. The midpoint was below analyst estimates of $376 million.

Additionally, with tariffs top of mind for investors, CEO Badri Kothandaraman noted that the second quarter would see a 2% gross margin headwind due to tariffs, which would then increase to a 6% to 8% impact in Q3 and Q4, since Enphase has already built some inventory for the current quarter.

Enphase benefits big from IRA subsidies

Not only does Enphase face a tough macroeconomic environment, as consumers likely shy away from big-ticket purchases such as solar panels, but current politics only has negative potential implications. Not only will tariffs hurt the company's gross margins this year, but Enphase also receives significant subsidies and tax benefits as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

For instance, the IRA currently boosts Enphase's gross margins by over 10 percentage points, and the act's tax credits also lower Enphase's tax rate by six percentage points. The IRA also boosts growth, as it provides additional incentives for solar installers that use Enphase's microinverters and batteries. While the IRA is still the law of the land today, it's unclear if the current Administration and Congress will try to claw back the Act in part or in whole. So, that's also another negative overhang.

However, this long list of negatives could be an opportunity for long-term believers in residential solar. Enphase's stock is now 84% off its all-time highs, and shares currently trade at 18.7 times this year's earnings estimates and 13.1 times 2026 estimates. While risks abound, that's still the lowest valuation for the stock in recent history, and the company is still profitable.

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Shares of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) rallied 4% on Friday, well above the market's return.

The country's largest bank released its earnings today, which beat analyst expectations. Of course, past results don't matter that much, as investors are focused on the forward outlook in light of the administration's tariffs and potential trade war.

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However, management increased its annual outlook for net interest income and also posted strong capital ratios. That might have provided some comfort for investors who bought the stock today after the recent market correction.

JPMorgan remains a safe haven in an uncertain world

In the first quarter, JPMorgan saw net managed revenue rise 8% year over year to $46.0 billion, while adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share, adjusted for one-time costs, was $4.91, about $0.27 higher than expected.

The company also posted a very strong 21% return on tangible equity while bolstering its balance sheet with a 15.4% Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio. Furthermore, management increased the company's 2025 outlook for net interest income to $94.5 billion, up by half a billion from last quarter.

The beats came despite JPMorgan increasing its provisions for loan losses to $3.3 billion, up from just $1.9 billion last year. That's perhaps unsurprising in light of the tariff-related volatility we have seen, which has increased the odds of a recession later this year to about 50% on average, according to the bank.

However, recent market volatility has helped boost trading revenues, which were up a strong 21%, higher than the expected low-double-digit growth. Meanwhile, the investment banking segment saw signs of life on higher debt issuance, with investment bank (IB) fees up 12%. And despite the market sell-off, JPMorgan's wealth management segment brought in another $90 billion in assets in the first quarter.

JPMorgan remains a safe blue chip bank stock with dry powder

Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon made a big point of JPMorgan's rock-solid balance sheet, which could enable the company to weather economic turbulence and perhaps capitalize on opportunities this year. He noted:

We continue to believe it is prudent to maintain excess capital and ample liquidity in this environment -- our CET1 ratio remained very strong at 15.4%, and we have an extraordinary amount of liquidity, with $1.5 trillion of cash and marketable securities... As always, we hope for the best but prepare the Firm for a wide range of scenarios.

JPMorgan's stock still trades at around 12 times earnings, which is fairly cheap. That said, the threat of potential recession or stagflation remains due to the current tariffs and trade wars.

While bank stocks could be susceptible to "economic turbulence," JPMorgan seems like a very safe player that investors can buy or hold with confidence.

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Shares of consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) fell on Friday, down as much as 5.1% before recovering a bit to a 1.7% decline as of 1 p.m. ET. The decline was notable in comparison with the S&P 500 index, which had rallied 1.3% at that time.

Booz Allen had some negative news today as a result of the Department of Defense announcing big spending cuts. The company gets virtually all of its revenue from government contracts, and the stock has sold off hard since Election Day on the expectation it would lose business.

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However, are today's cuts already priced into the stock?

Pete Hegseth announces $5.1 billion in Defense Department cuts

Last night, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced $5.1 billion in cuts from the Department of Defense budget. Booz Allen was listed as one of the consulting contracts that were eliminated.

While $5.1 billion certainly sounds like a lot, only $1.8 billion of that total had been allocated to consulting companies. And of that $1.8 billion, Booz Allen was mentioned along with Accenture (NYSE: ACN), Deloitte, and "others."

On the heels of the announcement, Noah Poponak at Goldman Sachs lowered his price target on Booz Allen from $150 to $109, roughly about where the stock is now. Poponak said: "We believed the company's expertise in AI and Cyber gave it exposure to high growing and insulated areas of the Federal spend, but the company has been more negatively impacted by DOGE contract reductions than we anticipated. We see risk to estimates as results are reported in the coming quarters."

Still, given that the stock had already sold off 43% from its pre-election all-time highs, the overly negative scenario could already be priced in.

Should you buy the dip?

While the cancellation of the contract is definitely a negative, it's a good idea to keep some perspective. Over the past 12 months, Booz Allen had $11.8 billion in revenue, growing at a double-digit rate. Moreover, the company had a $39.4 billion backlog as of its January earnings report.

In that light, a mere fraction of $1.8 billion in cuts doesn't seem so bad; in fact, it seems pretty small compared with the overall business.

With the stock now trading around 16 times earnings, compared with an average in the low 20s over the past 10 years, Booz Allen Hamilton could be an interesting value opportunity, provided there aren't many more drastic cuts to its government contracts.

Should you invest $1,000 in Booz Allen Hamilton right now?

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The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Booz Allen Hamilton wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

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Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have positions in Booz Allen Hamilton and has the following options: short December 2025 $55 puts on Booz Allen Hamilton. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Accenture Plc and Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool recommends Booz Allen Hamilton. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.