Stock Market Live August 15: As Trump Heads to Alaska, S&P 500 (VOO) Heads Higher

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

President Donald Trump headed for Alaska accompanied by senior U.S. officials this morning, with plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine — and perhaps to ink a few trade deals along the way.

Investors seem cautiously optimistic about the event, with the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) rising about 0.2% premarket. Other factors influencing the market today:

Bloomberg is reporting on rumors that the President intends to have the United States invest directly in Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) stock, similarly to how the U.S. Department of Defense invested directly in shares of rare earth mining company MP Materials (NYSE: MP in July.)

Legendary investors Warren Buffett (of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B)) and Michael Burry (of Scion Asset Management and The Big Short fame) revealed that they both invested in UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) in Q2. Investors are taking this as a “call the bottom” moment and buying into UnitedHealth stock this morning, sending the insurance giant’s shares up more than 10%.

Earnings

Turning now to earnings:

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer and &P 500 component company Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) beat earnings by twelve cents last night, reporting a $2.48 per share profit on sales of $7.3 billion — which also beat estimates. Management forecast weaker than expected earnings in Q4 however — $1.91 to $2.31 per share, with sales falling as much as $1.1 billion below Wall Street’s forecast of $7.3 billion.

Investors are ignoring Q2’s beat, and focusing on the potential disaster that is Q3 instead. Applied Materials stock is crashing 13% premarket.

This morning, Wonder Bread and Tastycake baker Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO) reported in-line earnings of $0.30 per share. Sales came up slightly short at $1.2 billion. Guidance through the end of 2025 likewise shows a probable sales shortfall, with revenue of no more than $5.3 billion.

On the plus side, Flowers forecast full-year profit between $1.08 and $1.17 per share, which at the midpoint is better than the $1.09 per share that Wall Street was expecting. Still, Flowers stock is trading down more than 3% premarket.