Fed Holds, Warsh Debuts, and Semis Keep Running

The Fed kept rates where they are, Kevin Warsh stepped in front of his first press conference as chair, and markets spent the afternoon deciding what to do with all of it. Tech cooled off while small caps held up better than expected. 

The stocks that actually moved today and why are all below.

Coinbase is built for people who want one crypto platform that can grow with them. If you’re just getting started, the app offers a beginner-friendly experience that makes it easier to explore the market, discover assets, and build steadily over time.

If you’re more advanced, Coinbase also offers more sophisticated trading tools designed for users who want deeper market access and more control.

Across one account, users can explore 300+ cryptocurrencies, automate their strategy with recurring buys, and stake eligible assets to earn rewards.

Coinbase also extends beyond trading with a self-custodial wallet for those who want to manage their own crypto and interact more directly with Web3.

The core appeal is simple: Coinbase combines ease of use with depth. It can serve as a first crypto platform for beginners while still offering advanced capabilities for more experienced users, all within one ecosystem.

Crypto assets are complex, volatile, and can result in loss of capital. Product availability varies.

Explore Coinbase’s all-in-one crypto platform today.

You’re seeing two strong charts and the kind of price action that makes investors feel late. One has more than doubled in a year on AI demand, while the other is trading just below a 52-week high. But Elite Trade Club Insider readers are getting the part most people miss: executives are using those higher prices to turn low-cost equity into real cash before the next headline tells the crowd what already happened.

Every day, insiders and institutions move millions before the market catches on. We surface the data behind those moves before the rest of the market sees it.

A subscription gets you:

$25/mo or $250/yr. 30-day money back guarantee. Cancel anytime. Founding member pricing: lock in $25/mo before we raise it.

The Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, but the statement made clear the committee is laser-focused on getting inflation down, a shift in tone that hit rate-sensitive tech names hard.

Retail sales for May came in at +0.9 %, well ahead of the 0.5% estimate, showing consumers are still spending despite an average gas price of $4.54.

Western Digital hit an all-time high of $730.98, and Dell continued its AI data center momentum with a fourth gain in five sessions.

SpaceX pulled back as much as 4% after its blistering post-IPO run, with traders finally taking some chips off the table.

Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) is dropping activation and upgrade fees, launching a loyalty program that gives 3% back on every bill, and simplifying its plans by removing confusing network tiers.

Customers can use their credits toward new phones or spend them at brands like Sephora, Starbucks, Hilton, and Marriott. Perks include free coffee and FIFA World Cup merchandise.

Simplicity Is the Whole Strategy

Verizon's new plan structure eliminates tiered networks and combines wireless and home internet on a single bill, with taxes included.

No surprises. No hidden charges. No decoding which plan does what.

You have probably switched carriers at least once because the bill was confusing or a random fee showed up. Verizon just removed the most common reasons people leave.

Retention Over Acquisition

The U.S. wireless market is saturated. Nearly everyone already has a phone plan. Growth comes from keeping existing customers happy, not finding new ones.

Every perk, every eliminated fee, and every simplified bill is designed to make leaving Verizon feel like a downgrade.

You notice Verizon cutting hundreds of jobs while simultaneously investing in loyalty programs, and the priorities become clear. Spend less on headcount. Spend more on keeping customers who are already paying the bills.

Connect Biopharma (NASDAQ: CNTB) just finished enrolling patients in its asthma study and expects to complete enrollment in a second study for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease this month.

That is a serious lung condition that makes breathing progressively harder over time, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. 

Both trials test the same drug. Data from the asthma trial arrives in early September.

Two Diseases, One Drug, One Chance

Asthma and chronic lung disease together represent enormous patient populations.

Current treatments manage symptoms but leave major gaps, especially during severe flare-ups that land patients in the emergency room. Connect's drug targets the inflammation behind those episodes.

September Changes Everything

The asthma data arrives first. A positive result opens the door to discussions with the FDA about a larger program.

A negative one puts the entire company under pressure. No backup plan and no second product is waiting behind it.

Connect says it has enough cash to operate into the second half of 2027. That gives it runway past both data readouts and into potential regulatory discussions.

Running out of money before results arrive kills most small biotechs. Connect does not have that problem.

You find a small company with funding secured, two fully enrolled studies in massive markets, and a data moment weeks away.

Regardless of what happens next, the setup earns attention.

Capital gains taxes can take a bigger bite out of your profits than expected.

Fortunately, some deductions may help reduce the impact — including:

Because rules and eligibility vary, many investors turn to fiduciary financial advisors for guidance.

Find an Advisor Match.

Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) just agreed to acquire Fathom Holdings, a real estate services platform that handles home buying, mortgages, title insurance, and financial services.

Bed Bath & Beyond went through bankruptcy not long ago. Now it is trying to reinvent what a home brand even means.

The "Everything Home" Pitch

Most retailers sell products. Bed Bath & Beyond wants to own the entire journey of moving into a home. Find the house through Fathom's brokerage.

Get the mortgage through its lending arm. Close the deal through its title service. Then furnish every room through Bed Bath & Beyond.

Millions of Customers at the Right Moment

Fathom gets instant access to Bed Bath & Beyond's customer base. People shopping for furniture and home goods are often in the middle of moving, renovating, or buying.

That overlap is not coincidental. It is the entire thesis behind the deal.

When your customer is already thinking about their home, offering them mortgage and real estate services is a natural next step, not a random upsell.

The Most Unlikely Comeback in Retail

A company that went bankrupt is now acquiring businesses and building a platform spanning real estate and retail. Whether this works or collapses under its own ambition is genuinely unclear.

You wrote this company off. It just bought a real estate firm and hired a new CEO on the same day. Whatever this becomes, boring is not an option.

IceCure Medical [ICCM] $4.27 (+200.47%)

IceCure makes cryoablation systems that freeze and destroy tumors without surgery, and today the stock tripled on 1,222x relative volume after a clinical data release that the market treated as a full-on vindication.

The $5.98M market cap means this move is violent by design. Strong Buy consensus, but size your position accordingly.

uniQure [QURE] $48.16 (+78.44%)

uniQure is a gene therapy company and jumped 82.99% on 11.73x volume after announcing a major clinical milestone in its hemophilia B program that resets the market’s expectations for the asset.

At $3.09B market cap with a Buy consensus, this is not a micro-cap squeeze; it is a real repricing of a real pipeline.

AstroNova [ALOT] $28.35 (+69.86%)

AstroNova makes specialty printing and data acquisition systems and popped 69.56% on 29x volume after an earnings or contract announcement that caught the market flat-footed.

The $219M company has near-breakeven EPS of negative $0.18. When a name this quiet moves on 29x volume, somebody knew something was coming.

Liberty Latin America [LILA] $5.30 (-31.96%)

Liberty Latin America operates cable and telecom networks across the Caribbean and Latin America, and shed 32.86% on 2.96x volume after results showed the business is still bleeding subscribers faster than it can replace them.

The $1.05B company holds a Buy consensus but has negative $2.49 EPS. The gap between analyst optimism and operational reality just got a lot harder to ignore.

Veraxa Biotech [VRXA] $5.86 (-38.05%)

Veraxa is a cancer immunotherapy company that dropped 37.95% on 9.61x volume. A move that size on that volume almost always means clinical data came in short of what the market needed to see.

At $185M market cap with $0.21 EPS and a 27.4x P/E, there was actual value here before today. Now the market needs a reason to come back.

SL Science Holding [SLBT] $6.38 (-28.23%)

SL Science is a commercial services name that fell 29.19% with no analyst rating, no EPS data, and no market cap listed, which tells you almost everything.

The volume was relatively light at 0.33x average, making this more of an illiquid unwind than a conviction sell. Approach with caution on any bounce.

While headlines focus on war, the real shift is happening underneath—oil settlement moving outside the dollar.

That’s what sustained global demand for Treasuries for decades.

Now it’s breaking.

Porter Stansberry calls me one of the top gold analysts alive—and this is the kind of structural change that leads to a repricing event in gold and related assets.

Discover the four miners set to benefit most.

That's it for today! Please, write us back, and let us know what you think of the Closing Bell Roundup. We're always eager to hear feedback!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you at the next open! 

Best Regards,
— Adam G.
Elite Trade Club

Click here to get our daily newsletter straight to your cell for free.

P.S. Just like this newsletter, it's 100% free*, and you can stop at any time by replying STOP.