Carnival stands out among its competitors as the boost from its new Celebration Key destination kicks in, according to Citi.

The firm on Thursday reiterated its buy rating and $37 price target, which implies 26.5% upside from Wednesday's close. It recently added Carnival to its focus list of high-conviction stocks, replacing Royal Caribbean.

On Wednesday, the firm hosted a fireside chat with CEO Josh Weinstein and its senior vice president of investor relations Beth Roberts.

"We now believe CCL is the best stock in our coverage for 2025/2026," analyst James Hardiman said in a note to clients.

"With an investment-grade rating in their crosshairs, the below-the-line story is likely to shift to share repurchases and dividends, while the top-line will get the added benefit of Celebration Key (opened last month) and other destination investments, offering more bang for the capex buck than what new ships have traditionally returned," he wrote.

While the company experienced volatility in teh first half of the year thanks largely to tariff announcements, the company believes nothing that happened during that time will impact 2026, Hardiman noted.

Shares of Carnival are up 17% year to date.

— Michelle Fox

A pullback in technology stocks for much of this week should push investors to strive for a more balanced portfolio, according to UBS.

"[F]or investors with excess concentration, the correction is a timely reminder to diversify and maintain a more balanced exposure, given that the AI rally is also maturing," UBS Global Wealth Management strategist Sundeep Gantori wrote in a Thursday note. "We also believe the rally is now prone to more volatility for any headlines, due to currently rich valuations."

"While medium AI sensitivity stocks can somewhat be considered as all-weather stock exposure to multiple tech trends, we think investors should manage their exposure to both the high and low AI sensitivity segments at this stage of the AI rally," he added.

— Brian Evans

Inflation is now an integral part of the U.S. economic picture, according to Ritholtz Wealth Management co-founder and CEO Josh Brown.

"Inflation is now deliberate and systemic," Brown told CNBC's Halftime Report" on Thursday. "Walmart is talking about as they restock items, they're doing so at higher prices. Of course, some of that has to be past through to the consumer - everyone understands how this works."

"I think when you combine that with how difficult it is for college graduates right now to get jobs, how difficult it is to quit a job, get another one and get a wage hike, [and] the wage growth is now basically gone at this point...[is] a resume for consumer unhappiness, so to speak," he added

— Brian Evans

Maplebear shares could come under significant pressure over the coming months as competition in the grocery delivery market heats up, according to Wedbush Securities.

The stock slid about 2.5% on Thursday after analyst Scott Devitt downgraded shares of the company, which does business as Instacart, to underperform from neutral and cut its price target to $42 from $55. That implies nearly 8% downside from Wednesday's close.

Shares have already seen weakness recently after the launch of Amazon's same-day delivery service in more than 1,000 U.S. cities and towns. That announcement sent shares more than 11% lower earlier this month, and Devitt believes that the move has led to Prime becoming an "even more compelling subscription for grocery shoppers, diminishing the appeal of Instacart."

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Sean Conlon

Bearish sentiment toward the outlook for stocks over the next six months eased to 44.8% from 46.2% in the latest weekly survey of mom-and-pop investors by the American Association of Individual Investors, but remained "unusually high" and above the long-run historical average of 31.0% for the 38th week out of the past 40.

Bullish sentiment rose 1 percentage point, to 30.8% from 29.8% last week, but below the historical average of 37.5%.

Many fewer investors are neutral on the short-term outlook than has been the case before. Neutral sentiment was little changed this week at 24.4%, down from 24.8% last week, but below the long-run average of 31.5% for the 57th time in 59 weeks, the AAII said.

In a special question, slightly more than two out of five investors (40.2%) said companies' forward earnings guidance during second-quarter earnings season has been approximately what they expected, while a little more than a third (34.6%) said guidance has been better than they expected. Only 4.3% said future guidance has been worse. The balance were unsure or had no opinion.

— Scott Schnipper

Palantir shares struggled to stay above flat on Thursday, but were sill tracking for their worst week in multiple months.

The defense technology stock has fallen around 12% so far this week. With that, the stock is tracking to record its biggest weekly decline since the early April market rout, when shares tumbled more than 13%.

If the stock can end Thursday's session in the green, it would snap a six-day losing streak — its longest since April 2024.

Despite the recent pullback, shares are still up more than 100% compared with the start of 2025.

— Alex Harring

"We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday. "The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!"

Just last month, the Trump administration tightened federal permitting on solar and wind projects. That move gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's office the final say on whether such projects proceed on federal lands.

—Darla Mercado, Nick Wells

Check out some of the stocks making big moves in midday trading Thursday:

• Coty — Shares of the beauty retailer plummeted more than 20% following its latest quarterly results. While its revenue of $1.25 billion beat the $1.20 billion that analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting, it posted a loss per share of 5 cents, more than 2 cents in earnings per share that analysts were looking for. The company also forecast a weak first half of fiscal 2026 but said that a turnaround should be in store for the second half, supported by new product launches and tariff mitigation efforts taking hold.
• Paramount Skydance — The stock popped 15%, putting its month-to-date gains at more than 25%. Earlier this month, the company's second-quarter earnings came in better than expected as its streaming division saw an unexpected profit, sending shares higher.
• Xpeng — U.S. shares of the Chinese electric car company jumped more than 14%. CEO Xiaopeng He purchased 3,100,000 Class A ordinary shares through Galaxy Dynasty Limited, a security filing dated Thursday revealed. The stock has risen around 17% this week on the heels of reporting better-than-expected revenue for the second quarter, as well as a narrower-than-expected loss.

Read here for the full list of names.

— Sean Conlon

Sales of previously owned homes rose 2% in July compared with June to 4.01 million units, on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of realtors. Housing analysts had been expecting a slight decline. Sales were 0.8% higher than July 2024.

These sales are counted by closings, so contacts likely signed in May and June, when the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was in decline. That rate exceeded 7% briefly in May and then ended June at 6.67%, according to Mortgage News Daily.

There were 1.55 million homes for sale at the end of July, an increase of 15.7% from the same month last year. At the current sales pace, that represents a 4.6-month supply. A 6-month supply is considered balanced between buyer and seller.

Inventory is now at the highest level since May 2020 but still well below pre-Covid years. More here.

— Diana Olick

Shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, the S&P 500 was 0.4% lower, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost about 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 241 points, or about 0.5%.

— Pia Singh

Correction: An earlier version of this blog post misstated the day of the week.

Initial unemployment benefit filings saw a bump last week though layoffs still appear to be limited, according to a Labor Department report Thursday.

Jobless claims totaled 235,000 for the week ending Aug. 16, up 11,000 from the prior period and higher than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 225,000. It was the highest level since June 21 though still within the range of the past few years.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose to 1.97 million, an increase of 30,000 and the highest level since Nov. 6, 2021.

In other economic news Thursday, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing index for August posted an unexpectedly weak reading of -0.3, down from 15.9 the prior month and below the estimate for 7.0. The new orders index slid to -1.9 while the prices paid index hit its highest level since May 2022. The index measures companies reporting growth against contraction.

—Jeff Cox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

• Walmart — The big-box retailer slipped more than 2% . Walmart fiscal second-quarter revenue beat analyst estimates. Adjusted earnings of 68 cents per share may not have compared with the LSEG consensus estimate of 74 cents. The country's largest retailer raised its full-year earnings and sales outlook, also noting that costs are rising due to higher tariffs.

• Nordson Corp. — The adhesive and coatings maker rallied more than 5% on better-than-expected earnings and revenue. Nordson said that full-year sales are currently tracking slightly above the midpoint of its original guidance given earlier this year.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will not approve solar or wind power projects, even as electricity demand is outpacing the supply in some parts of the U.S. His comments will likely heighten concerns of renewable companies, which fear that projects will no longer receive permits that were once normal course of business.

"We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar," Trump, who has complained in the past that solar takes up too much land, posted on Truth Social. "The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!"

The president's comment comes after the administration tightened federal permitting for renewables last month. The permitting process is now centralized in Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's office.

Trump blamed renewables for rising electricity prices in the U.S. Prices have risen on the nation's largest grid, PJM Interconnection, as rapidly growing demand from data centers and other industries faces a tight power supply as resources such as coal plants are retired. More here.

— Pia Singh, Spencer Kimball

The U.S. and European Union revealed more details about the trade framework agreed upon last month.

The U.S. will commit to applying "the higher of either the U.S. Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff rate or a tariff rate of 15 percent, comprised of the MFN tariff and a reciprocal tariff, on originating goods of the European Union."

The U.S. will apply only MFN duties on several EU goods, including "unavailable natural resources (including cork), all aircraft and aircraft parts, generic pharmaceuticals and their ingredients and chemical precursors."

Several Section 232 tariffs have been capped at the wider 15% tariff rate, including those on lumber, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, according to a senior U.S. administration official. 

— Sophie Kiderlin, Sam Meredith, Karen Gilchrist

Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose, with Australian stocks among the top gainers, breaking ranks with key Wall Street peers that saw declines led by tech stocks.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 benchmark rose 1.13% to end the day at a record high of 9,019. Gains were led by food company OMG Group, which surged 114.29%, printing and technology firm 333D, which jumped 55.56% and battery technology manufacturer Janus Electric Holdings, which rose 46.47%.

Over in India, the HSBC Composite flash purchasing managers' index, which provides an early snapshot of the performance of the private sector economy, came in at 65.2, higher than July's 61.1 and the 60.5 forecast by Reuters.

Indian markets rose in early trade with the benchmark Nifty 50 trading 0.21% higher, while the BSE Sensex index was up 0.35% as of 1:30 p.m. Indian Standard time (4 a.m. ET).

Japan's Nikkei 225 fell for the third straight session and ended the day 0.65% lower at 42,610.17. Losses were led by Daiichi Sankyo, Socionext and Lasertec Corp.

Meanwhile, the broader Topix index dropped 0.52% to 3,082.95.

Yields on Japan's 20-year government bonds rose to 2.645%, after hitting a 26-year high earlier in the session. Yields on the 10-year government bonds ticked up to a 17-year high of 1.61%.

In South Korea, the Kospi index pared earlier gains to rise 0.37% at 3,141.74, while the small-cap Kosdaq was flat at 777.24.

Mainland China's CSI 300 increased by 0.39% to 4,28807, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.2% to 25,116.51.

— Amala Balakrishner

The farther down the S&P 500 one looked Wednesday, the more green on the screen.

All eight of the largest companies in the S&P 500 — consisting of the Mag Seven plus Broadcom, which are also the only eight that have a market value above $1 trillion — fell on Wednesday. The declines ranged from just 0.14% for Nvidia, the most valuable stock in the U.S., worth some $4.3 trillion, up to 1.97% for Apple, the third most highly-valued stock, after Microsoft (-0.79%).

Meanwhile, the next seven stocks with the highest market caps, all rose in price Wednesday. They were led by Walmart, with a market cap of $819 billion, ahead 1.26%. Oracle gained 0.19%, bringing the company's market cap to $660 billion. The smallest stock in that second cohort of advancers was Mastercard, worth $536 billion, which rose 1.22%.

— Scott Schnipper

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said on Wednesday that she has "no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet."

Cook's comments come after Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said she should resign or be fired over what he claimed was evidence of "mortgage fraud."

"To be honest, I think she needs to resign quickly," Pulte said of Cook on CNBC's "Money Movers." "I think she will have to resign, or I think she will be fired."

Responding to Pulte's unsubstantiated accusation, President Donald Trump also said in a Truth Social post that Cook "must resign, now!!!"

Read the latest on this story here.

— Kevin Breuninger, Darla Mercado

Coty shares tanked more than 15% in extended trading after the beauty retailer's management forecast a weak first half of fiscal year of 2026 with declines in both sales and profit.

Still, Coty sees a turnaround in the second half as new product launches and tariff mitigation kicks in. For the latest quarter, Coty reported revenue of $1.25 billion, higher than the $1.20 billion estimate per LSEG.

— Yun Li