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Editorial Advisory Board

  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
  • James Butler, Ph.D., Hamamatsu
  • Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Justin Sigley, Ph.D., AmeriCOM
  • Professor Birgit Stiller, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Leibniz University of Hannover
  • Professor Stephen Sweeney, University of Glasgow
  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology

RingCentral, SoundHound AI, 8x8, Confluent, and Braze Stocks Trade Down, What You Need To Know

RNG Cover Image

What Happened?

A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a significant downward revision in U.S. job creation data fueled concerns about a weakening labor market. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 911,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March 2025 than previously reported. While this is a preliminary annual revision, it effectively halves the job growth previously thought to have occurred during that period. The update has amplified fears among investors that the job market is faltering. This weaker economic outlook is now reinforcing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to support the economy. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the odds of a 25-basis-point rate cut at the next Fed meeting now stand at 90%, as a cooling labor market gives the central bank more reason to ease monetary policy. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon added that the U.S. economy is "weakening," though he stopped short of predicting a recession. "Whether it's on the way to recession or just weakening, I don't know," he said. Dimon's remarks are closely watched given his influence as head of one of the nation's largest banks.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

Zooming In On Braze (BRZE)

Braze’s shares are very volatile and have had 26 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was about 23 hours ago when the stock gained 3.9% on the news that the company reported strong second-quarter earnings and raised its full-year outlook, continuing a rally from the previous trading session. The customer engagement platform's stock initially surged over 13% on Friday after it announced fiscal second-quarter revenue of $180.1 million, a nearly 24% year-over-year increase that beat analyst estimates. The company also posted a significant earnings surprise with an adjusted net income of $0.15 per share, far exceeding the consensus forecast of $0.03. Following the strong performance, Braze boosted its full-year guidance for both revenue and earnings, signaling confidence in its growth trajectory. The positive results prompted favorable reactions from Wall Street, with Piper Sandler raising its price target to $50 and Goldman Sachs reiterating a Buy rating on the stock.

Braze is down 28.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $31.06 per share, it is trading 34.2% below its 52-week high of $47.22 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Braze’s shares at the IPO in November 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $332.69.

Today’s young investors won’t have read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.

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