A star stock during the pandemic era wasn’t shining so brightly on Friday. On a media report that the current presidential administration is preparing to link a set of fatalities to Covid vaccines, BioNTech‘s (BNTX -7.26%) share price declined by 7% across that day’s trading session. The biotech company’s decline was particularly notable given the essentially flat-line performance of the S&P 500 index.

Negative accounts

That morning, The Washington Post published an article stating that healthcare officials in the Trump administration were aiming to link the deaths of 25 children to coronavirus vaccines. BioNTech is a co-developer of a top vaccine, Comirnaty, aimed at preventing the disease’s spread (its partner in the effort was U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer).

Citing four unnamed people “familiar with the situation,” this effort will be based on findings that were apparently filed with the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The platform contains unverified accounts of experiences and events following the administration of jabs.

The newspaper added that the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stresses that the system isn’t intended to determine if any vaccine injections result in fatalities. According to the CDC, such a judgement requires significant investigation by scientific and medical professionals.

Danger of reputational damage

The Post wrote that administration officials aim to present their findings next week to a CDC advisory panel. That panel is considering recommendations for new Covid vaccines.

BioNTech might be particularly exposed in such a move, as it is a much smaller company than its big U.S. partner Pfizer. If it becomes seen as a developer of a supposedly harmful product, its reputation could suffer irreparably.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends BioNTech Se. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Earth observation satellite company Planet Labs (PL -9.32%) stock started out the week right as it soared nearly 48% after beating earnings Monday morning. It’s giving back some of those gains Tuesday, having fallen back 3.9% through 10:40 a.m. ET.

And that’s OK.

Planet Labs Q2 earnings

If you recall, Planet Labs reported $0.07 in losses yesterday but beat analyst forecasts for “adjusted” earnings, and for revenue according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as well. Revenue growth was strong at 20% year over year, and gross margins were exceptional, rising 5 full percentage points to 58%.

Best of all was Planet Labs’ announcement that it is firmly free-cash-flow positive, and sooner than Wall Street expected (if not quite as soon as Planet Labs promised before it came public via a special purpose acquisition company years ago).

What Planet Labs said, and what Planet Labs did

Back in 2021, Planet Labs made some predictions about where it would be today, in its fiscal 2026. Right about now, Planet Labs predicted, it would be earning 74% (non-GAAP) gross margins, growing revenue at a consistent rate north of 50% annually, and firmly free-cash-flow positive.

So far, only one of these predictions has come true, and only partially so: Free cash flow arrived a year later than predicted. Sales growth and profitability are both tracking lower than predicted — but as I said, that’s OK.

Why? Because Planet Labs stock costs less today than it did back at its IPO. Valued at $2.9 billion, on course for perhaps $100 million in FCF this year, and growing at 20%, the stock’s close enough to the mark that investors can once again seriously start looking at Planet Labs as a stock worth buying.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Dogecoin (DOGE -9.67%) is falling on Monday, down 10.6% in the last 24 hours as of 5:47 p.m. ET. The drop comes as the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3% today.

Dogecoin and the rest of the crypto market are down after last Friday’s huge spike following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s address to the nation.

Rate cuts could be coming

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke from the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole summit on Friday, shedding light on its plans for rate cuts in the near future. Powell painted a complicated picture of the current economy with signs of a slowdown in hiring happening even as other signs point to the possibility that inflation is heating up.

Ultimately, he believes that the economy has proven to be resilient, and though he didn’t confirm it explicitly, he seemed to indicate rate cuts were coming in September. Investors reacted strongly to the news, and markets on Friday were green. More speculative investments like Dogecoin saw an outsized spike — lower rates tend to lead to riskier assets performing comparatively well.

Today, investors appear to be weighing how much the Fed will cut. Just as Dogecoin saw an outsized spike on Friday, it saw an outsized dip today.

Dogecoin is meant to be taken lightly

Dogecoin is a meme coin. It is not a serious investment. The coin’s “tokenomics” are highly inflationary. That means over time, unless more and more people invest consistently, its price will continue to move downward.

This was created as a joke and a way to have fun — that is exactly how it still should be treated. There are plenty of crypto projects with proven track records of value like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Choose these or projects like them if you are serious about investing in crypto.

Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

TMC The Metals Company (TMC -4.80%) stock got hit with a significant pullback in July’s trading. The company’s share price slumped 10% in a month of trading that saw the S&P 500 index rise 2.2% and the Nasdaq Composite index jump 3.7%.

While the broader market rose in relation to developments that suggested that the U.S. and China could be moving closer to a trade deal that would lower tariffs and resolve other key issues, TMC stock saw a pullback as a result of the news. On the other hand, recent pullbacks for its share price come on the heels of a massive valuation run-up for the company this year.

TMC stock lost ground amid U.S.-China trade developments

Last month, the Trump administration announced that it was lifting licensing requirements and export restrictions that effectively prohibited high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia and AMD from being sold to the Chinese market. Export restrictions and licensing requirements on semiconductor manufacturing equipment are also being lifted. The big shift on key tech exports to China represented a concession from President Donald Trump in order to increase the likelihood of getting serious negotiations for a trade deal initiated in the not-too-distant future.

While the Trump administration has seemingly been willing to cede some key ground when it comes to some of the U.S.’s competitive advantages in AI, it’s hoping that the move will help secure longer-term access to China’s rare earth mineral supply. Adversarial relations between the U.S. and China have increased the strategic importance of domestic mineral sourcing operations and paved the way for TMC stock to see huge gains this year. With some recent steps toward trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, TMC’s big rally has taken a bit of a breather.

TMC’s share price has continued to slide in August

As of this writing, TMC stock is down roughly 10% in August’s trading. While there haven’t been any major, negative business-specific catalysts for the company, investors have continued to take profits and reduce exposure to the stock in light of uncertain trade dynamics. Despite some recent sell-offs, the company’s share price is still up roughly 378% year to date as of this writing.

TMC now has a market capitalization of roughly $1.9 billion and is still in a pre-revenue state. While the company will still need to secure key permitting and other regulatory approvals in order to kick off its commercial seabed mining operations, there seems to be a good chance that increased government support for domestic rare earth mining projects will help facilitate TMC’s operational launch and scaling.

Betting on that outcome is still a risky proposition, but an executive order signed by President Trump to expedite the review of permitting applications for seabed-mining bodes well for the company. While a trade deal with China could help alleviate near-term concerns about rare earth mineral sourcing, increasing domestic production capabilities will likely continue to be a priority along economic and national security lines.

Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Shares of leading connected fitness stock Peloton Interactive (PTON 2.05%) rose as much as 14% before reversing to a 1% decline as of noon ET on Thursday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Peloton posted a surprise profit during its fourth-quarter earnings call, rocketing past analysts’ expectations.

Although sales dipped 6%, gross profits grew 5%, and free cash flow (FCF) quadrupled, suggesting that its turnaround may be taking hold.

Streamlining, streamlining, streamlining

Priority No. 1 for the Peloton turnaround has been to become a streamlined version of its old self. While this has been in the works for multiple quarters (years now, even), Peloton’s results for the fiscal fourth quarter, ended June 30, show that this work may be starting to pay off.

Equipment gross margin more than doubled from 8.3% to 17.6% over the last year. Meanwhile, its subscriptions segment gross margin rose from 68% to 72%.

With these high-margin subscription sales now accounting for two-thirds of Peloton’s revenue, the company could become steadily profitable if it can reverse the persistent customer churn figures it has seen since the pandemic.

Still 6 million members strong — with 2.8 million paid connected fitness subscriptions — Peloton guided for a 6% customer churn rate for the first quarter of 2026. However, management’s full-year guidance has total revenue only dipping 2% at the midpoint, signaling that there’s a chance Peloton returns to sales growth this year.

Furthermore, the company expects to generate at least $200 million in FCF in 2026 — a tidy sum for a $2.8 billion company.

Eyeing an international launch as its U.S. operations stabilize, Peloton’s turnaround story is worth watching at 11 times FCF. However, with stock-based compensation equal to 10% of Peloton’s market cap, I’d love to see this figure reined in before I buy.

Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.