Investing.com’s stocks of the week

Investing.com -- A historic single-day move in biotech dominated the week, while a Treasury liquidity announcement impacted crypto and metals. Two well-known consumer names went in opposite directions on earnings.

Here are Investing.com's stocks of the week:

Moderna

Moderna delivered one of the largest single-session moves for an S&P 500 company, closing 177% higher at $174.38 on Wednesday after reporting positive late-stage data for its personalized cancer vaccine.

The stock pulled back over 23% on Thursday before adding more than 10% so far on Friday, leaving it on course for a gain of around 135% over the week.

The Phase 3 trial evaluated Moderna's intismeran alongside Merck's Keytruda in advanced skin cancer, and met its primary goal of recurrence-free survival, with a key secondary endpoint on distant metastasis-free survival also met and no new safety signal reported.

Bitcoin stocks

Crypto-exposed equities have rallied hard this week after bitcoin surged on the U.S. Treasury's decision to at least double the size of its long-dated bond buyback operations, alongside supportive comments on the sector from President Donald Trump.

The Treasury raised the maximum per-operation size from $2 billion to at least $4 billion for the 10-to-20-year and 20-to-30-year sectors, effective Sept. 9 through Nov. 4.

Bitcoin is currently above $77,000, having hit a high of $79,461 earlier in Friday’s session. As a result, Strategy has risen 25.9% over the week, with Marathon Digital up 22.5%, Coinbase 23.1% higher, Circle up 16.3%, Galaxy Digital 12.3% higher and Robinhood up 9.7%.

Mining stocks

The same Treasury announcement also lifted metals producers, with the dollar weakening and precious metal prices moving higher.

Agnico Eagle leads the group so far on Friday with an 18.4% gain over the week, followed by Barrick at 15%, Freeport-McMoRan up 14% and Newmont 13.3% higher. The dollar has declined, with spot gold gaining more than 2% on Friday and over 6% in the past week.

Estée Lauder

Estée Lauder jumped more than 16% on Wednesday and is set to finish the week up around 15.9% after fourth-quarter results came in ahead of expectations.

Sales rose 6%, beating consensus of 4%, while adjusted earnings of $0.39 per share topped the $0.32 expected. Management pointed to share gains in mainland China and growth across all product categories except hair care, alongside continued progress on cost-cutting through its One ELC initiative and Profit Recovery and Growth Plan.

Canaccord analyst Susan Anderson raised her price target for the stock to $90 from $85, maintaining a Hold rating following the release.

The analyst said that although the return to positive sales growth is encouraging, "we remain on the sidelines as valuation appears full."

Walmart

Walmart is the week's notable loser, sinking 9.2% on Thursday and down a further 0.9% so far on Friday after second-quarter results that beat on the headline numbers but disappointed on the metric that mattered most.

Comparable sales at Walmart-only U.S. stores excluding gas grew 2.6%, well short of the 3.67% consensus and the slowest U.S. sales growth in six years.

Mizuho analyst David Bellinger described the outcome as a "worst-case scenario," calling it a very messy print and one of the biggest misses in years from the retailer.

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