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The market is opening September the way it spent most of August: rewarding anyone who gives it a reason to raise numbers. An analyst upgrade sent a consumer app sharply higher, a European drugmaker rallied on breakthrough trial data, and a medical device giant got paid for lifting its own outlook.

The pressure is coming from the bond market. Rising Treasury yields knocked the chip trade lower to start the month, and the market's most expensive names are absorbing the hit first.

Most portfolios are a pile of accounts, not a plan. DePaolo & May — a fee-only, fiduciary firm named a Top 25 Rising Star advisory firm by USA Today — will review your situation and tell you honestly if you're on track.

Duolingo (DUOL): +7%

Evercore ISI upgraded the language learning app to Outperform, citing strong survey data on the company. When an upgrade is grounded in evidence that users are engaged rather than a valuation argument, the market tends to treat it as genuinely new information, and that is exactly how it's trading this morning.

Novartis (NVS): +6%

The Swiss drugmaker reported positive trial data showing its multiple sclerosis drug remibrutinib significantly reduced relapse rates relative to another treatment. Strong late-stage data in a market this large is the kind of catalyst that can reframe a pipeline story overnight.

Medtronic (MDT): +3%

The medical device maker raised its earnings outlook for the fiscal year, and investors are paying up for it. In a tape where guidance has been doing all the sorting, a company confident enough to lift its own bar stands out.

Robinhood (HOOD): +2%

Morgan Stanley upgraded the online brokerage to Overweight, arguing its expanding platform is converting rapid product rollouts into stronger customer economics. That is Wall Street formally endorsing the idea that Robinhood is becoming a full financial platform rather than a trading app.

VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH): -2%

The chip trade is starting September on the back foot as rising Treasury yields pressure the broader market, with Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD), and Micron (MU) each down more than 1%. When rates rise, the market's most richly valued trade takes the pressure first, and right now that trade is semiconductors.

Most portfolios are a pile of accounts, not a plan. DePaolo & May — a fee-only, fiduciary firm named a Top 25 Rising Star advisory firm by USA Today — will review your situation and tell you honestly if you're on track.

Take-Two Interactive (TTWO)

Retail boards spent the weekend arguing about one question: is Grand Theft Auto VI already priced in? Reddit mentions of the game's publisher are up significantly in the past 24 hours, and StockTwits is running a front-page poll asking whether traders are buying the dip after the stock fell more than 6% in the last session, extending a debate that ignited when the 27-minute Netflix preview drove a spike in message volume.

GTA VI launches November 19 with preorders already estimated at $260 million, yet the stock is down roughly 13% year to date even with a Strong Buy analyst consensus. Whether the launch resets that narrative or confirms the bull-trap crowd is a question the tape hasn't answered yet.

✌️That’s it for today.