Smart Investor: 2025’s Surprising Leading Stocks, Figma’s Blowout IPO and Rate Cuts on the Table

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This week’s highlights:

• Weekly Market Update: Stocks Slide with Basic Materials, Consumer Stocks Down Sharply
• Forget Big Tech—Why Industrial Stocks Are Booming This Year
• Best- and Worst-Performing Stocks
• Cautious Consumers Pull Back as Tariff-Driven Inflation Risks Rise
• As Figma’s IPO Soars, Investors Still Love Big Tech
• Cooling Labor Market Strengthens Case for a September Interest Rate Cut
• Fed Expectations Shift Sharply on Weak July Jobs Report

For stock investors, the week ended with a thump. The July jobs report came in much weaker than expected, prompting President Donald Trump to lash out and call for the firing of the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics without evidence of wrongdoing. This came after Trump hit dozens of countries with high tariffs. Meanwhile, pharma stocks took their lumps on Trump’s ultimatum that drug companies cut prices. All this left the stock market down 2.4% on the week, pulling back from recent record highs.

The biggest move this week probably wasn’t in the stock market, but in expectations around Federal Reserve rate cuts. With July job gains coming in weak, along with big downward revisions to hiring in May and June, Morningstar’s Preston Caldwell says it now looks like a September rate cut is very much in the cards. The weak jobs data comes amid growing signs that tariffs are taking their toll on the economy.

The irony of the market selloff is that it comes the same week as a blowout initial public offering from design software company Figma, whose stock tripled when it started trading. As Sarah Hansen writes, a “risk-on” mentality helped drive the froth around the stock. But will that survive Friday’s selloff? We’ll have to see.

The Figma IPO episode comes as investors continue to favor big tech. But as Bella Albrecht writes, technology has not been the biggest winner in the market in 2025. The surprising leaders come from an overlooked part of the market: industrials. Check which stocks have been leading the market higher this year.

As always, be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates along with our full weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events.