What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the after-market session after markets continued to decline, as investors grew cautious ahead of a key speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The move came as U.S. equity markets recorded a fifth consecutive day of losses for major indexes like the S&P 500, with technology stocks experiencing the largest declines. Investors have grown wary that the sharp rally in the tech sector since April may have advanced too far. The market-wide caution is largely driven by the upcoming Jackson Hole symposium, a meeting of central bankers, where traders are anxiously awaiting Fed Chair Powell's speech on Friday for guidance on the future path of interest rates.
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:
- Custom Parts Manufacturing company 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy 3D Systems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Specialty Retail company Leslie's (NASDAQ: LESL) fell 3.2%. Is now the time to buy Leslie's? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Building Materials company Tecnoglass (NYSE: TGLS) fell 3%. Is now the time to buy Tecnoglass? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Enterprise Networking company Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Applied Digital? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Gig Economy company Angi (NASDAQ: ANGI) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Angi? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Leslie's (LESL)
Leslie’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 90 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 2 days ago when the stock dropped 7.6% on the news that the stock rebounded amid signs of a potential short squeeze. The significant rally appears to be driven by a market event known as a short squeeze. This occurs when a stock with a high level of short interest—bets made by investors that the price will fall—starts to rise instead. The increasing price forces short sellers to buy shares to cover their positions and limit losses, which in turn pushes the stock price even higher. Reports indicate that as of August 15, 2025, Leslie's had a very high short sale ratio of 39.58%. This technical pressure seems to be overpowering the company's recent fundamental performance, which included a third-quarter earnings report that missed expectations. For that quarter, Leslie's reported a 12.2% drop in revenue and a 64.2% decline in net income compared to the previous year, which likely contributed to the high number of investors betting against it.
Leslie's is down 86.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $0.30 per share, it is trading 91.4% below its 52-week high of $3.51 from November 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Leslie’s shares at the IPO in October 2020 would now be looking at an investment worth $13.94.
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