What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a combination of hot inflation data, geopolitical turmoil, and the Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates steady rattled investor confidence, leading to a broad market sell-off.
The Producer Price Index (PPI), a key measure of inflation, surged by 0.7%, more than double what economists had predicted. This news raised concerns about the economy. At the same time, anxiety grew as reports indicated that an Israeli strike on a major Iranian gas facility caused Brent crude oil prices to jump by 4%. Adding to the pressure, the Federal Reserve maintained its interest rates and indicated only one rate cut was expected for the year. These wider market and economic pressures contributed to the decline in many stocks.
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:
- Social Networking company Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) fell 3.4%. Is now the time to buy Reddit? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Gig Economy company Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) fell 5.8%. Is now the time to buy Upwork? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Upwork (UPWK)
Upwork’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 30 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 biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 11 months ago when the stock gained 19% on the news that the company reported strong first quarter 2025 results which significantly beat analysts' revenue and EBITDA expectations, with full-year EBITDA and EPS guidance also coming in ahead of Wall Street's estimates.
Despite only a 1% lift in sales and a 2% dip in total services volume, the business managed to protect its bottom line through more efficient cost management. On the other hand, its number of customers declined. Still, with AI-related spending climbing and new premium services gaining traction, Upwork has shown it can offset customer churn with better monetization and cost control. Overall, this print was mixed but still had some key positives.
Upwork is down 42.2% since the beginning of the year, and at $11.47 per share, it is trading 48.1% below its 52-week high of $22.11 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upwork’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $252.10.
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