LikeFolio Weekly Roundup

Apple’s iPhone 17 is off to a stronger start than last year’s cycle, while Robinhood’s push into social and AI tools has investors buzzing. Tesla added fuel to the week with an energy breakthrough that will propel its storage business into a major profit driver.

Author

Megan Brantley
September 12, 2025

Major company events from Apple (AAPL), Robinhood (HOOD), and Tesla (TSLA) drove market headlines this week. 

Here’s a breakdown of the biggest takeaways from the LikeFolio research desk through Thursday, Sept. 11:

Summary

Apple (AAPL) Keynote Response: Higher Sentiment, Purchase Intent for iPhone

Apple’s annual September keynote wrapped earlier this week and featured the official reveal of the iPhone 17, among other product updates. At LikeFolio, this is the single-largest predictive event for the year for $AAPL stock. 

Why?

The iPhone remains Apple’s most important product, accounting for 47% of revenue in Q3 FY2025, while also serving as the entry point to its services business, which grew 13% year over year to $27.4 billion last quarter. 

This launch sets the tone for the holiday quarter, which historically contributes more than 40% of annual sales.

Our initial take? A win for $AAPL.

Consumer reaction is markedly stronger than last year. 

Our analysis of hundreds of posts on X shows that the iPhone 16 launch drew only 35% positive sentiment, weighed down by complaints of “upgrade fatigue” and delayed AI features. 

The iPhone 17 lifts positivity to 40%, reduces negatives to 30%, and maintains 30% neutral sentiment, with overall engagement up 25% (75,000 views per post vs. 55,000 last year).

Polls show 65% of respondents expect to upgrade compared with 55% in 2024, setting the stage for a potential sales beat in Q4 as pre-orders open tomorrow.

The main drivers of this positive shift in sentiment are perceived feature improvements. 

The iPhone 17 introduces 48MP Fusion cameras, 5000mAh batteries, and a new 5.7mm-thin Air model. These features now account for 55% of positive mentions, compared with 45% for last year’s color options and A18 chip. 

Early signals from Google Trends add weight: “new iPhone” queries are trending for all-time highs following this year’s keynote, 25% higher than 2024 and the strongest pre-launch interest in several years. 

Meanwhile, Gen Z users and lower-follower accounts are driving 22% higher hype around the Air model compared to last year’s cycle.

Bottom line: Taken together, these signals point toward revenue acceleration into 2026. Apple enters the holiday season with a product cycle that looks far stronger than last year.

Robinhood's Big Leap: Democratizing Finance for the Masses

At the HOOD Summit 2025 in Las Vegas, Robinhood introduced features designed to move past beginner trading into a full-service financial platform.

Robinhood Social and Robinhood Cortex dominated consumer reaction. Social adds a verified network for sharing trades and real-time P&L, while Cortex lets users run AI-powered stock scans with simple queries like “find undervalued tech plays.” Together, they accounted for the majority of positive mentions in LikeFolio’s X analysis.

Other upgrades expand access for retail traders:

  • Futures and short selling: Futures trading on 40+ assets, including the S&P 500 and Bitcoin, is already live on the Legend platform. One-tap short selling will follow, with near-24/5 overnight index options coming in 2026.

  • Workflow improvements: Up to 10 brokerage accounts, synced devices, and a universal trading ladder aim to simplify multi-asset execution without adding friction.

Sentiment around the Summit skewed heavily bullish. Out of 500 X posts analyzed, 65% were positive, 30% neutral, and only 5% negative, with critiques mostly tied to feature delays. HOOD shares gained 2.5% after the event, and analyst upgrades set price targets as high as $145.

Investor takeaway: Robinhood is maturing into a more powerful platform. Social and AI-driven features stand out as the most likely to drive user growth and engagement, with Q4 adoption data the next catalyst to watch.

Trump Signs Executive Memo Cracking Down on Pharma Advertising

Earlier this week President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the FDA and HHS to enforce existing laws more aggressively around direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising. 

The move, part of the administration’s broader “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) strategy, orders that ads must fairly present both benefits and risks of advertised drugs. This includes closing the “adequate provision” loophole that has allowed ads to offload full risk disclosures to external sources. 

The memorandum compliments thousands of warning letters and about 100 cease-and-desist notices already sent by the FDA this week targeting misleading ads, especially via social media influencers and online pharmacies.

Why This Moves the Needle for Streaming Ad Players

  • The pharmaceutical category is among the largest ad spenders—over $10 billion in DTC ad spend in 2024. Changes that delay or disqualify campaign collateral can significantly disrupt media planning, creative production, and platform economics, especially in programmatic, social, and connected TV channels.

  • The administration specifically called out influencer marketing and telehealth promotions, which have proliferated rapidly and often skirt traditional ad safety disclosures. Advertising budgets may shift back toward platforms with tighter compliance infrastructure (e.g., legacy broadcasters or Google, Meta).

Impact on Stocks

  • The Trade Desk (TTD) continues to be a clear near-term risk: exposure to pharma spending, reliance on open-web programmatic environments, rising compliance overhead, and structural concerns around premium CTV growth. The policy threat compounds concerns of margin squeeze and slowing advertiser demand. The stock plummeted following the announcement.

  • Other ad tech intermediaries, including smaller DSPs and platforms reliant on high-CPM pharma inventory, now face heightened execution risk. Watch for conservative CFO guidance and muted Q4 outlooks.

  • Stronger platforms poised to gain: Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL), and Meta (META) may benefit from ad budget shifts, as their environments allow tighter control over messaging and easier disclosure enforcement.

Investor Takeaway: This executive memo is one of the boldest policy-driven ad sanctions in years, aimed at exposing risks and increasing transparency in pharma advertising across all media channels. 

In the short-term, expect heightened volatility in ad tech names, especially open-web players. Longer term, platform convergence toward vetted, brand-safe environments may accelerate.

Softer PPI Data Bolsters Case for Fed Rate Cuts

The August Producer Price Index (PPI) came in cooler than expected—declining 0.1% month-over-month versus forecasts of a 0.3% gain. Goods prices ticked up slightly, while services fell 0.2%, and core PPI (excluding food, energy, and trade services) rose 2.8% year-over-year, down from 3.1%. These figures suggest that price pressures at the wholesale level are easing, giving the Fed room to move on policy.

This data strengthens expectations for a 25 basis point rate cut on September 17, with markets aligning on that outcome. Softer producer inflation reduces the risk of a hasty policy pivot, even as consumer price inflation remains above target. It signals that inflation may no longer be accelerating, and the Fed can begin loosening without fearing that price pressures will spiral. 

Bitcoin: Bitcoin inched higher this week as inflation data comes in cooler than expected. 

  • Bitcoin consolidates near $113K: After peaking above $124K in mid-August, Bitcoin is trading between $110K and $114K, with analysts calling this a natural cooldown following the summer rally.

  • Macro tailwinds support demand: Softer inflation data and rising expectations for a Fed rate cut are steering investors toward risk assets, helping sustain Bitcoin at elevated levels.

  • Liquidity could fuel next move: Roughly $7T sits in U.S. money market funds, and analysts suggest even a small rotation into crypto could drive another leg higher for Bitcoin.

Tesla (TSLA): Tesla shares climbed to their highest levels since May this week as investors leaned into the company’s long-term bets on AI, autonomy, and energy. While much of the attention around Tesla centers on robotaxis and Optimus, this week’s surge was fueled by a concrete development: the unveiling of two new products in its fast-growing energy storage division.

The updated Megapack 3 brings improved battery cells and electronics for large-scale grid projects, but the bigger breakthrough is the Megablock. By integrating batteries, switchgear, and transformers into a single preassembled unit, Megablock cuts installation time by 23% and reduces costs by roughly 40%. 

Analysts at William Blair called it a “game-changer.”

For scale, energy storage revenue is up 43% YoY, deployments are up 83%, and the segment now accounts for 12% of Tesla’s sales. This positions energy as a meaningful profit driver at a time when vehicle margins remain under pressure.

Amazon (AMZN): Amazon is trading mostly flat on the week but we did spot several long-term catalysts:

  • Zoox robotaxi rollout in Las Vegas: Amazon’s Zoox began offering free rides on the Las Vegas Strip, with plans to expand citywide and start charging fares once regulators approve. This puts Amazon in direct competition with Waymo in the autonomous vehicle space.

  • Morgan Stanley names Amazon a top pick: Analysts highlighted Amazon’s fresh grocery delivery push, already live in 1,000+ U.S. cities and targeting 2,300 by year-end. Capturing even 1% of the projected $600B fresh food market by 2026 could meaningfully lift revenues.

  • E-commerce demand accelerating: U.S. online retail spending rose 8% YoY in August, with e-commerce share climbing to 28.2% of retail. Bank of America expects this momentum could help Amazon’s retail results surprise to the upside in Q3.

Stock Spotlights: $HIMS, $RR

Hims Pushes Into Testosterone Treatments

Hims & Hers Health rolled out personalized testosterone treatment plans for men, adding a new pillar to its platform beyond sexual health and weight loss. 

The launch includes enclomiphene and a dual enclomiphene-plus-tadalafil option available now, with FDA-approved oral KYZATREX and injectables expected in 2026. 

Access begins with an at-home blood test and flows into tailored treatment via Hims’ telehealth model, priced around $199 a month.

Why It Matters

Testosterone therapy is emerging as one of the fastest-growing men’s health categories. The global TRT market, valued at $2.3 billion in 2024, is projected to climb past $3.6 billion by 2033, while U.S. demand is rising more than 3% annually. 

Google searches for testosterone have surged more than doubled since 2015, and surveys show about 40% of men under 40 are interested in treatment, with adoption already in the double digits. 

Hims’ direct-to-consumer approach including discreet testing, telehealth prescriptions, and affordable compounding cuts through historic barriers of cost and stigma. By entering a durable, expanding category with high lifetime value, Hims is well-positioned to capture a younger male audience increasingly focused on performance and longevity.

Richtech Robotics (RR) Jumps on New Auto Dealer Deal

RR shares rallied ~11% on Thursday after the company announced it has secured a business deal following a successful pilot program with a top-five automotive dealership. The specifics on scale or financials weren’t disclosed, but the deal signals movement from proof of concept to scalable deployment.