Hot or Not, Stock Market Edition: 10/17/2025

Happy Friday. Here’s what’s steaming up the windshield in the market today … and what’s failing to ignite: 

• Hot: Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) keeps running — and the trend has legs; there’s reason to be optimistic about Booking Holdings (BKNG) 
• Not: PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD) is cheap — but is that a good thing? Plus, unpacking Progressive Corp.’s (PGR) weird week

P.S. For more stocks making moves, check out our Zen Ratings Upgrades & Downgrades screener.

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🔥 HOT: B is for Booking Holdings (BKNG) … and for Buy, which is our current rating on the stock. Despite an 8% loss in the past month, there are a few reasons for optimism: 1) Compelling catalysts: KAYAK, one of its crown jewels, just rolled out an AI-powered conversational search feature, revolutionizing how travelers find deals. Plus, Agoda just announced a strategic partnership with the Saudi Tourism Authority. 2) Booking sits confidently in the top tier of travel stocks (Industry Grade: A.) 3) It has an excellent (A) Financials grade from our Zen Ratings — and as savvy investors know, a company's financial health is a key determinant of its long-term ability to generate shareholder value. Don’t let the yawn-worthy chart lull you — this could be a high-quality stock getting ready for takeoff.  

🥶 NOT: Despite 20%+ gains in the past 3 months, our Zen Ratings system just downgraded the Chinese discount web bazaar, PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD) to a C (Hold) rating — a far fry from its past Stock of the Week status. Yes, tariff fears are still creating congestion for stocks — particularly those of Chinese companies. However, the fundamentals also reveal some points of caution. Its Value Grade is an above-average B — but the additional context of Ds for Growth and Safety indicate that the stock may be cheap for good reason. While some bulls point to China’s consumer demand for “little luxuries” as a saving grace, that has yet to turn into consistent top-line reacceleration for PDD. 

🔥 HOT: Here’s a semiconductor winner to consider: Lam Research Corp. (LRCX). Shares are up 80% in the past year and 20% just in the past month. Here’s why it’s possible the move isn’t over: 1) A great Zen Rating: The stock earns an overall B (Buy) rating from our quant ratings system, putting it in a class of stocks that have historically delivered 19.88% returns. 2) Key areas of strength as revealed by the Component Grades include Financials and Sentiment, where LRXC earns As. Its Momentum Grade is also a solid B, reflecting its string of recent technical wins, including breaking above its 20-day moving average and easily beating longer-term averages. But remember: While both earnings and revenue are anticipated to trend upwards into the next report (Wall Street anticipates a beat), the company’s rally is tied as much to innovation as immediate results.  

🥶 NOT: Earlier this week, our Zen Ratings system upgraded Progressive Corp. (PGR) from a C (Hold) to a B (Buy). Yesterday, it dipped back into Hold territory. As WallStreetZen’s “Why Price Moved” feature (you’ll see it on key pages where stocks have had a recent catalyst) shared, “Shares of auto insurance companies are trading lower. The industry may be experiencing weakness amid sympathy with Allstate after the insurer reported its September 2025 estimated catastrophe losses and its total Q3 catastrophe losses.” However, for PGR, the troubles may go deeper than a sympathy play. Shares recently saw a 4.3% slide after the company posted disappointing Q3 results, missing both earnings and revenue targets — thanks largely to a painful $950M policy hit in Florida. One reason to be optimistic? The industry has an A rating. On the flip side, PGR is far from the highest-rated in its industry — it’s #30 of 39 stocks (see the rest of the stocks here). Digging deeper into the Component Grades that shape the overall Hold rating, PGR has almost straight Cs for key factors like Value, Growth, and Momentum; even a B rating for Financials doesn’t bring it back into Buy territory at the moment. However, it may be worth keeping this one on watch in case anything changes.  

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