What Happened?
Shares of american restaurant chain BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ: BJRI) jumped 5.1% in the afternoon session after a broad market rally lifted investor sentiment following a softer tone from Washington on the U.S.-China trade dispute.
Major U.S. stock indexes climbed sharply, with the S&P 500 rising 1.3%, the Nasdaq gaining 1.6%, and the Dow Jones adding more than 450 points. This market-wide upswing marked a rebound from steep losses seen in the previous trading session. The positive mood was also helped by news of a multi-year partnership between OpenAI and Broadcom to develop custom chips. With no specific news released by BJ's Restaurants, the company's stock appeared to have been carried upward by the overall positive market momentum.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $30.85, up 4.4% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
BJ’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 14 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 3 days ago when the stock dropped 4.4% on the news that President Donald Trump threatened to impose "massive" tariffs on Chinese products, reigniting trade war fears.
The unexpected social media post was a stated countermeasure to Beijing's recent announcement of new export controls on rare-earth minerals. These minerals are critical components for manufacturing everything from consumer electronics to jet engines, and the news jolted a previously calm Wall Street. The renewed fears of a trade war sent all major indices into negative territory. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the steepest decline, falling 1.7%, as investors weighed the potential impact of supply chain disruptions for key manufacturing components.
BJ's is down 14.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $30.85 per share, it is trading 34.1% below its 52-week high of $46.78 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of BJ’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $966.18.
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