Morning movers: BW jumps 38.7% as Upwork slides

Macro context is in today’s Morning Read. This brief uses delayed Nasdaq pre-market quotes at 05:40 ET on 11 August 2026, checked against TradingView.

BW: +38.74% as the backlog changes the frame

Babcock & Wilcox’s SEC-filed release reported Q2 revenue of $319.7 million, up 130% from a year earlier. Net income was $14.3 million, versus a $58.5 million net loss a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA reached $21.8 million, up 57%. The filing also put backlog at $2.6 billion, up 533%, and raised the 2026 adjusted-EBITDA target to $80-$105 million. Those numbers support a revenue-and-margin re-rating story rather than a social-only spike.

• Objective levels: the $11.98-$12.80 delayed range, then Monday’s $8.88 close.
• Main risk: a thin pre-market gap can compress quickly if regular-session liquidity challenges the initial valuation reset.

UPWK: -19.63% as client contraction outweighs margins

Upwork’s SEC-filed release showed Q2 revenue of $191.7 million, down 2% year over year, and gross services volume, or GSV, of $966.4 million, down 4%. Active clients were 763,000, while GSV per active client rose 5% to a record $5,230. GAAP net income was $25.4 million, down 22%, and adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $64.1 million, a 33% margin. The price action suggests the market focused on the shrinking client and transaction base despite better spending per remaining client and stronger adjusted profitability.

• Objective levels: the $7.86-$8.02 delayed range and Monday’s $9.83 close.
• Main risk: pre-market selling may exaggerate the reaction, but client-count deterioration can also persist longer than one quarter.

HIMS: -6.77% despite 38% revenue growth

Hims & Hers reported approximately $753 million of Q2 revenue, up 38%, and nearly 2.9 million subscribers, up 19%. It raised full-year revenue guidance to $3.1-$3.3 billion and updated adjusted-EBITDA guidance to $275-$325 million. Management said domestic revenue growth accelerated to 16%, while the international business grew more than 17-fold, helped by the June close of the Eucalyptus acquisition. The negative tape does not prove one hidden cause; it says the published growth and guidance did not clear the market’s pre-existing bar at the quote cut.

• Objective levels: the $29.32-$29.7448 delayed range and Monday’s $31.77 close.
• Main risk: acquisition-driven international growth can obscure domestic unit economics and integration costs.

Also on the radar

• RKLB -9.52% at $72.422 near 05:40 ET: a new post-results development after yesterday’s pre-event feature; its filing reported record Q2 revenue and backlog, but the stock still sold off. It is on Eddie’s watchlist.
• ASTS -3.09% at $66.6384 near 05:40 ET: its filed update put contracted revenue backlog near $1.30 billion and described BlueBird 17-46 in production or assembly. It shares the space-results story with RKLB and is also on the watchlist.
• ONON -13.74% at $33.45 near 05:40 ET: Nasdaq and TradingView confirmed the drop, but the current issuer result package was not available from the SEC feed at the evidence cut; no earnings number or causal claim is retained.

What to watch today

• 09:30 ET — opening auction: compare the first regular-session prints with every delayed pre-market range before interpreting follow-through.
• After the open — option chains: rebuild bids, asks and implied volatility; Cboe totals above are prior-session context only.
• 16:00 ET — closing comparison: separate gaps that held from gaps that faded as liquidity normalized.
• Unverified analyst actions, social-engagement counts, exact consensus-surprise claims and unsupported reasons for the HIMS or ONON reactions were excluded.