Ulta Beauty Shares Drop 1.39% on Weak Earnings Pushing Stock to 410th in U.S. Liquidity Rankings Amid Retail Sector Jitters

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) closed down 1.39% on Sept. 12, 2025, with a trading volume of $230 million, ranking 410th among U.S. stocks by liquidity. The decline came amid mixed retail sector sentiment as investors digested earnings updates from peers and macroeconomic data. Despite a broader market rally driven by dovish Fed signals, Ulta's shares underperformed, reflecting sector-specific pressures.

The stock's performance coincided with a broader reassessment of beauty and personal care retailers following a late-August earnings report. While Ulta reported stronger-than-expected Q3 same-store sales, analysts noted margin compression from supply chain costs and promotional activity. Short-term volatility appears tied to inventory management challenges and competitive dynamics in the luxury beauty segment.

Trading patterns showed increased open interest in at-the-money put options ahead of the session, suggesting bearish positioning. Institutional outflows accounted for 62% of the day's volume, according to exchange data, as larger players adjusted exposure ahead of the upcoming Q4 earnings season. The stock's 14-day relative strength index dipped to 48, indicating potential oversold conditions in the near term.

The strategy you described requires constructing and re-balancing a 500-stock portfolio every trading day. With the current tool set I can: 1. Back-test a single ticker (e.g., an ETF or an index proxy). 2. Run event-based studies on a single ticker. Unfortunately, the platform does not yet support a true multi-asset "top-500-by-volume" daily rebalancing portfolio. To move forward, please let me know which of the following approaches you would prefer: A. Proxy approach • Use an ETF or index that already represents a large, highly-traded U.S. equity universe (e.g., the equal-weight S&P 500 ETF "RSP" or the cap-weight S&P 500 ETF "SPY"). • We would then back-test a 1-day holding period strategy on that single ticker (which is equivalent to a continuous hold). B. Event approach (per-ticker analysis) • Select a single stock (or a short list) and identify the dates on which that stock ranked in the top 500 by volume. • Test the performance of buying that stock on those specific high-volume days and selling the next day. • This does not deliver the full portfolio return, but it does reveal whether "high-volume days" are predictive for a given name. C. Wait for a custom engine • We pause here and I'll note the requirement for a genuine multi-asset rebalancing engine once it becomes available. Please let me know which option (or an alternative) best fits your needs, and I'll proceed accordingly.