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Tech-fueled rally drives stocks to new records ahead of Fed rate decision and big earnings

The AI trade is back on as traders await tomorrow’s rate cut decision and megacap tech earnings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Tasha Matsumoto

10/28/25 3:07PM

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 notched all-time highs, while the Russell 2000 fell 0.6%. The rally was driven by tech, which was by far the best-performing sector ETF, while the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index fell.

The AI trade was back on, led by Nvidia, which jumped after CEO Jensen Huang said the company has more than $500 billion in Blackwell and early Rubin orders through 2026. Huang also announced new partnerships with CrowdStrike, Palantir, and Lucid at the chip designer’s GPU Technology Conference in Washington, DC, driving gains in those stocks. Uber and Eli Lilly also announced new partnerships, but each lost any gains spurred by the news by market close.

Investors are awaiting earnings from Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta tomorrow and earnings from Amazon and Apple on Thursday. These five companies collectively account for roughly a quarter of the S&P 500’s market cap.

The Federal Reserve began its two-day meeting today, with traders anticipating that the central bank will announce an interest rate cut tomorrow.

Stocks that moved higher:

Nokia surged on news that Nvidia will invest $1 billion in the Finnish mobile networking company in a push to accelerate Nokia’s network software.
UPS spiked after delivering a rosy set of results, with the logistics giant’s cost-cutting efforts beginning to show results in its third-quarter profits.
Pony AI and WeRide climbed higher on reports that Uber plans to invest in the companies’ Hong Kong listings.
Cameco Corp. rocketed after the Canada-based uranium company announced that it and Brookfield Asset Management have signed a binding term sheet with the US government to build nuclear reactors in the US.
PayPal soared after the online transactions giant announced it had signed a deal with OpenAI enabling instant checkout on the chatbot for millions of users.
UnitedHealth gained after it reported earnings results that beat Wall Street expectations, a sign the company may be getting its operations under control after a tumultuous year.
A report in the Taiwanese press that Intel is attempting to recruit a recently retired top Taiwan Semiconductor executive to lead R&D at Intel’s troubled foundry division may account for the bump in the stock’s share price.
SoFi Technologies rose after reporting better-than-expected sales and profits amid its growing menu of financial products.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group ticked up after the company announced that it will be making prediction markets available on its Truth Social platform through its partnership with Crypto.com.

Stocks that moved lower:

JetBlue fell as it continued its quarterly losing streak, though its loss isn’t as bad as Wall Street expected.
Corning dipped even as the 174-year-old glass maker and pioneer of Pyrex and fiber-optic cables reported in-line to positive Q3 results, along with a better-than-anticipated Q4 outlook.
Strive Inc., the Vivek Ramaswamy-backed bitcoin treasury company, plummeted after a torrid two-day rally that saw the stock rise 90% amid back-to-back records for call options traded began to cool.
Quantum computing stocks D-Wave Quantum, IonQ, Rigetti, and Quantum Computing slumped after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced “AI supercomputers” in partnership with the Department of Energy.

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J. Edward Moreno2/6/26

FDA says it will take “decisive steps” against GLP-1 compounders, HHS refers Hims to DOJ for investigation

The Food and Drug Administration said it would take "decisive steps" to restrict GLP-1 compounding, a day after Hims & Hers announced that it would sell copies ofNovo Nordisk’sWegovy pill.

The FDA specifically called out Hims in the announcement. Additionally, Department of Health and Human Services' General Counsel Mike Stuart said in a post on X on Friday he has referred Hims to the Department of Justice "for investigation for potential violations by Hims of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and applicable Title 18 provisions."

In a statement, Hims said the company "has always operated with a deep commitment to the safety and best interests of consumers and in compliance with applicable law."

"We have a long history of successfully working with regulators, and look forward to continuing to engage with the FDA to ensure safe access to affordable healthcare," they said.

Based on a review of the applicable facts, earlier today @HHSOGC referred Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (“Hims”) to the Department of Justice for investigation for potential violations by Hims of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and applicable Title 18 provisions.
— HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart (@HHSGCMikeStuart) February 6, 2026

This marks a significant shift in tone from the FDA, which has done little to prevent companies like Hims from marketing copies of Novo's lucrative weight loss drugs.

Shares of Hims fell 14% after hours. The stock had already taken a hit after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in an X post on Thursday that the agency would “take swift action against companies mass-marketing illegal copycat drugs.”

Hims, long flying under regulators’ radar, finally strikes a nerve with its Wegovy pill copy

In a statement, Hims said the company "has always operated with a deep commitment to the safety and best interests of consumers and in compliance with applicable law."

"We have a long history of successfully working with regulators, and look forward to continuing to engage with the FDA to ensure safe access to affordable healthcare," they said.

Based on a review of the applicable facts, earlier today @HHSOGC referred Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (“Hims”) to the Department of Justice for investigation for potential violations by Hims of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and applicable Title 18 provisions.
— HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart (@HHSGCMikeStuart) February 6, 2026

This marks a significant shift in tone from the FDA, which has done little to prevent companies like Hims from marketing copies of Novo's lucrative weight loss drugs.

Tasha Matsumoto

2/6/26

Tech rebound propels stocks to best day since May

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all climbed higher as the AI trade was back on.

Chicago Bulls Dennis Rodman (91) and Michael Jordan (23) in action, rebounding vs Charlotte Hornets

Max Knoblauch2/6/26

Airlines rise, continuing their volatile 2026, as US-Iran talks may foreshadow some oil supply relief

Airline stocks are surging on Friday, as the market appears to be pricing in some medium-term oil pricing relief following talks between the US and Iran. Iranian officials referred to the meeting as “a good beginning.”

Shares of budget carriers, which have tighter margins and are more sensitive to fluctuations in fuel costs, are leading the surge. Frontier Airlines and Allegiant up more than 13%, while major airlines like United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines are also up at least 6%. JetBlue and Alaska Air are similarly up about 6%.

The market more broadly is rebounding on Friday, with the S&P 500 up 1.6% and bitcoin recovering some of this week’s losses.

Airlines have been volatile to start 2026 amid geopolitical tensions, varying annual forecasts, and the impact of winter storms.

Luke Kawa2/6/26

The AI supply chain is soaring thanks to Amazon’s capex budget

If tech companies are going to spend way more than expected on capex, well, that means other companies are poised to benefit from that massive spending spree.

Amazon’s plan for $200 billion in business investment this year was the exclamation point to end a reporting period that saw every Magnificent 7 hyperscaler that provides guidance offer a 2026 capex budget well above what Wall Street had anticipated.

Here’s a look at the different parts of the supply chain that are soaring on the persistent demand for, and seeming scarcity of, AI compute:

Data center/neocloud companies: Applied Digital, CoreWeave, Cipher Mining, and Nebius, with some of these seemingly getting an extra lift from their legacy role as crypto miners.
Chips: the usual suspects — Nvidia, Broadcom, and Advanced Micro Devices.
Racks: Super Micro Computer, which is continuing its strong run following earnings, and Dell.
Power: Oklo, Nuscale, and Plug Power.

Big Tech capital expenditure soared in 2025. It’s going up another 50% in 2026.

Here’s a look at the different parts of the supply chain that are soaring on the persistent demand for, and seeming scarcity of, AI compute:

Data center/neocloud companies: Applied Digital, CoreWeave, Cipher Mining, and Nebius, with some of these seemingly getting an extra lift from their legacy role as crypto miners.
Chips: the usual suspects — Nvidia, Broadcom, and Advanced Micro Devices.
Racks: Super Micro Computer, which is continuing its strong run following earnings, and Dell.
Power: Oklo, Nuscale, and Plug Power.

Matt Phillips2/6/26

For memory chips, the “parabolic price hike” is continuing to ramp higher

The remarkable run-up in prices for memory chips continued into early February, analysts at Bernstein Research say, driven largely by data center demand from hyperscalers and cloud service providers (CSP).

Prices for NAND flash memory wafers — a type of memory used in devices, as it retains data even when powered down — soared 35% between the end of 2025 and February 2.

Spot prices for DRAM — ubiquitous short-term data storage chips — jumped about 28% in that period. But that massively understates the remarkable shift in pricing for what were long seen as commodity tech hardware inputs. DRAM prices are more than 2,000% over the last year, while NAND prices are up more than 600% in that period.

The ongoing momentum provides still more support for memory chip plays like Micron and Sandisk, which have been big market winners in recent months.

In a note published earlier this week, Bernstein Research analysts wrote:

“The parabolic price hike continued in Jan. Indicated price increase for 1QCY26 is much stronger than we expected and we hence see upside to our near term memory pricing projection. Unrelenting CSP demand remained the main driver. PC and Mobile demand hasn’t been destroyed yet because of lean inventory & pull-forward purchase. Going forward price hike is expected to continue but likely at a slower rate, as PC and Mobile demand should contract meaningfully this year. Price however may stay elevated throughout this year, supported by CSP demand.”

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