CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - NOVEMBER 17: Mascot Staley Da Bear of the Chicago Bears runs onto the field prior to an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on November 17, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

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S&P 500 closes lower after notching new intraday high

The Nasdaq 100 eked out a small gain, while the Russell 2000 fell.

1/7/26 4:03PM

The S&P 500 closed lower after notching a new intraday record high. The Nasdaq 100 managed to eke out a small gain, while the Russell 2000 fell.

Investors reviewed mixed employment data, in which the December ADP employment report showed private payrolls rising but the November JOLTS showed jobs openings falling. Friday’s December jobs report could offer more insight into the Fed’s path to easing in 2026.

Stocks that moved higher:

Rare earth stocks MP Materials, Critical Metals, and United States Antimony Corp. rose as the White House confirmed the US is looking at options for acquiring Greenland, including use of military force.
GameStop rose after announcing a long-term performance award for CEO Ryan Cohen.
Compass jumped after a key antitrust waiting period expired for its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate.
Intel surged to a new 52-week high. While there’s no clear reason to point to for its outperformance, potential catalysts include CES announcements or a deal announcement that Mobileye, the autonomous driving company that Intel holds a significant stake in, will buy humanoid robot maker Mentee for $900 million.
Strategy ticked up after MSCI dropped plans to exclude digital asset firms from its indexes.

Stocks that moved lower:

Homebuilders PulteGroup, Toll Brothers, DR Horton, and Lennar tumbled after President Trump said he wanted to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes. Blackstone and Invitation Homes, two of the largest owners of private homes in the country, and digital real estate company Opendoor Technologies also fell.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he won’t permit defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks, sending Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Huntington Ingalls Industries, and RTX lower.
Imax dipped despite reporting record ticket revenue in 2025 powered by “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
AST SpaceMobile sank after being cut to “underperform” at Scotiabank.
First Solar fell after Jefferies downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy” and cut its price target to $260 from $269.
Deckers Outdoor dropped after Piper Sandler cut the stock to “underweight” and lowered its price target to $85 from $100.
Paramount Skydance dipped as the board of Warner Bros. Discovery unanimously rejected Paramount’s offer again.

1M 🔋🔁

Max Knoblauch36m

Chinese EV maker Nio is climbing on Monday following news that the company provided a million battery swaps in China in less than a week. Nio shares are up about 6%.

Nio’s battery swap process is an alternative to charging. Depleted EV batteries are swapped out at stations for fully charged ones in less than three minutes — significantly faster than fast charging.

The company, which operates 3,750 swap stations, said it has broken daily swap records in China six times this month, as millions travel across the country over the Lunar New Year holiday. On Sunday, Nio performed 177,627 swaps.

Earlier this month, Nio CEO William Li said the company would add 1,000 swap stations this year.

Luke Kawa1h

PayPal jumps after report of unsolicited takeover interest

Bloomberg reports that PayPal is the subject of takeover interest, with shares down nearly 90% from their 2021 closing high.

Per the report, management “has fielded meetings with banks amid unsolicited interest from suitors,” citing people familiar with the matter.

After being briefly halted for volatility, shares jumped 8%.

There’s reportedly appetite from “one large rival” to buy the entire company, while other potential purchasers want only certain parts.

Shares of the payments company recently closed at their lowest level since 2016, having lost ground to the likes of Apple and Google in the digital realm.

Earlier this month, shares cratered after the company posted weaker-than-anticipated Q4 results and 2026 profit guidance while announcing its CEO would soon be leaving the company.

Matt Phillips2h

Sandisk shakes off slide from secondary offering

Sandisk continued to shake off a slump that hit the shares last week after it priced a secondary offering of almost 6 million shares owned by its former parent, Western Digital.

Tomorrow marks a year since Sandisk started trading on its own, after its spin-off from WDC. The stock soared amid a global shortage of memory chips that seemed to catch even experts completely off guard. The stock is up almost 1,300% since it began trading independently.

The company appeared to tease an event or product launch for tomorrow, February 24, in an X post on Friday, but the specifics were not entirely clear.

Sandisk’s gain over that period is the largest of any constituent of the S&P Total Market Index with a market cap of $4 billion or more — and the third-largest increase overall, out of its roughly 3,800 constituents.

Year to date, Sandisk is among the best performers in the Russell 1000 Technology Index and a key driver of the trend that has seen small clutch of hardware manufacturers trounce software shares.

Luke Kawa

Software stocks crater as independent research piece details potential AI dystopian scenario

The lowlights in this dystopian not-too-distant future: unemployment high despite elevated nominal growth and productivity, and the stock market tumbling as credit stress from companies laid low by AI metastasizes.

Man in desert with robodog and floating tower blocks

David Crowther

BANKROLL ALT RECEIPT

OpenAI’s planned cash burn was unlike anything we’d ever seen — now they’re doubling it

OpenAI is still the molten mass at the center of the AI universe, burning billions as it pulls talent, capital, and companies into its orbit.

S&P 500 closes lower after notching new intraday high

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PayPal jumps after report of unsolicited takeover interest

Sandisk shakes off slide from secondary offering

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