Buzzsaw for wooden workboat building in Cambridge, MD

(Edwin Remsburg/Getty Images)

The buzziest stocks are running into the buzzsaw as stock-market angst festers

Speculative stocks are fully succumbing to the selling afflicting their larger peers.

1/13/25 11:31AM

The stock market has gone through three phases since the US election.

The first, from November 5 through December 6, saw stocks surge on widespread enthusiasm about the purportedly pro-business, pro-market stances the incoming Trump administration would adopt. Even then, there was more than a whiff of speculative fervor in the air: the best-performing US equity factors during this period were trading activity and volatility, or stocks that move a lot with lots of turnover.

Some companies that fall into one (or both) buckets include Palantir Technologies, Tesla, AppLovin, Rocket Lab, Trump Media & Technology Group, Riot Platforms, Rivian, Palo Alto Networks, Reddit, GameStop, MARA Holdings, and Coinbase.

Then, after December 6, the S&P 500 struggled, failing to make an all-time high, but many thematically interesting, tech-oriented segments of the market still roared.

Smaller AI upstarts like SoundHound AI and Cerence jumped more than 130% and 240%, respectively, over the next month. Four quantum-computing stocks — D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and Quantum Computing — saw their combined market caps rise by more than 80% during this stretch. The cherry on top of the speculative sundae saw SEALSQ, a Swiss company that’s been touting its quantum-resistant tech, spike 1,840% in a turbocharged parallel boom with quantum stocks.

Meanwhile, the benchmark US stock index gave back about 2%.

Now, even the buzziest names are running into the buzzsaw. Blame a combination of high long-term bond yields and some recalibration of very rose-colored expectations for the incoming Trump admin as the inauguration draws closer, along with some idiosyncratic catalysts — like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang throwing cold water on quantum computing — for the air coming out of these balloons.

On January 7, stocks that did well during December started to get slammed, followed by a day of reckoning as the drawdowns accelerated.

This continued leg downward on Monday, with huge drops in once-upon-a-time meme stocks like Plug Power as well as the quantum-computing cohort, hints at the possibility of capitulation by retail investors. Last week, JPMorgan equity and quantitative strategists flagged that retail investors had been continuing to plow cash into the market, buying the dip in names like Palantir.

That dip-buying activity appears to have been getting dwarfed by institutional divestments at the index level for more than a month now. Now, the retreats in Big Tech megacaps have cascaded down to the parts of the stocks that had previously appeared immune to selling pressure.

Volatility and trading activity, the best-performing US stock-market factors from November 5 through January 6?

Well, since last Monday, those two are at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Luke Kawa7h

Bitcoin approaches make-or-break level for potential catch-up trade with soaring precious metals

The underperformance of bitcoin versus gold and other speculative assets last year was a head-scratcher.

However, bitcoin’s strong start to 2026 leaves it well positioned for a potential catch-up trade with soaring precious metals, according to Brent Donnelly, president of Spectra Markets — so long as the crypto asset is able to break through near-term resistance levels that loom.

The shaded area in the below chart shows “an important series of supports that I had focused on back in the summer of 2025 and again in November 2025. The level broke somewhat cleanly and we have not been back above since,” he wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. “Broken megasupports like that tend to become important resistance on the way back up so bears can get busy as we near the 98400/99400 zone, or bulls can add on a break of 100k. I would think a move through 100,000 would trigger a strong psychological response from the market given the laggy nature of bitcoin vs. gold, silver, and stocks.”

“In a world where there is a shortage of good places to park your money if you’re worried about counterparty risk, it makes sense that gold and silver would be rallying,” he concluded. “Then again, it would have made sense that bitcoin would be rallying too, and it went straight down for the second half of 2025.”

Matt Phillips7h

Satellite stocks continue to surge amid geopolitical concerns, with Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and EchoStar hitting records

Satellite services stocks Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and EchoStar all notched closing records as geopolitical instability continues to push them higher.

Planet Labs President and CFO Ashley Johnson presented at the Needham Growth Conference today, talking up her company’s recent deal with the Swedish Air Force. She called the deal “a signal of the urgency that you’re hearing from nations around the world for the need to have their own intelligence capabilities, their own eyes in the sky to understand what’s going on, to make sure that they have the proper preparedness.”

Satellite stocks have been surging in the face of an uptick in global instability and White House actions and saber-rattling aimed at Venezuela, Iran, and remarkably Denmark, over President Trump’s fixation on annexing Greenland.

Since the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, their gains have been eye-watering: Rocket Lab is up nearly 30%, Planet Labs is up 34%, and EchoStar has risen 21%.

After all, the low-Earth orbit industry began as a way to easily establish redundancies for communications, intelligence, and missile defense capabilities. Military and government contracting remain important cornerstones of the business.

Tasha Matsumoto

Tech tumble drags down stocks

All stocks in the Mag 7 fell as investors rotated into defensive names.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY 10: Caleb Williams #18 of the Chicago Bears throws a pass prior to an NFL wild card playoff game against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on January 10, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.

Matt Phillips13h

Intel rises again, riding a wave of Trump support and Apple speculation

Intel is up again early Wednesday, coming within spitting distance of two-year highs, after comments from the president fed into stock market murmurs about the prospect for Apple to become a key customer for Intel’s ailing contract chip-manufacturing business.

In off-the-cuff comments to reporters Tuesday, President Trump took a victory lap over Intel’s rally since the US government’s investment in August.

“The stock went very up, and very high and we made tens of billions of dollars,” Trump said, adding that “as soon as we went in, Apple went in, Nvidia went in, a lot of smart people went in. They followed us.”

Nvidia took the unusual step of buying a $5 billion stake in Intel in September. But it’s unclear what Trump meant by “Apple went in.”

The comment is consistent with market speculation that Apple — another company whose operational decisions Trump has pressured and influenced — could become a key customer for the next-generation chipmaking technology known as 18A. Intel has bet billions on 18A in an effort to resuscitate its ailing contract chip-manufacturing business, known as a foundry. But the chipmaker has yet to land a key customer willing to let it make its chips with the new process.

In a note published this week, KeyBanc analyst John Vinh said he believes that Apple will be a key customer for 18A, but no announcement about any deal has been made.

So was Trump confused? Did he let something important slip? Was it merely a bit of Trumpian puffery? All unclear.

What is plain, however, is that investors are taking cues on what to buy based on the deep personal involvement of an intensely stock market-sensitive US president.

It might not be the ideal of free market capitalism. But in Intel’s case, it does seem to make the number go up, at least so far.

Follow the White House as it picks stock-market winners and losers, says Fundstrat's Tom Lee.

Nvidia took the unusual step of buying a $5 billion stake in Intel in September. But it’s unclear what Trump meant by “Apple went in.”

In a note published this week, KeyBanc analyst John Vinh said he believes that Apple will be a key customer for 18A, but no announcement about any deal has been made.

So was Trump confused? Did he let something important slip? Was it merely a bit of Trumpian puffery? All unclear.

What is plain, however, is that investors are taking cues on what to buy based on the deep personal involvement of an intensely stock market-sensitive US president.

It might not be the ideal of free market capitalism. But in Intel’s case, it does seem to make the number go up, at least so far.

Luke Kawa13h

Tariff-sensitive stocks swoon again after Supreme Court declines to deliver tariff ruling

Déjà vu all over again.

The Supreme Court once again declined to issue an opinion on the legality of the bulk of President Trump’s tariff regime, and once again a basket of stocks deemed to be “tariff losers” is meaningfully underperforming the S&P 500 in response to this lack of a decision.

Since news of the lack of news dropped around 10:12 a.m. ET, Crocs, RH, and Under Armour have been among the worst-performing members in this group, all off more than 1% in the past 10 minutes.

It looks like the stock market was expecting some tariff relief