Markets
Yiwen Lu

Trump's win cascades through far-flung markets

America decides, the world reacts: the ripple effect of Donald Trump’s election win are transferred across global financial markets, especially among stocks with the strongest links to the Republican leader’s policy priorities, from clean energy to electric vehicles.

Europe

European renewable-energy stocks, including Orsted, Vestas Wind Systems, and EDP Renewables, tanked on potential policies against the green-energy transition and offshore wind projects under the Trump administration.

Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, dropped nearly 8% on Wednesday morning as a Trump presidency poses risks to its business in Mexico, the bank’s biggest customer.

Shares of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volkswagen all plunged on tariff fears, as Trump previously threatened that on goods from the European Union. The auto stocks were among the worst performers in the EURO STOXX 50 index on Wednesday.

Danish shipping company A.P. Moller - Maersk dropped 6.4% as traders assessed the impact of a Trump win on ocean freight rates. 

South Korea

Hanwha Solutions Corp., a South Korean firm that’s invested billions into its solar-panel business in Georgia, fell 8.2%. Likewise, South Korean battery-maker LG Energy Solutions saw its shares sink 7% amid fears that a less-than-friendly stance toward electric vehicles under the Trump administration will dent its US business.

China

Software company Wisesoft, whose Chinese name sounds like “Trump wins big,” was up 10% on the day and halted. The meme stock gained 96.8% over the past six months. Conversely, Zhejiang Haers Vacuum Containers, where Haers sounds like “Harris,” fell 7.1% on Wednesday.

US-listed shares of Chinese companies mostly plunged, including electric-vehicle companies Nio Inc and Li Auto.

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Max Knoblauch

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.

markets
Luke Kawa

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:

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

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:

markets
Matt Phillips

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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markets
Matt Phillips

Bloom Energy earnings get warm reception from analysts

Fuel cell-based power provider Bloom Energy posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings and sales results after the bell on Thursday, sending the stock higher aftermarket and into early Friday trading. Here’s some of the positive chatter from analysts reacting to the bullish results:

Barclays: “What to know: 1) 2026 guide well above the Street for all metrics; 2) Product backlog comes in at $6.0bn with services backlog of $14.0 bn, reflecting 100% attach rate on new bookings.”

Morgan Stanley: “An inflection in growth is now beginning to show up in the financials. Significant 4Q25 earnings beat, product backlog up 2.5x, and 2026 revenue guidance meeting our Street-high forecast: >50% YoY as demand begins to ramp. We stay OW, raise PT to $184 on recent project wins.”

JP Morgan: “We are adjusting our estimates and introducing FY28 estimates with this note. Our YE26 price target goes to $166, from $154. While the stock has significantly outperformed YTD, we maintain our Overweight rating and believe that additional contract announcements should provide further positive catalysts and potentially increased visibility into our unit shipment vs margin sensitivity analysis (see below).”

Evercore ISI: “The most noticeable and arguably most anticipated metric Bloom provided was its current product backlog which currently stands at $6B representing a ~2.5x increase YoY, with total current backlog (product and services) ballooning to $20B. These impressive backlog metrics should provide confidence in the company’s ability to deliver on its newly established $3.1-$3.1B 2026 revenue target (vs. cons. of ~$2.1B) and double its non-GAAP operating income ($450M midpoint vs. $221M 2025A).”

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