GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - DECEMBER 07: Caleb Williams #18 of the Chicago Bears walks off the field after a loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on December 07, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

(John Fisher/Getty Images)

Stocks erase 2026 gains as tech and crypto continue to slide; volatility rises

Investors continued to shun risk amid rising volatility.

2/5/26 4:05PM

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all fell on Thursday. The benchmark index is now officially negative for the year. The VIX, Wall Street’s fear gauge, climbed above 20. Every sector fell except for defensive sectors utilities and consumer staples.

Bitcoin set new cycle lows, and altcoins XRP, solana, dogecoin, and chainlink revisited levels not seen in several years. Silver also resumed its slide.

Stocks that moved higher:

Broadcom rose as it enjoyed a halo effect from Google’s plans to spend up to $185 billion on capex this year.
Arm Holdings rose after reporting solid results and a cheery outlook as investors appeared to shake off the implications of Qualcomm’s weak guidance.
Nio charged higher as the EV maker projected its first-ever quarterly profit in its fourth quarter.
Cigna rose as its Q4 results beat Wall Street estimates, though its 2026 guidance underwhelmed.

Stocks that moved lower:

Qualcomm tumbled after releasing gloomy Q2 guidance.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dropped as Hims & Hers will offer copies of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill at $49 a month for starting doses.
Retail favorites and high-beta momentum stocks took a dive, including Palantir, AST SpaceMobile, Rocket Lab, and quantum computing trades D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing.
Snap slid despite reporting a surprise profit beat in yesterday’s Q4 earnings results, though its daily active users fell.
Despite reporting an earnings beat after the bell yesterday, investors reacted negatively Alphabet’s huge capex plans. Many analysts, however, raised their price targets.
e.l.f. Beauty dipped despite reporting a Q3 earnings beat after the bell yesterday.
Blue Owl Capital ticked lower despite reporting Q4 sales and earnings above estimates.
IonQ fell after Wolfpack Research released a short report alleging the company has lost funding for key Pentagon contracts.
Peloton plunged after reporting a greater-than-expected loss, lower-than-expected revenue, and falling subscription numbers in its Q2 earnings this morning.

Luke Kawa3h

Nvidia’s strong results, guidance lift AI ecosystem

Data center stocks Applied Digital, IREN, CoreWeave, and Nebius as well as foundry giant TSMC and optical communications company Corning are catching a bid in after-hours trading thanks to strong results and guidance from Nvidia.

The chip designer’s massive outlook for Q1 sales — with the midpoint at $78 billion, versus a consensus estimate of $72.8 billion — underscores the magnitude of the near-term demand for AI compute and chips. As if the hyperscalers’ massive capex budgets hadn’t already done that!

To be sure, the advances in these stocks in after-hours trading are fairly mild, since most had been on fire in recent sessions in anticipation of a strong quarter.

Nvidia rises after better than expected Q4 results, big upside surprise in Q1 sales guidance

To be sure, the advances in these stocks in after-hours trading are fairly mild, since most had been on fire in recent sessions in anticipation of a strong quarter.

Luke Kawa

Nvidia rises after better-than-expected Q4 results, big upside surprise in Q1 sales guidance

The chip designer delivered its 13th consecutive bottom-line beat and 14th on the top line.

Max Knoblauch3h

Joby posts smaller loss, larger cash pile than expected in Q4, says it expects US early operations to begin this year

Air taxi maker Joby Aviation reported its fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Shares climbed more than 3% in after-hours trading.

The company posted a loss of $0.14 per share, beating estimates of a $0.20 loss.

Joby ended the fourth quarter with $1.41 billion in cash (and cash equivalents), compared to Wall Street expectations of $1.01 billion.

Investors have closely watched Joby’s progress with FAA certification, which will be the determining factor for launching commercial air taxi services in the US. As of the end of Q4, Joby said it is 80% complete with the fourth stage of its five-stage certification process, up from 77% in the third quarter. Joby is 12% complete with the fifth stage, up from 10% in Q3.

Earlier on Wednesday, Joby announced it plans to partner with Uber to offer air taxi rides on the ride-hailing app in Dubai later this year. The companies already partner on Blade helicopter rides.

Joby also said it expects US early operations to begin this year, with the White House’s eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) Integration Pilot Program “set to select at least five sites for mature eVTOL aircraft to begin operating ahead of Type Certification.”

Matt Phillips3h

The Trade Desk plunges on weak Q1 sales guidance

Ad tech platform The Trade Desk offered weak Q1 sales guidance as part of its Q4 earnings numbers, sending the stock down sharply after-hours on Wednesday.

The advertising software company reported:

Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.59 vs. the $0.58 consensus estimate, per FactSet.
Q4 revenue of $847 million vs. the $840.6 million expectation.
Q1 sales guidance of “at least” $678 million vs. Wall Street’s $688.6 million expectation.

The Trade Desk specializes in helping client advertisers shift their ads from traditional linear television toward online streaming services. And the shares posted some impressive gains at times, rising more than 400% over five years starting at the end of 2019.

But the company’s shares have cratered in recent years, in part because of a daunting competitive threat from Amazon’s demand-side advertising platform. Through Wednesday’s close, the stock was down roughly 80% from where it was trading at the end of 2024.

Max Knoblauch3h

Paramount misses on earnings and revenue in its fourth-quarter report

Paramount Skydance reported underwhelming fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, in the midst of its attempt to win the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war.

For the last three months of 2025, Paramount reported:

An adjusted loss of $0.12 per share, compared to Bloomberg estimates of $0.07 earnings per share.
Revenue of $8.1 billion, missing Wall Street’s expectations of $8.15 billion.

Looking ahead, the company expects Q1 revenue of between $7.15 billion and $7.35 billion, below the $7.39 billion Wall Street consensus estimate.

Earlier this week, Paramount hiked its offer for Warner Bros. to $31 per share. Warner’s board, which has rejected Paramount’s acquisition attempts several times in recent months, said it’s reviewing the new bid.

If WBD determines the Paramount deal to be a superior offer, Netflix will have four days to match it, beat it, or exit the process. Paramount shares have fallen 24% since it made its initial offer for WBD in December.