BISHOP'S STORTFORD, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: Snowfall in the Essex countryside on January 25, 2021 in Bishop's Stortford, Essex, United Kingdom.

Flat fields (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Stocks whipsaw ahead of next week’s Big Tech earnings

Stocks struggled for direction ahead of next week’s Fed meeting and Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple earnings.

The S&P 500 whipsawed before finishing marginally higher ahead of next week’s Big Tech earnings, when Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple will report. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed, officially erasing all losses after President Trump’s European tariff threats last week. The Russell 2000 sank, breaking its 14-session streak of outperforming the S&P 500. Financial services was the worst-performing sector ETF, while materials was the best.

Stocks that moved higher:

Advanced Micro Devices rose for the ninth consecutive session as Intel’s supply constraints presented an opportunity for CPU market share gains.
Nvidia gained, as Chinese officials will allow leading tech companies to progress with their plans to import H200 chips.
Microsoft jumped after announcing Rho-alpha, its first robotics AI model derived from its vision-language models.
Wall Street’s mood brightened on Nintendo as momentum for Switch 2 builds.
Spotify rose following an upgrade from Goldman Sachs as it prepares to hike subscription prices next month.
Booz Allen Hamilton jumped after boosting its full-year earnings outlook and posting better-than-expected Q3 profits.
Despite reporting weaker-than-expected 2026 earnings guidance after the bell yesterday, shares of Alaska Airlines rose.

Stocks that moved lower:

Intel tumbled after investors were disappointed by its Q1 guidance in yesterday’s earnings call, in which management asked for time to deliver a turnaround that traders have already aggressively been pricing in.
Capital One dropped after a Q4 earnings miss, where the bank announced its deal to buy startup Brex for $5.1 billion.

Hong Kong Disneyland Marvel Season Of Super Hero Media Day

Earnings season a chance for AI hyperscalers to “get their mojo back”

Hyperscalers need more “hype” on their potential AI moneymaking opportunities or to show that their “scale” continues to drive huge growth through this spending binge.

Luke Kawa2h

Matt Phillips3h

Active ETF offers exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Active ETF Baron First Principles ETF has added a large stake in Elon Musk’s privately held SpaceX, with daily disclosures of the active ETFs holdings on Friday showing SpaceX now makes up 22% of the fund’s portfolio.

Such a stake would open up a potentially big opportunity for those looking to get access to some of the eccentric billionaire’s privately held business empire, ahead of any public offering of the shares — which is reportedly in the works for this year.

Run by mutual fund manager Ron Baron, the ETF also owns stakes in other Musk vehicles such as privately held xAI and publicly traded Tesla. The fund — which has only been trading since December 15 — is down slightly on the day.

Luke Kawa6h

AMD jumps as Intel’s supply constraints offer chance for CPU market share gains

As investors react negatively to Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s warning that the chipmaker’s turnaround effort will be a “multiyear journey,” that cautionary note is also a reminder that Advanced Micro Devices has more time to make hay while the sun shines.

AMD had been one of the companies with the most to lose should attempts by the government and Nvidia to prop up the beleaguered chipmaker bear fruit. In particular, Intel and AMD are locked in a fierce competition in the CPU market. During its earnings call on Thursday, Intel said that supply constraints were preventing the company from realizing strong demand.

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur thinks that gives AMD more room to continue to muscle in on Intel’s CPU turf.

“We still view Intel as being at risk of further share loss in its product businesses (particularly in server CPU given AMD’s strong product portfolio/roadmap and Intel’s supply constraints),” he wrote.

AMD is up nearly 3% as of 11:40 a.m. ET, working on its ninth straight day of gains. A positive close would match its longest winning streak since 2005.

Max Knoblauch6h

Spotify climbs following an upgrade from Goldman as it prepares to hike prices

Music streamer Spotify climbed about 3% on Friday following an upgrade to “buy” from “neutral” from Goldman Sachs.

The upgrade comes ahead of Spotify’s already announced US subscription price hike next month — its third since 2023. Goldman lowered its 12-month Spotify price target to $700 from $735.

“We are surprised how negative investor sentiment has turned with respect to [Spotify] on the back of the AI theme. In our opinion, we see SPOT as well-positioned to capitalize on/benefit from rising generative AI adoption,” Goldman said in its Friday note, adding that it’s watching how the rise of AI music platforms could impact Spotify and its music royalty payment structure.

Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley published a survey that found up to 60% of Gen Z respondents listen to AI music, for an average of three hours per week. Last week, Bandcamp announced it would ban AI music on its platform.

Max Knoblauch6h

Wall Street’s mood brightens on Nintendo as Switch 2 momentum builds

US-traded ADRs of Nintendo are up more than 4% Friday morning as markets turn more optimistic on the gaming giant.

Following the worst November in 30 years for American gaming console unit sales, Circana on Thursday reported that Nintendo’s Switch 2 saw a rebound in December. According to analyst Mat Piscatella, the popular handheld console’s unit sales are pacing 35% ahead of Sony’s PlayStation 4 seven months after release.

Analysts at Jefferies and Wolfe Research highlighted the strength of the console in recent notes, with Wolfe upgrading the stock from “underperform” to “peer perform.” Wolfe said it largely maintains its unit sales estimate of 20.5 million Switch 2s in the fiscal year ending in March.

On Friday, Japan’s central bank raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast from 0.7% to 1%, also potentially boosting the country’s major companies like Nintendo.