Stock Indexes End Higher to Begin Big Week of Major Tech Earnings; Gold Tops $5,000 for First Time

How Much Traders Expect Tesla to Move After Earnings

FROM 2 hr 26 min ago

Tesla is set to report its latest financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, with traders anticipating a sizable move from the electric vehicle maker’s stock following the results.

Options pricing suggests traders expect Tesla’s (TSLA) stock could move about 5% in either direction by the end of the week. A shift of that size from Monday’s close around $435 could push the stock back up to $459, about 6% off December’s record, or drag it down to $412.

During the company’s earnings call, investors will likely be listening closely to hear what CEO Elon Musk has to say about Tesla’s developments in self-driving cars and robotics, which the CEO has previously suggested could eventually become the company’s main revenue drivers as its EV sales come under pressure. In an interview at the World Economic Forum last week, Musk said he expects Tesla could start selling its Optimus humanoid robots to the public by the end of next year.

Optimus sales, along with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software subscriptions, are among the metrics that would need to grow for Musk to earn tranches of stock as part of his newest compensation agreement. Earlier this month, Musk announced that Tesla will only offer FSD software under a recurring subscription starting next month, in a move that could help the company raise subscription revenues.

Tesla also recently confirmed it has removed human safety monitors from the front seat of some of its robotaxis currently operating in Austin, in what Morgan Stanley analysts suggested could mark an important milestone for the company’s robotaxi strategy.

For the fourth quarter, Tesla is expected to report revenue of $25.1 billion, down about 2.4% from the same time a year ago, while adjusted earnings per share are forecast at $0.46, down from $0.60 last year, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

Wall Street analysts are divided on the stock. Of the 11 analysts with current ratings tracked by Visible Alpha, six consider it a “buy,” compared to three “hold,” and two “sell” ratings. Their average price target around $446 would represent just a 2% rise from Monday’s close.

–Aaron McDade

Could Using 401(k)s as Down Payments Make Saving for Retirement Even Harder?

FROM 4 hr 51 min ago

As the federal government looks to make housing more affordable, a Trump administration official this month floated making it easier for homebuyers to fund down payments from their retirement accounts.

But is that a good idea?

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox Business on Jan. 16 the administration was considering a policy that would allow Americans to withdraw money from their 401(k)s to put toward a down payment on a home. He said the president would roll out the full details of the plan at Davos. Instead, on the way home from the World Economic Forum, President Donald Trump said he wasn’t a “huge fan” of the proposal.

Read the full article here.

–Trina Paul

How the Next Government Shutdown Could Be Different From the Last

FROM 5 hr 23 min ago

Suddenly, the government appears just days away from a shutdown.

The risk of another shutdown rose over the weekend amid the political fallout from a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal agents during protests over immigration enforcement efforts.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would oppose a government funding bill that includes money for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democrats have cited concerns about federal enforcement practices, while Republicans argue that DHS funding is necessary to maintain border security and government operations.

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” Schumer said in a statement.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

The Trade Desk Leads S&P 500 Decliners After Replacing Recently Hired CFO

FROM 6 hr 9 min ago

The Trade Desk’s finance chief is out after less than six months. Investors are punishing the stock.

Shares of The Trade Desk (TTD) sank 8% to lead S&P 500 decliners Monday after it said CFO Alex Kayyal was replaced on an interim basis by Tahnil Davis, effective this past Saturday. Davis, the firm’s Chief Accounting Officer and an 11-year employee, will serve as interim CFO while The Trade Desk searches for a permanent successor.

On Aug. 7, the Ventura, Calif.-based firm announced former Salesforce executive Kayyal’s appointment as CFO, effective Aug. 21. At the time of his appointment, he most recently had served as Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and was on The Trade Desk’s board.

The Trade Desk, which provided no additional details about Kayyal’s ouster, affirmed its fiscal fourth-quarter guidance of revenue of at least $840 million and adjusted EBITDA of about $375 million. It will report results on Feb. 25.

Shares of The Trade Desk, which bills itself as “the world’s leading independent advertising technology company,” are down more than 70% over the past year.

CoreWeave Stock Soars as Nvidia Boosts Its Investment—What You Need to Know

FROM 7 hr 1 min ago

Shares of CoreWeave jumped on Monday after the cloud computing company extended its partnership with Nvidia, a tie-up that last year helped fuel Wall Street’s AI bubble debate.

The companies on Monday announced they had expanded their partnership to accelerate CoreWeave’s development of AI data centers operating on Nvidia’s technology stack. Nvidia, which invested $250 million in CoreWeave during its IPO last March, agreed to invest an additional $2 billion in the company as part of the deal. CoreWeave agreed to deploy Nvidia’s latest products, including storage systems and a new central processing unit.

CoreWeave (CRWV) shares were up 8% in recent trading, leading a relatively broad AI rally. Nvidia (NVDA) shares were down slightly.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

The ‘Magnificent 7’ Are Off to a Mixed Start in 2026. Here’s What to Watch as Their Earnings Start

FROM 7 hr 50 min ago

America’s heavy-hitting “Magnificent 7” stocks have driven years of market gains. That may not continue to be the case.

This year has started with a mixed showing from the grouping of some of America’s biggest tech stocks, which accounted for over 40% of the S&P 500’s roughly 18% total return in 2025. Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) is up some 5% since 2026 began, while Amazon (AMZN) is up about 4%. Tesla (TSLA), Meta (Meta), and Nvidia (NVDA) are little changed. Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) are in negative territory. The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) which tracks the group, is about flat.

A more “risk-off” stance as geopolitical events rattled markets earlier this month could be partly to blame, along with concerns about an AI bubble—though the stocks’ recent divergence suggests that some are having a harder time winning over investors than others. Magnificent 7 earnings, which kick off this week, could shed more light on how they’re approaching a range of challenges and, perhaps, breathe fresh enthusiasm into their shares. 

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

Could Fed Chair Powell’s Successor Be…Jerome Powell?

FROM 8 hr 31 min ago

President Donald Trump’s public campaign to influence the Federal Reserve could backfire, leaving a central banker that Trump has sharply criticized in charge of a key policy committee for another term.

Chair Jerome Powell could legally remain on the policy committee after his term as chair officially ends in May. However, Fed watchers considered it remote until recently. Tensions between the president and the Fed chair flared in recent weeks—sparking speculation that Powell could remain on the Federal Open Market Committee after his chairmanship ends, or even continue as chair.

With Trump actively and publicly seeking the next Fed chair, Powell’s tenure on the Fed will likely be a hot-button topic at his post-FOMC press conference next week.

“We think it is now more likely that Powell will stay on as a governor to help protect the Fed after his term as chair ends,” Krishna Guha, vice chair of Evercore ISI, wrote in a research note.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Are You Older Than 62 and a Student Loan Borrower? See How Your Debt Compares To Others Your Age

FROM 8 hr 50 min ago

As of September 2025, about 3.1 million federal student loan borrowers were 62 years or older, according to the latest data available from the Federal Student Aid office. This group holds $136.9 billion, accounting for about 8% of the almost $1.7 trillion in outstanding federal student loan debt.

The average balance for this group is about $44,161. Compared with other age groups, the average 62-year-old or older borrower holds the third-highest loan balance.

Many borrowers 62 and older are near or already in retirement. But making payments on a fixed income, typically less than working wages, can be difficult.

A quarter of borrowers who were 60 years or older had a payment that was past due, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Most still carry debt because they attended college later in life or took out  Parent PLUS loans for children or grandchildren.

Read the full article here.

–Elizabeth Guevara

Booz Allen Hamilton Stock Drops as Treasury Department Cancels Contracts

FROM 9 hr 12 min ago

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is dropping all its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH). The consulting firm’s stock is sinking in response.

Shares of the consulting firm were down 9% Monday after U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced the agency was terminating the agency’s “31 separate contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.”

The department said it was doing so in response to the actions of former Booz Allen employee Charles Littlejohn, who “stole and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers” between 2018 and 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first time.

“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Secretary Bessent said in the Treasury Department’s press release. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”

“Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” a company spokesperson said. “We look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury.”

Shares of Booz Allen surged nearly 7% Friday after it raised its fiscal 2026 profit forecast.

–UPDATE: This post has been updated with a company statement.

Thousands of Flights Canceled as Winter Storm Grips US

FROM 9 hr 39 min ago

Far fewer planes in the U.S. heard “cleared for takeoff” this weekend.

The winter storm that battered much of the U.S. with snow and ice this weekend has had a severe impact on air travel, with over 20,000 flights canceled Saturday through Monday morning, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.1

Further travel disruptions are expected this week, with another 4,300 flights already canceled for Monday with over 10,400 delayed. Flights departing from or set to arrive at airports in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., were hit particularly hard as the cities faced heavy snow on Sunday. Cancellations ranged from more than half to nearly all of the flights leaving from airports across the cities.

Major airports such as John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International are currently experiencing close to 50% cancellation rates, per FlightAware, with cancellation rates at Boston Logan Airport hovering around 60% early Monday.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Gold Surges Above $5,000 Per Ounce for First Time

FROM 10 hr 27 min ago

Gold finally hit the milestone traders have been waiting for.

The spot price of the precious metal over the weekend topped $5,000 per troy ounce for the first time, and reached as high as $5,115 Monday morning. The moves came as U.S. stocks ticked higher to start the week.

The seeming resolution, or at least a path toward one, of affairs involving the U.S., Greenland and mainland Europe appeared last week to have marked a cooling of geopolitical fears, though some analysts have said a broader issue—a possible realignment of the relationship between the U.S. and many of its allies and trading partners—remains in play. Fresh concerns about the possibility of another U.S. government shutdown are also factoring into investor sentiment this morning.

That’s contributed to demand for gold, long seen as a hedge against many types of uncertainty. Analysts and investors were targeting higher prices for gold, already up substantially this year, before $5,000 even hit. Some were even looking toward $6,000. (Gold first touched $4,000 in early October.)

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison

The Fed Is Unlikely to Make Moves Next Week, But There Could Still Be Drama

FROM 11 hr 5 min ago

The Federal Reserve is all but certain to keep its key interest rate steady at its next meeting on Wednesday, leaving a few open questions, including how far Chair Jerome Powell will go to defend the central bank’s independence from the White House.

Financial markets widely expect the Federal Open Market Committee to put a lid on its recent string of rate cuts and hold the fed funds rate steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Traders on Friday were pricing in a 97% chance Fed will leave rates unchanged, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data.

After cutting the rate by a quarter point for a third time in a row in December, Most officials have shown little appetite for further reducing the key rate, which influences borrowing costs on all kinds of loans.

Fed officials are expected to keep rates flat for at least a few months to see how the economy responds to the rate cuts so far, as the Fed pursues its dual mandate from Congress to keep inflation at 2% and employment high.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Revolution Medicines Stock Tanks on Report Merck No Longer Discussing Acquiring Biotech

FROM 11 hr 43 min ago

According to a report, pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK) no longer is interested in potentially buying Revolution Medicines (RVMD). Shareholders of the latter firm are selling the stock in premarket trading Monday.

Revolution Medicines stock was down roughly 20% an hour before the opening bell after The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Merck was no longer in discussions to acquire the cancer-drug biotech in a deal that could have valued Revolution Medicines at roughly $30 billion.

According to some of the people, the companies couldn’t come to an agreement on a price, the Journal said.

Shares of Revolution Medicines had soared more than 185% over the past year entering Monday.

Bill Gates Issues Warning on AI Investment Hype, Urges Caution

FROM 12 hr 19 min ago

Bill Gates has warned AI investors that not everyone will be a winner in what he calls a “hypercompetitive” market.

The Microsoft (MSFT) cofounder cautioned in December that “a reasonable percentage” of today’s pricey AI stocks can’t justify their valuations. “Not all of these valuations will end up going up. Some of them will go down,” Gates told CNBC.

Gates’ concerns came as the so-called hyperscalers—Microsoft, Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), and Oracle (ORCL)—spent $400 billion on infrastructure in 2025 and are set to spend a third more in 2026.

Some investors worry the sheer size of those figures has encouraged speculation on Wall Street, causing some AI stocks to trade at eye-watering valuations.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

USA Rare Earth Stock Soars on Commerce Department Stake

FROM 12 hr 51 min ago

The U.S. government is taking an equity stake in USA Rare Earth (USAR). Investors are pleased with the development.

USA Rare Earth shares surged 21% in premarket trading after the Stillwater, Okla.-based company signed a non-binding letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce to receive $1.6 billion in federal funding in exchange for issuing the agency 16.1 million shares of stock and about 17.6 million warrants.

In addition, USA Rare Earth raised $1.5 billion in private sector investment via a PIPE transaction “anchored by Inflection Point with participation from large mutual fund complexes,” it said.

“The LOI with the U.S. Government reflects the strategic importance of USAR’s mine-to-magnet platform and its role in closing the rare earth element and critical mineral supply gap for essential industries that underpin U.S. national security, including semiconductors, other critical technologies, and advanced manufacturing,” the company said.

The news confirmed media reports over the weekend that the Trump administration planned to invest $1.6 billion into the company in exchange for a 10% stake, which caused USA Rare Earth’s shares to soar more than 35% earlier Monday.

USA Rare Earth shares entered Monday having more than doubled thus far in 2026 to $24.77 apiece.

Stock Futures Point Lower on Geopolitical Developments Ahead of Big Tech Earnings Week, Fed Decision

FROM 13 hr 39 min ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed fractionally lower.

S&P 500 futures were 0.2% lower.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.4%.