U.S. Stock Market Updates - 1|25|26

The stock market remained volatile last week. On Wednesday and Thursday the market was up on the news that President Trump won’t put additional tariffs on EU due to Greenland deal. But ultimately the week ended in a negative note. 

US stock indexes for the week ending January 23, 2026 (holiday-shortened, 4 trading days):

• S&P 500: down 0.5% (closed ~6,915.61)

• Dow Jones: down 0.6% (closed ~49,098.71)

• Nasdaq: up 0.2% (closed ~23,501.24)

The market had second consecutive weekly loss for major indexes amid volatility.

Intel (INTC) declared its Q4 results better than expected beating top and bottom line but guidance was below Wall Street expectations. This stock was on fire and has come down since then. I will be careful on this stock. 

• EPS: 0.15 vs. 0.8 estimated
• Revenue: $13.7B vs. $13.4B.
• Guidance: company said it expected Q1 revenue between $11.7B - $12.7B, and breakeven on EPS which were below Street expectations.

My view: The stock ran too much too fast after the federal government took stake in it. 

Economic Report last week

There were several economic reports last week as follows:

• Q3 2025 GDP (final estimate): 4.4% vs. 4.3% expected.
• Core PCE (Nov): 2.8% up 0.2% as expected.
• Initial Jobless Claims: 200K (near expectations)
• Corporate Profits (Q3): Revised higher.

Economic Report this week

• Tuesday Jan 27: Consumer Confidence
• Wednesday, Jan 27: FOMC Meeting => it may be a non-event this time
• Wednesday/Thursday: focus on earnings
• Friday Jan 30: Producer Price Index (PPI, Dec, delayed)

Other News

Elon Musk said at the World Economic Conference that Tesla (TSLA) will have a “widespread” network of driverless robotaxis in the U.S. by the end of this year and more importantly humanoid robots (Optimus) will be available to sale to public by end of next year.

META had a good day as an analyst raised its price target to $910 due to its announcement of global rollout of Ads on thread starting this week. 

Earnings this week

The big tech companies starts reporting this week and four of the gorilla will report earnings this week. 

• Wednesday Jan 28: Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Tesla (TSLA)
•  Thursday Jan 29: Apple (AAPL)

My thought on earnings: I am optimistic on the tech earnings. Especially, I will be looking for META. GOOG, AMZN and Tesla. Meta should have a good quarter but we have to keep an eye on its future CAPEX spending. For Tesla, earnings may not be great but what Elon Musk says about the future particularly about autonomous driving/Robotaxi and Optimus will be key. Microsoft and Apple are also expected to have a good quarter. Let's keep our finger crossed and watch.

Stocks to watch

TSLA, META, MSFT, AAPL, NVDA, SOXL, APLD, AMD, GOOG, AMZN, MU, CRWV, NBIS

What to expect?

Magnificent 7 earnings and their guidances are keep for future direction of the market. However, I will be careful after the earnings. This is the midterm election year, so it's better not to go to be carried away with exuberance. The FOMC meeting is scheduled for this week but it seems like a non-event. Before the earning, I think we may see some volatility on Monday and then the market may get little comfortable on Tuesday. Wednesday will have mega earnings from META, MSFT and TSLA. Those earnings will be key. We will see how it goes.