S&P 500 posts back-to-back gains, Dow jumps 300 points as Nvidia rises: Live updates

The three leading U.S. indexes finished with gains on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.81% to end at 6,946.13, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.26% to 23,152.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 307.65 points, or 0.63%, to 49,482.15.

— Sean Conlon

Anthropic's Tuesday event positioned its products as additive — rather than threatening — to existing software providers. Wall Street sees that helping some stocks in the space.

"Anthropic's announcement is evidence that domain expertise and data assets are crucial in building industry specific AI," Wells Fargo analyst Jason Haas wrote in a Wednesday note to clients.

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— Alex Harring

Wall Street is taking a fresh look at First Solar after the company missed earnings expectations for the fourth quarter and offered weak full-year guidance.

First Solar shares dropped more than 12% on Wednesday as investors reacted to the report. If that holds through session close, it would mark the stock's worst day since June.

Here's how some analysts are responding:

• Baird analyst Ben Kallo, who downgraded the stock to neutral: "While we acknowledge FSLR is the leader in [U.S.] module manufacturing for utility-scale solar, there are several crosswinds which complicate the setup."
• HSBC analyst Daniel Yang, who moved his rating down to hold: "We also notice the competitive threat from Tesla in the long-term. However, we believe it holds a leading position as a [U.S.] player under the supportive domestic policies from the current administration."
• Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Lee, who recommended investors buy the dip: "While the stock is likely to underperform near-term on the back of negative estimate revisions, given the potential for better bookings moving through the year and an inflection in both volumes and margins into 2027 and beyond, we remain constructive on the shares in the long term."

— Alex Harring

The weakness of the Magnificent Seven stocks is spoiling sentiment at a time when a broadening market should theoretically cheer investors, according to Piper Sandler.

"Consider the years 2023-2025, when these mega-caps surged and lifted the S&P 500 to new highs while most stocks severely lagged behind or even declined in some cases. Back then, equity sentiment was generally bullish as the index continued to move higher," wrote Michael Kantrowitz, chief investment strategist at Piper Sandler.

"Today, it feels like the opposite," he continued. "While we're seeing the strongest global and domestic equity breadth in many years, the weakness of the Mag 7 stocks are spoiling the party for some."

— Sarah Min

Bank of America sees even more reasons to buy Robinhood following the fintech platform's September addition to the S&P 500. In a Wednesday note, the bank reiterated its buy rating and $122 price objective, which offers upside of 66%.

Bank of America analyst Craig Siegenthaler believes that "crypto winter near bottom" if the CLARITY Act, which delivers regulatory clarity for the crypto industry, passes. Siegenthaler said that crypto currently is one of Robinhood's largest segments, contributing 15% to revenues.

"NT progress on the CLARITY Act could reverse extreme negative sentiment in crypto while HOOD continues to gain share," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Robinhood's AI customer service model, Cortex, will also be integrated into the app and launched soon to provide more customer service support.

"We expect similar AI launches across the industry which enhance the human advisor and allow wealth managers to operate at lower cost, first focusing on compliance, prospecting, customer service and portfolio management," he added. "HOOD is also in the early stages in building a 100% AI powered financial advisor and is talks with regulators."

The analyst also applauded Robinhood's digital bank launch and plans to launch its own layer 2 blockchain.

— Lisa Kailai Han

It's been a tough start to the year for technology investors. Shares of seven of the eight trillion-dollar tech companies have notched losses so far.

The lone exception is Nvidia. The chipmaker's stock is up 2.7% in 2026 as of Monday's close, while the Nasdaq has dropped more than 2.5%. Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla have all seen double-digit declines.

Heading into Nvidia's quarterly earnings report Wednesday, Wall Street has a pretty clear idea of where the company stands. That's because its biggest customers announced results a few weeks ago and told investors that their mammoth spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure is only going to increase.

"Hyperscale capex forecasts for CY2026 have exceeded prior expectations," analysts at Wedbush Securities wrote in a Monday note previewing Nvidia's earnings. "With servers and AI infrastructure representing the bulk of forward spend, we expect growth in AI investment will somewhat exceed overall capex trends." Read more.

— Ari Levy

Axon Enterprise delivered a fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat on Tuesday, and its stock jumped more than 20% in response on Wednesday.

Particularly encouraging to investors were numbers from its software business, which grew 40% during the quarter. The company credits that to artificial intelligence increasing demands for its products. 

Shares of Axon had slid more than 25% for 2026, as of Tuesday's close, amid broader fears AI will disrupt software business models. But CEO Rick Smith said AI for the company "will create value that our customers simply cannot replicate." As of midday trading Wednesday, the stock is now only down just over 5% in 2026. Read more.

— Davis Giangiulio, Samantha Subin

Market breadth was weak on Wednesday, even as the major stock benchmarks ticked higher. FactSet data shows that 1,415 New York Stock Exchange-listed names were lower on the day, while advancers totaled 1,157.

— Fred Imbert

Fundstrat's Tom Lee said software stocks may be flashing early signs of a bottom after a bruising selloff as trading volumes surge to record levels.

He pointed to the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF, which posted the third- and fourth-heaviest volume days in its history in last two trading days, underscoring the intensity of the recent exodus from the sector.

Historically, extreme volume during sharp drawdowns has coincided with market bottoms.

— Yun Li

President Donald Trump's record-long State of the Union address Tuesday largely ducked the affordability issue, which he blamed on Democrats, according to Wolfe Research analyst Tobin Marcus.

"Thematically, Trump ... followed his instinct to persuade voters that America is in a golden age, rather than empathizing with 'affordability' concerns," Marcus wrote in a post-speech analysis. "He didn't repeat his 'affordability hoax' line per se, but he said that Democrats 'knew their statements [about affordability] were a dirty, rotten lie.'"

The president boasted about economic growth during the first year of his second term, though full-year GDP grew at just a 2.2% rate, slightly above the longer-term trend but the slowest since the 2020 Covid pandemic year. Trump also blamed Democrats for the government shutdown, which shaved about a percentage point off growth in the fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department.

Recent polls have indicated voter dissatisfaction with the economy, particularly on the inflation front.

"We doubt he can talk voters into feeling better about the economy, which Biden also tried and failed to do, but he seems to have decided that the path to a midterm win is not rolling out some new 'affordability agenda,'" Marcus wrote. "We had already argued that not much new policy would get implemented, but it's notable that it's not even being proposed."

— Jeff Cox

The three major averages rose on Wednesday morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 224 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 added 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up about 0.7%.

— Sean Conlon

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• GoDaddy — Shares dropped 9% after the company forecasted annual revenue below estimates, citing slow AI-related adoption. GoDaddy said it expects its revenue to come in between $5.195 billion and $5.275 billion this year, falling short of analysts' consensus estimate of $5.28 billion, according to FactSet.
• Lowe's — The home improvement retailer's shares tumbled about 3% after it issued lower-than-expected forward guidance for its bottom line through January 2027. The company forecasted earnings in the range of $12.25 - $12.75 per share excluding some items for the period, falling below analysts' consensus estimate of $12.90, per FactSet. However, Lowe's beat on its adjusted earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter of last year. "While the housing macro remains pressured, we are focused on directing what is within our control, which includes our ongoing productivity initiatives," Lowe's said Wednesday in a statement.
• First Solar — Shares of the solar technology company slid 17% on the back of weak fourth-quarter earnings results and full-year guidance. First Solar earned $4.84 per share for the quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG expected $5.15 per share. Revenue came out at $1.68 billion, beating analysts' consensus expectation of $1.56 billion, however. For the full year, First Solar guided revenue to come out between $4.9 billion and $5.2 billion, significantly lower than the $6.12 billion expected.

Read the full list here.

— Liz Napolitano

Oppenheimer believes that a sharp recent pullback in Oracle has created an attractive risk-reward balance for investors.

The financial institution upgraded the tech old guard to an outperform rating from perform. Oppenheimer also initiated a price target of $185, implying an upside of 27%.

Shares of Oracle have slipped 13% over the past 12 months and 25% this year alone, leading to an attractive entry point, Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz wrote.

"While our call may be early, since it will take time for Oracle to show financial success as a more capital-intensive business in future results, we see a favorable risk/reward after the stock's multiples have been cut by more than half since September," he wrote.

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— Lisa Kailai Han

IBM shares rose about 1.6% in premarket trading after UBS upgraded the stock to neutral from sell, saying the recent selloff has made the risk-reward profile more balanced despite lingering concerns around artificial intelligence and legacy infrastructure exposure.

The firm's upgrade came after the shares have fallen 22% in 2026 and underperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 27% over the past 12 months following a string of uneven quarterly results in 2025.

IBM now trades at about 18.5 times UBS's 2026 earnings estimate of $12.43 a share and 17.5 times its 2027 estimate of $13.13. That valuation appears balanced, given expectations for 3% to 4% organic revenue growth over the next several years, UBS said.

The upgrade comes even as investors debate the broader risk that AI tools could disrupt traditional software vendors and raise questions about IBM's infrastructure business, UBS argued that much of the competitive threat to IBM's vertically integrated Z mainframe platform is already reflected in the stock.

— Yun Li

Donald Trump's State of the Union address clocked in at nearly two hours, with the president focusing largely on the economy — which he said was set to boom.

Click here for the five key takeaways out of the speech.

— Fred Imbert

Cocoa and coffee futures are plummeting so far in 2026, although whether that will lead to lower consumer prices is unclear.

May coffee futures are down nearly 15% in February alone, the most since October 2022, bringing the decline since New Year's to almost 19%.

May cocoa futures have collapsed another 26% in February after tumbling more than 31% in January and have almost been cut in half so far in 2026, falling more than 49%.

— Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla

PayPal Holdings rallied 13% in two days, boosted by a Bloomberg News report Tuesday citing unnamed people familiar with the issue saying that privately-held, fellow payment processor Stripe is weighing an acquisition of all or part of PayPal.

Stripe declined comment to CNBC on the subject.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that PayPal was attracting takeover interest from potential buyers, some of whom were banks. 

— Scott Schnipper, Mackenzie Sigalos

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading.

• Lucid Group — Shares of the electric vehicle maker fell more than 4%. In the fourth quarter, Lucid posted a wider-than-expected loss of $3.62 per share, despite revenue growth that topped estimates. Lucid also recently cut its U.S. workforce by 12%.
• Workday — Workday shares dropped nearly 10% after the AI-powered workplace platform said it sees first-quarter subscription revenues coming out at $2.34 billion, just lower than analysts' forecast of $2.35 billion, per LSEG. The company also gave disappointing non-GAAP operating margin estimates for its first quarter.
• CoStar Group – Shares of the online real estate marketplace provider fell 8%. Guidance for the first quarter fell short of expectations, as CoStar called for adjusted earnings in the range of 16 cents to 19 cents per share. The FactSet consensus estimate sought 25 cents per share.
• Cava Group — Shares of the Mediterranean restaurant chain jumped 8% after its fourth-quarter results and its fiscal 2026 outlook topped estimates. 

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Shortly after 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were lower by 0.07% and 0.08%, respectively. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 30 points, or less than 0.1%.

— Pia Singh