Live Nasdaq Composite: Markets Follow Big Tech’s Lead in Final Week of the Month

By Gerelyn Terzo Updated Jan 26, 12:18PM EST · Published Jan 26, 10:02AM EST

Quick Read

Gold surpassed $5,000 per ounce for the first time in history.
Nvidia’s $2B CoreWeave investment drove an 11% rally in the AI cloud-computing company.
Rothschild upgraded Meta to buy with a $900 target suggesting nearly 40% upside.

Live Updates

Microsoft Boss on AI Chip

Jan 26, 2026 at 12:18 PM EST

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has posted an update on the company’s latest AI chip, which competes with that of Amazon. Nadella said,

“Our newest AI accelerator Maia 200 is now online in Azure. Designed for industry-leading inference efficiency, it delivers 30% better performance per dollar than current systems. And with 10+ PFLOPS FP4 throughput, ~5 PFLOPS FP8, and 216GB HBM3e with 7TB/s of memory bandwidth it’s optimized for large-scale AI workloads. It joins our broader portfolio of CPUs, GPUs, and custom accelerators, giving customers more options to run advanced AI workloads faster and more cost-effectively on Azure.”

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) stock is gaining 1.5% today.

Bullish on Big Tech

Jan 26, 2026 at 11:08 AM EST

Wall Street analysts are making the following tech calls today:

JPMorgan nudged its Apple price target higher to $315 from $305, reemphasizing its “overweight” rating. KeyBanc is similarly bullish on tech, raising its price targets on Google parent Alphabet by $30 to $360 and Meta Platforms by $40 to $875 per share, while keeping “overweight” ratings intact.

Mineral Stock Rally

Jan 26, 2026 at 10:02 AM EST

The Commerce Department has set its sights on USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR), revealing an upcoming stake in the minerals company comprised of a loan and federal funding and sending USAR stock soaring by over 17% while the market cap has surpassed the $4 billion threshold.

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

The markets are off to the races today as they round out trading for the first month of 2026. Technology stocks are in focus with several Mag 7 names on deck to report their quarterly earnings, including Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META), both of which are advancing by over 1% this morning.

Small-cap stocks are relatively flat, with the Russell 2000 down fractionally. Meanwhile, precious metal gold has surpassed the $500/ounce threshold for the first time in history, sending mining stocks higher. An arctic blast blanketing much of the U.S. has sent the natural gas price soaring to recapture the $6 level for the first time in several years.

CoreWeave (Nasdaq; CRWV) stock has captured the spotlight once again, rallying 11% on the heels of a cool $2 billion investment by Wall Street’s AI darling Nvidia (Nasdaq; NVDA) to bolster AI data center capacity.

Apple is not wasting time integrating Alphabet’s (Nasdaq; GOOGL) Google’s Gemini capabilities into its Siri virtual assistant and could reportedly introduce the updated version in the coming weeks.

Here’s a look at where things stand as of morning trading:

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 49,276.81 Up 183.10 (+0.37%)
Nasdaq Composite: 23,574.39 Up 72.11 (+0.31%)
S&P 500: 6,944.64 Up 29.03 (+0.42%)

Market Movers

Wall Street analysts are feverishly publishing notes this morning. Among them, Stifel analysts have slashed their price target on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares by over $100 to $520 per share but kept a “buy” rating on the stock.

Rothschild analysts have turned increasingly bullish on Meta Platforms, upgrading the stock to a “buy” rating from “neutral” and lifting the price target by over $100 to $900 per share, suggesting upside potential of nearly 40%.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (Nasdaq; MSTR) went on its latest Bitcoin buying spree, scooping up almost 3,000 additional BTC in recent days as the price of the flagship digital asset continues to hover in the $90,000 area.

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About the Author Gerelyn Terzo →

Gerelyn Terzo is the author of dividend investing handbook "Dividend Investing Strategies: How to Have Your Cake & Eat It Too." A veteran financial journalist, she covers agri-finance for outlets like Global AgInvesting and the broader stock market and personal finance for 24/7 Wall Street. She began at CNBC and later helped launch Fox Business in New York. Gerelyn currently resides in Woodland Park, Colorado and dabbles in nature photography as a hobby.