Dow Jones futures edged higher early Thursday, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures fell slightly.
Artificial intelligence stocks such as Oracle, Nvidia, Arm Holdings and Palantir Technologies, which drove the S&P 500 to a new high Wednesday, pulled back somewhat before the open.
Early Thursday, GE Aerospace topped views, while hiking its dividend and announcing a $7 billion buyback. GE stock jumped before the open, signaling a breakout.
AI plays rallied Wednesday after President Donald Trump late Tuesday announced a $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure project led by Oracle, OpenAI and SoftBank. Arm Holdings, Microsoft and Nvidia also are involved.
Oracle stock gapped up within a base. Arm stock ran through a buy zone. Microsoft and Nvidia stock jumped within messy patterns. CrowdStrike and Palantir stock flashed buy signals.
Meanwhile, Netflix and Interactive Brokers gapped out of bases on earnings while Capital One Financial and Amphenol broke out on results.
A number of other leaders extended recent gains.
Nvidia stock is on IBD Leaderboard. Nvidia, Netflix, Palantir and Interactive Brokers stock are on the IBD 50. Palantir stock, Netflix, Nvidia and Interactive Brokers are on the IBD Big Cap 20.
The video embedded in the article reviewed Wednesday's market action and analyzed Oracle, Palantir and CrowdStrike stock.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures were just above fair value. S&P 500 futures retreated 0.15% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.5%.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose a few basis points to 4.64%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
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Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally had another strong session, but Wednesday's was heavily weighted toward tech and AI.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3% in Wednesday's stock market trading. The S&P 500 index advanced 0.6%, just topping its Dec. 6 peak intraday. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.3%, back above the 20,000 level and now within 1% of the Dec. 16 all-time high.
The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.61%, hitting resistance just below the 50-day line.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF declined 0.4%, but is still above the 50-day line.
The First Trust Nasdaq 100 Equal Weighted Index ETF gained 0.8%, lagging the Nasdaq somewhat.
As the sector ETFs show, many non-tech areas were down Wednesday. But plenty of stocks and sectors are doing well overall.
U.S. crude oil prices dipped 0.5% to $75.44 a barrel, down 5.75% over the last four sessions.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose three basis points to 4.6%.
ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF climbed 0.7%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF popped 2.1%, with Palantir stock and CrowdStrike both top-10 holdings. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF gained 1.8%, with Nvidia stock the biggest component.
ARK Innovation ETF rose 0.9% and ARK Genomics ETF jumped 4.5%. Ark Invest has a significant stake in Palantir, but also holds positions in Nvidia stock and CrowdStrike.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF retreated 1.8%. U.S. Global Jets ETF descended 1.2%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF slumped 1.85%. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund edged down 0.2% and the Financial Select SPDR ETF gave up 0.5%.
Time The Market With IBD's ETF Market Strategy
AI Stocks Soar On Stargate
Oracle stock gapped up 6.7% on Wednesday to 184.18, moving above the 50-day line, within a base with a 198.31 buy point. That offered an early entry. Investors could use Wednesday's high of 191.99 as an entry, especially if a handle forms.
ARM stock jumped nearly 16% to 179.93, quickly racing through the buy zone of a six-month cup-with-handle base. The buy point was 164.16.
Palantir stock leapt 5.2% to 76.87. Shares found support around their 50-day line last week, but PLTR finally reclaimed the 10-week line on Wednesday, according to MarketSurge. It also broke a downtrend in a short consolidation. While not technically part of Stargate, Palantir has close ties with Oracle.
CrowdStrike stock climbed 3.2% to 377.98, breaking above most of the trading within a flat base, with a traditional buy point of 389. The flat base could be viewed as an alternate handle to a six-month base.
Nvidia stock popped 4.4% to 147.07. On Tuesday, shares reclaimed the 50-day line, offering an early entry in a messy pattern. At this point, investors might use a clear move above 150 as a place to enter NVDA stock.
Microsoft stock leapt 4.1% to 446.20, rebounding from its 50-day line. MSFT stock still has some distance to go to get to the 468.35 buy point, or even an early entry of 456.16. Earnings are due Jan. 29.
All of these stocks fell somewhat early Thursday, but kept the bulk of Wednesday's gains.
What To Do Now
The stock market rally continues to do well. The major indexes have run through several potential resistance levels in recent days, capped by the S&P 500's move into new-high ground Wednesday.
More buying opportunities continue to appear. Importantly, recent actionable stocks from the past week have continued to run, with many extended. This is why investors should have been gradually adding exposure over the past several sessions.
If you're close to fully invested by now, you don't need to be doing much. You can cut some laggards to add more-promising names.
Be careful not to get too concentrated in AI stocks. Those did great on Wednesday, but being "all in" on AI raises the risk of a major portfolio hit.
Keep working on watchlists. More stocks are setting up.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on Threads at @edcarson1971 and X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
