Indexes closed near session highs Thursday, despite a White House announcement of new actions on import tariffs. Companies in the IBD 50 outperformed the major averages, a bullish signal for growth investors.
The stock market acted with resilience amid news that President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in a memo to study and adjust U.S. tariffs to reflect similar trade actions imposed by its trading partners. In the futures market, metals also rallied.
The Nasdaq composite extended an afternoon rally into the close. It ended 1.5% higher and 1.5% above its 50-day moving average a day after it slid below the line.
The S&P 500 jumped 1% and almost made a new closing high. Support held at the 50-day line. Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF rose 0.9% and closed back above the 50-day moving average.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8%. The small-cap Russell 2000, which has been lagging, rose 1.2% Thursday.
Volume rose on the Nasdaq and NYSE from Wednesday's totals, according to unconfirmed data. Advancers topped decliners by about 7-to-2 on the NYSE and by 13-to-5 on the Nasdaq, according to FactSet.
The Innovator IBD 50 ETF jumped more than 5% and broke out past a 32.24 buy point in heavy trading.
The acceleration in gains in the stock market today perhaps reflected relief that Trump did not add to already harsh tariffs of 25% on select goods including steel and aluminum. The White House has also imposed an additional 10% duty on Chinese imports. Former President Joe Biden kept tariffs on China goods in place during his term in the White House.
3:19 p.m. ET
SharkNinja Volatile After Earnigns
However, earnings season continues to be a time of heavy drops among companies that issue soft outlooks or miss Wall Street estimates. Whipsawing action still reigns.
SharkNinja moved from as low as 102.50 to as high as 123 following strong fourth-quarter results. Profit grew 49% on a 30% revenue jump. Shares, up less than 1%, struggled to move past a 112.93 buy point.
West Pharmaceutical tumbled 36% to 204 in massive volume after posting a 1% earnings dip and a 2% sales increase. West's decline underscores the importance of selecting top-quality stocks both in terms of technical strength and fundamental leadership. West held a mediocre 56 Earnings Per Share Rating. And its Relative Strength Rating heading into Thursday's trading was already a dismal 26 on a scale of 1 to 99.
Innovator IBD 50, a growth stock exchange traded fund, lifted 4.3% and broke out of a two-month base with a 32.24 entry. The ETF boasts a 16% gain since Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, investors bought back long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds and padded their gold holdings. Gold futures advanced 0.5% and rose to as high as $2,950.30 an ounce. Silver eased 0.1% to $32.75 an ounce on the NYMEX futures exchange. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 12 basis points to 4.51%.
Copper futures outperformed, rallying 1.6% to $4.78 per pound. Year to date, the red metal has beaten precious metals, vaulting 17% so far.
Stock Market Today: United Airlines Hits Sell Signal
United Airlines, a true leader among cyclical stocks since September, fell as much as 7.9% in heavy volume and tripped below both its 50-day and 10-week moving averages. The stock trimmed losses to less than 4% with an hour left in the trading session. Still, the bearish action represented a potential IBD sell rule. The stock broke out five months ago from a double bottom base with a 49.67 correct buy point.
Watch to see if buyers shore up United Airlines stock near the 50-day line as well as the 100 price level. United rallied as much as 133% from its buy point to a high of 116 before cooling off in recent weeks.
Alongside United Airlines, Delta Air Lines also challenged support at its 50-day line. The stock slid more than 4% in active turnover but held near the 50-day average. At 63.73, Delta saw its year-to-date gain get squeezed to less than 5%. A series of crashes involving civilian and military aircraft have joined the news headlines in recent months. That said, Delta's top line accelerated in Q4, rising 9% to $15.6 billion.
United Airlines posted an 8% revenue increase in the fourth quarter, the biggest increase in three quarters, as profit jumped 63%.
1:44 p.m. ET
AppLovin, HubSpot Rally On Earnings
Indeed, some leading names outside the Dow have surged as well, including AppLovin and HubSpot. Both stocks were up sharply but also pulled back well below intraday highs Thursday. They also form part of the Leaderboard model growth stock portfolio.
Insurer and hot small cap Palomar also flexed its strength with a 12% gain in seven times normal turnover.
Reddit sold off despite a booming quarterly report. Shares in the social networking platform and community-based internet content giant tumbled 8% and tested support at its rising 21-day exponential moving average.
The company posted a 227% jump in Q4 earnings to 36 cents a share, its biggest quarterly profit ever. Revenue accelerated 71% vs. a year ago to $427.7 million. Wall Street sees 2025 profit leaping 130% to 91 cents a share and 2026 profit at $1.98, up 117%.
The stock remains well extended from a prior cup with handle showing a 69.11 buy point.
12:28 p.m. ET
Tyler Tech Leads Upside
Among other top growth stocks, Tyler Enterprises led IBD's specialty enterprise software group, bolting more than 6% in triple its average volume. The stock jumped past a cup with handle and its entry of 626.08. Tyler remains in the 5% buy zone. Notice on a daily chart how the handle of the cup formed mostly above the 50-day moving average, a sign of strong demand.
Tyler reported fourth-quarter earnings of $2.43 a share, up 29% vs. a year ago, on a 13% rise in revenue to $541 million. Top line growth accelerated for a second straight quarter, up from 7% growth in Q2 and 10% growth in Q3 of last year.
However, Trade Desk collapsed in the midst of building a new base. Notice on a daily chart how the digital advertising platform had been trading mostly beneath the 50-day moving average for weeks. That was a flaw in the chart action.
Trade Desk plunged more than 30% and volume already ballooned more than 20 times its usual pace over the past 50 sessions. The Ventura, Calif., firm reported a 44% increase in fourth-quarter earnings to 59 cents a share on a 22% gain in revenue to $741 million. But the company gave a weak outlook amid a restructuring of its sales force and a slower than expected rollout of a new platform, Kokai.
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In The Dow Jones
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged the Nasdaq. It moved 0.3% higher amid gains by the likes of components UnitedHealth, Visa, Home Depot and McDonald's. All four rallied one point or more in the price-weighted Dow industrials.
Cisco Systems, the greatest tech stock of the 1990s and builder of plumbing for the internet, rose as much as 6% on quarterly results (EPS up 8%, revenue up 9%). Cisco has gotten extended past the 5% buy zone from a flat-base entry at 60.23, even as it pared gains to less than 2% at midday.
Nasdaq and NYSE turnover edged modestly higher vs. the same time on Wednesday, according to IBD MarketSurge.
Small caps, which suffered losses on Wednesday, staged a modest comeback. The Russell 2000 rose nearly 0.6% in morning trading, then faded to a roughly 0.4% gain. The index has advanced 1.5% since Jan. 1, lagging a 3.2% gain by the S&P 500.
Within the Russell indexes, growth companies moved slightly ahead of their value peers. The iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF rose as much as 0.6% at midday and is finding bullish support at the 50-day moving average. Meanwhile, iShares Russell 1000 Value moved up 0.3%.
10:36 a.m. ET
AppLovin Soars Past Buy Point
AppLovin gapped up at the open and soared as much as 38% to a session high of 525.04 on robust quarterly results. A 20% rise out of its latest base with a 417.63 proper entry point in just one day suggests holding the leader for at least eight weeks to see if the advance can expand.
HubSpot gained more than 7% in heavy trading. The marketing software expert based in Cambridge, Mass., notched an intraday high of 881.13. It is now extended from a 762.47 buy point.
Also in the stock market today, Palomar busted a move out of a new base and a 112.90 buy point.
The specialty property and casualty insurer catapulted more than 17% to 128 in hefty volume, signifying heavy buys by fund managers. Palomar reported a 37% jump in profit and a 48% rise in sales to $156 million.
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Beyond Stock Market Today
The yield on the key U.S. Treasury 10-year bond slipped eight basis points to 4.55% in early morning trading, despite wholesale inflation in the U.S. coming in higher than thought.
The January producer price index rose 0.4% vs. the prior month, above the Econoday forecast of a 0.3% rise. Year over year, wholesale prices gained 3.5%, also higher than expectations.
Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, commented the notion that markets are "more focused on the strong labor market instead of lumpy inflation data is a very good sign. The strong economic backdrop being intact is the story that matters most."
Crude oil futures on the NYMEX declined 0.9% to $70.73 a barrel. Oil is down slightly so far in 2025.
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