U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.05%

Investing.com

Phoenix Asia Holdings Ltd.

+17.14%

Axon Enterprise

-4.57%

Summary:

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Industrials, Consumer Services and Basic...

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Industrials, Consumer Services and Basic Materials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.05%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.56%.

The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which rose 5.10% or 33.55 points to trade at 690.91 at the close. Meanwhile, Walmart Inc (NASDAQ:WMT) added 4.14% or 4.93 points to end at 124.07 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 4.04% or 10.48 points to 270.01 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which fell 7.40% or 8.35 points to trade at 104.45 at the close. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) declined 2.89% or 5.52 points to end at 185.61 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) was down 1.61% or 2.84 points to 174.06.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which rose 8.08% to 32.45, Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which was up 7.98% to settle at 270.21 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which gained 7.63% to close at 23.64.

The worst performers were Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) which was down 7.40% to 104.45 in late trade, EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) which lost 5.17% to settle at 54.75 and Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON) which was down 4.88% to 459.99 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were American Rebel Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:AREB) which rose 606.78% to 1.96, DarkIris Inc (NASDAQ:DKI) which was up 192.49% to settle at 0.95 and Fusemachines Inc (NASDAQ:FUSE) which gained 70.89% to close at 2.70.

The worst performers were eLong Power Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:ELPW) which was down 90.39% to 1.34 in late trade, Phoenix Asia Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:PHOE) which lost 86.78% to settle at 17.60 and INLIF Ltd (NASDAQ:INLF) which was down 70.06% to 0.43 at the close.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1567 to 1172 and 90 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1966 rose and 1424 declined, while 193 ended unchanged.

Shares in Axon Enterprise Inc (NASDAQ:AXON) fell to 52-week lows; down 4.88% or 23.59 to 459.99. Shares in Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) rose to all time highs; gaining 5.10% or 33.55 to 690.91. Shares in Walmart Inc (NASDAQ:WMT) rose to all time highs; gaining 4.14% or 4.93 to 124.07. Shares in American Rebel Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:AREB) rose to all time lows; gaining 606.78% or 1.68 to 1.96.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.31% to 16.34.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.95% or 45.01 to $4,700.09 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 4.57% or 2.98 to hit $62.23 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 4.27% or 2.96 to trade at $66.36 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.48% to 1.18, while USD/JPY rose 0.52% to 155.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.61% at 97.45.

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Canada stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.82%

Investing.com

Investing.com – Canada stocks were higher after the close on Monday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Toronto, the S&P/TSX Composite gained 0.82%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/TSX Composite were Aritzia Inc (TSX:ATZ), which rose 6.53% or 7.01 points to trade at 114.34 at the close. Meanwhile, 5N Plus Inc. (TSX:VNP) added 5.94% or 1.43 points to end at 25.51 and TFI International Inc (TSX:TFII) was up 4.98% or 7.28 points to 153.61 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Eldorado Gold Corp (TSX:ELD), which fell 8.47% or 4.95 points to trade at 53.47 at the close. Energy Fuels Inc. (TSX:EFR) declined 5.68% or 1.73 points to end at 28.72 and Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TSX:TOU) was down 4.58% or 2.95 points to 61.49.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 553 to 424 and 60 ended unchanged.

Shares in 5N Plus Inc. (TSX:VNP) rose to all time highs; up 5.94% or 1.43 to 25.51.

The S&P/TSX 60 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/TSX Composite options, was down 11.39% to 17.11.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.74% or 35.14 to $4,709.96 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 4.55% or 2.97 to hit $62.24 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 4.24% or 2.94 to trade at $66.38 a barrel.

CAD/USD was unchanged 0.45% to 0.73, while CAD/EUR unchanged 0.03% to 0.62.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.61% at 97.45.

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Colombia stocks lower at close of trade; COLCAP down 2.11%

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Investing.com – Colombia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Investment and Public Services sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Colombia, the COLCAP fell 2.11%.

The best performers of the session on the COLCAP were Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA Preferred (BVC:SIS_p), which rose 2.36% or 1,200.00 points to trade at 52,100.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Grupo Argos SA (BVC:ARG) added 1.85% or 340.00 points to end at 18,740.00 and Promigas (BVC:PMG) was up 0.73% or 50.00 points to 6,880.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mineros SA (BVC:MAS), which fell 9.53% or 2,020.00 points to trade at 19,180.00 at the close. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores SA Pref (BVC:GAA_p) declined 3.97% or 37.00 points to end at 895.00 and Banco Davivienda Pf (BVC:DVI_p) was down 2.09% or 600.00 points to 28,100.00.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Colombia Stock Exchange by 1 to 0.

US coffee C for March delivery was up 0.90% or 3.00 to $335.25 . Elsewhere in commodities trading, US cocoa for delivery in March rose 1.25% or 52.00 to hit $4,217.00 , while the April Gold Futures contract fell 1.00% or 47.51 to trade at $4,697.59 a troy ounce.

USD/COP was down 1.79% to 3,613.89, while BRL/COP fell 1.76% to 687.57.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.60% at 97.44.

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Russia stocks lower at close of trade; MOEX Russia Index down 0.51%

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Investing.com – Russia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Mining, Oil & Gas and Telecoms sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Moscow, the MOEX Russia Index declined 0.51%.

The best performers of the session on the MOEX Russia Index were Federal Hydro Generating Company RusHydro PJSC (MCX:HYDR), which rose 6.27% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.45 at the close. Meanwhile, Bank VTB PJSC (MCX:VTBR) added 5.91% or 4.58 points to end at 82.05 and Magnitogorskiy Metallurgicheskiy Kombinat PAO (MCX:MAGN) was up 2.78% or 0.85 points to 31.28 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Rosneft PJSC (MCX:ROSN), which fell 1.66% or 6.75 points to trade at 401.00 at the close. Severstal PJSC (MCX:CHMF) declined 1.02% or 10.20 points to end at 989.60 and OK Rusal MKPAO (MCX:RUAL) was down 0.97% or 0.38 points to 38.90.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Moscow Stock Exchange by 167 to 76 and 9 ended unchanged.

The Russian Volatility Index – RVI, which measures the implied volatility of MOEX Russia Index options, was down 0.04% to 27.40.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.09% or 51.56 to $4,693.54 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 4.60% or 3.00 to hit $62.21 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 4.31% or 2.99 to trade at $66.33 a barrel.

USD/RUB was up 0.94% to 76.71, while EUR/RUB rose 0.09% to 90.13.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.61% at 97.45.

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Dow notches best day in nearly two weeks as February begins on a strong note

Investing.com

Advanced Micro Devices

Investing.com -- Wall Street pushed higher on Monday, helped by gains in defensive consumer staple stocks. Market participants shook off a continued selloff in gold and silver and shifted their focus to trade developments after President Donald Trump said he had reached a deal with India.

At 14:00 ET (19:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1% to 49,397.89 points, the S&P 500 index had gained 0.7% to 6,988.40 points, and the NASDAQ Composite had added 0.9% to 23,678.05 points.

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India will stop buying Russian oil

Trump on his Truth Social service said he spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about "many things" including trade and ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela," Trump said, referring to Modi. India’s purchase of Russian oil had been a major sticking point in trade negotiations with the U.S.

Trump also said the two leaders had agreed upon a trade deal under which the U.S. would lower its reciprocal tariff rate to 18% from 25%. In return, India has committed to buy over $500 billion in American products.

Oil prices did not show much reaction to the news. They were sharply lower on Monday after de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran, as Trump said the Middle East crude producer was "seriously talking" with Washington.

Brent futures dropped 4.9% to $65.92 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 5.4% to $61.72 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, left production unchanged during a weekend meeting, as broadly expected.

No January jobs report

Media reports on Monday said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had delayed the January employment report due on Friday, due to the partial government shutdown.

Federal government services were suspended over the weekend after the U.S. Senate passed a temporary five-bill funding package on Friday, but lawmakers in the House are only set to return today.

The shutdown is not expected to be anything like the record one last year, as the House is expected to pass the package.

Sentiment recovers as February kicks off

Sentiment was hit hard at the end of last week by a steep decline in gold and silver prices, with the precious metals hit by a combination of a firmer dollar and mass profit-taking in the wake of a sharp climb in recent months.

Spot gold notched its worst day on Friday in decades, while spot silver recorded its worst day on record.

The nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair weighed heavily as it resulted in a sharp rise in the U.S. dollar. While Warsh -- who formerly served as a Fed governor -- has aligned with Trump’s calls for sharply lower interest rates, he has also balked at the Fed’s asset buying operations.

"During his first go-around as a Fed governor, Warsh was generally a close ally of then-Chair Bernanke and maintained a mostly centrist position heading into the GFC. While he backed the Fed’s move to implement quantitative easing at the time, he was an early skeptic and often leaned more hawkish during the latter part of his time on the Board," JPMorgan analysts led by Michael Feroli said on Friday.

"After he left, he emerged as a frequent and vocal critic of the Fed, particularly on balance sheet policy. More recently, however, his public remarks have been dovish and broadly aligned with the administration’s monetary policy preferences," the analysts added.

Wall Street ended January with a gain of more than 1%, a solid performance considering the concerns sparked by the Trump administration’s trade and geopolitical moves.

"Markets put in a strong performance in January, as positive data surprises continued to power risk assets, with the S&P 500 briefly poking above 7,000 for the first time. But just as we saw in 2025, those headline gains masked significant volatility under the surface, as geopolitical risk rose significantly, including over Venezuela, Iran and Greenland," Deutsche Bank’s Henry Allen said.

Walt Disney leads earnings parade

The quarterly earnings season is set to continue in full flow this week, with entertainment giant Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) earlier Monday beating revenue and earnings estimates for the holiday quarter ended in December. Still, shares of the Dow 30 component slid after it warned about a decline in international visitors.

The media and entertainment giant is expected to name a new chief executive to replace Bob Iger early this year. Hollywood executives believe Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of the experiences division, is the front-runner.

More than 100 S&P 500 companies are due to report this week, including tech giants Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) earnings update last week, which, while showing continued revenue growth, failed to fully reassure markets about the near-term payoff from heavy investment in AI infrastructure.

Amplifying concerns, a Wall Street Journal report over the weekend said that Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) proposed investment of up to $100 billion in OpenAI has stalled after internal concerns were raised at the chipmaker.

Elsewhere, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) outlined its plans to raise fresh funds in 2026 that it will deploy towards building out its AI and cloud infrastructure, amid growing demand for more computing capacity.

The company said it expects to raise between $45 billion and $50 billion of gross cash proceeds in 2026, through a mix of debt and equity financing.

Ayushman Ojha and Peter Nurse contributed to this article

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Five AI Value Stocks for Investors to Consider — Barrons.com

Dow Jones Newswires

Charter Communications

Brookfield Renewable Partners LP

-1.12%

Al Root

With Tesla and Palantir trading at triple-digit price-to-earnings ratios, value investors might feel left out of the AI trade. But there are value AI stocks, too.

Value stocks typically trade at lower-than-average P/E ratios and operate in mature industries. They are the kinds of stocks Warren Buffett gravitates toward. Growth stocks tend to be more exciting, with big growth rates — and sometimes big hype — but they come with outsized valuations.

Take the most expensive and cheapest stocks in the S&P 500. Tesla trades at about 210 times its estimated earnings over the next 12 months. For shareholders, its fortunes are not tied to its legacy electric-vehicle business, but to all the potential earnings from AI-trained robotaxis and robots. That makes it a growth stock. On the other end, Charter Communications trades for less than five times earnings as investors weigh how to value a declining cable business. That makes it a value stock.

Most AI trades fall squarely in the growth camp. But not all. "AI is a value story," wrote Krishna Chintalapalli, a portfolio manager at Parnassus Investments, recently. "Value companies can improve their profitability and margin profile using the productivity gains from AI, creating compelling long-term opportunities beyond the typical growth narrative."

While some investors fixate on Nvidia chips or large language models such as Alphabet's Gemini, Chintalapalli is focused on utilities, backup-power providers, and real estate — the physical infrastructure needed to support the AI boom.

Brookfield Renewable, one of the largest renewable-power generators with a portfolio of hydroelectric, wind, nuclear, and solar assets, is one of his AI data-center power plays. The company has agreed to provide power for Microsoft and Alphabet data centers, and its stock yields almost 4%.

Diesel-engine maker Cummins also builds backup generators. So does heavy-machinery maker Caterpillar, along with backup-power specialist Generac. "There is almost a 1:1 correlation, where growth in data centers leads to growth in demand for backup power," Chintalapalli says.

He is also looking for places where the digital world intersects with the physical one. "Legacy industries such as agriculture are...leveraging massive data moats to drive margin expansion and solve real-world problems," he says.

That led him to Deere, which he has held in a portfolio since 2022.

Deere leverages AI to help farmers cut costs — by reducing labor required to operate equipment, minimizing wasted crop chemicals, and applying fertilizer more precisely where soil nutrients are deficient. Improved planting accuracy can also lead to higher yields, boosting farmers' revenue.

The five AI value ideas trade for an average of 15 times estimated 2026 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda. That's roughly in line with the multiple of nonfinancial companies in the S&P 500.

That is higher than Charter's roughly 5.5 times multiple, but far below Tesla's 89 times multiple, making the group a reasonable starting point for investors looking to diversify beyond the market's most typical AI names.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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Who Is Josh D'Amaro, the Potential Next CEO Of Disney? — Barrons.com

Dow Jones Newswires

Disney

+2.72%

By Angela Palumbo

The chairman of Walt Disney's theme-park division could be stepping up to lead one of the world's largest entertainment companies by the end of this year.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Disney's board is getting together to promote Josh D'Amaro to the role of chief executive officer and will vote on naming a new leader in the coming week. The report came after Board Chair James Gorman told shareholders last month that the company expects to announce the appointment of its next CEO in "early 2026."

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that Iger has told associates he plans to step down and pull back from daily management before his contract ends on Dec. 31. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter.

A Disney spokesperson told Barron's that the board hasn't yet selected the next CEO "and once that decision is made, we will announce it."

D'Amaro is the current chairman of Disney Experiences. That puts him in charge of overseeing the company's highest-margin business segment, including theme parks, resorts, and a growing fleet of cruise ships. He also supervises Imagineering, the design team behind many of the attractions at Disney's parks.

He joined Disney in 1998 at the Disneyland Resort and was named chairman of Disney Experiences in May 2020. He was previously CFO of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing, president of Disneyland Resort, and president of Walt Disney World Resort.

"Josh D'Amaro is likely to be announced shortly as the next CEO. In our view, succession has been an overhang on the shares recently and given the importance the Experiences segment has to the total consolidated earnings of DIS, we believe this announcement will be well received by the investment community," BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote in a note on Monday.

D'Amaro has had a lot of work to do in his current role. On top of becoming the leader of the experiences segment during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, D'Amaro has also been overseeing the company's recent expansion efforts.

Disney said in 2023 that it was developing plans to speed up and increase investment in its parks, experiences, and products segment, nearly doubling capital expenditures over the course of approximately 10 years. That would have taken the total to about $60 billion.

Then in August 2024, the company said its Magic Kingdom park in Disney World would be getting its "largest land expansion ever." It will include attractions based on Disney villains and the movie Cars. The Hollywood Studios park will get new Monsters, Inc. attractions, Disney said.

Disney shareholders have been on a bumpy ride as the job of CEO has changed hands over the past six years. Bob Iger was CEO from 2005 to 2020, when Bob Chapek succeeded him. Chapek's run at the helm was ill received by shareholders: The stock fell 28% during his tenure, from Feb. 25, 2020, to Nov. 20, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Iger eventually came back to replace Chapek.

Disney reported first-quarter financial results Monday morning, but didn't give an update on who the new CEO could be. Instead, Iger said that "while I don't want to really either get too nostalgic or spend too much time on possible transition or the probable transition. I — the good news is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago, because we have done a lot of fixing."

Nancy Tendler, CIO at Laffer Tengler Investments, wrote on Monday that she expects Disney will announce a successor at its shareholder meeting in March.

It won't be an easy job for whoever gets the promotion. Disney stock has dropped 7.3% over the past 12 months. Linear TV continues to lose watch time to streaming, and streaming continues to be highly expensive and competitive.

Experiences — D'Amaro's specialty — is facing headwinds as people continue to feel the impacts of inflation and demand comes into question as some foreign tourists avoid U.S. trips amid rising political tensions. Disney pointed to "international visitation headwinds," as one reason growth in first-quarter operating income for the experiences business was "modest."

Competition is also a challenge: Universal launched Epic Universe last year.

But there are plenty opportunities for growth. Disney's streaming business is growing, theme parks are expanding, and cruise lines are getting more traction.

A different CEO could be just what Disney needs to push those initiatives forward and get investors back on board.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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