Published: Saturday, January 31, 2026 · 6:24 PM | Updated: Saturday, January 31, 2026 · 6:24 PM
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The S & P 500 closed lower on Friday but slightly higher for the week. It briefly topped 7,000 for the first time ever Wednesday. There was no storage of news: Ten portfolio names, including three of our megacaps, reported earnings throughout the week; the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday; software stocks got crushed Thursday; and President Donald Trump on Friday announced his pick to replace Jerome Powell as chairman of the Fed. .SPX .IXIC mountain 2026-01-26 S & P 500 vs. Nasdaq since Jan. 23 close For the week, the S & P 500 advanced 0.34% and managed a 1.37% gain for the month. As our friends at CNBC pro pointed out , a January gain has historically been a good sign for the rest of the year, according to the January Barometer. The Nasdaq was basically flat for the week and gained 0.95% for January. Here’s what drove the market during the final week of the month. 1. Tech-related earnings Meta Platforms and Microsoft posted earnings that sent their stocks in opposite directions. Shares of the Facebook and Instagram parent ended the week almost 9% higher following a Wednesday evening report that crushed estimates on the top and bottom line. The market wasn’t troubled by spending this time around. Microsoft stock dropped over 8% for the week after the company’s crucial cloud computing business failed to impress investors late Wednesday. We’re sticking with Microsoft. Apple stock finally broke its eight-week losing streak, but not because of earnings. Management did post a blowout quarter late Thursday, which was driven by a 23% increase in iPhone sales. But the stock moved lower on Friday. Investors still seem concerned about how the memory shortage will impact Apple’s costs. We’re not too worried. GE Vernova hit all-time highs Friday, following earnings on Wednesday evening. Corning posted better-than-expected results that same session. Corning shares reached records on Tuesday after the company inked a new $6 billion deal to supply Meta with fiber optic data center cables. GE Vernova and Corning jumped 10% and 11%, respectively, last week. 2. Outside of tech Starbucks shares tumbled over 6% last week despite a promising quarter on Wednesday, and a bullish Investor Day on Thursday. Both showed us that CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround play is on track. The stock was initially higher in both sessions but was unable to hold those gains by the close. If Starbucks shares were to continue their decline, we would be tempted to add to our position. Honeywell shares reached an all-time high Friday after a great earnings report Thursday that included news of an acceleration of its aerospace spinoff plans. The industrial stock gained nearly 3% for the week. Dover fell over 2% last week due to profit taking on Thursday’s beat-and-raise quarter . We raised our price target to $220 from $210 apiece. Danaher ‘s better-than-expected report failed to elevate shares, and Boeing’ s mixed results led to huge fluctuations in its stock price. Both names closed lower on the week. 3. Software slammed Club holding Salesforce dropped 7% for the week after that big enterprise software sector selloff on Thursday. We told members we were not running out to add to Salesforce. ServiceNow dropped 10% despite generally better-than-expected results and a commitment to aggressively repurchase stock. The weakness comes as software names keep taking hits on AI-driven disruption concerns. This selloff in software was a revaluation of what the market is willing to pay for SaaS companies, meaning price-to-earnings multiple ratios are compressing. Microsoft’s post-earnings drop of 10% on Thursday didn’t help. It was unfair that our cybersecurity names were caught up in the weakness. AI helps cyber. Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike fell over 4% and 5%, respectively, on Thursday. We viewed those declines as buying opportunities. Both stocks decline over 2% each for the week. 4. Big Fed week “Economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace. Job gains have remained low, and the unemployment rate has shown some signs of stabilization,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday. For those reasons, central bankers ended their two-day January meeting that afternoon by holding interest rates steady after three straight meetings of rate cuts. Just two days later, Trump said he would nominate Kevin Warsh to succeed Powell, whose term leading the Fed ends in May. Warsh, who served as a Fed governor between 2006 and 2011, needs Senate confirmation. The stock market had little reaction to both events. However, gold and silver , which had been soaring on worries about future Fed independence, tanked on Friday. Warsh is being seen as more hawkish than the other Fed candidates, and more of a known quantity given his past stint at the Fed. We did a video on how to prepare your portfolio for the Fed changeover. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
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