Forex Short News

Major US stock indices close lower. S&P and NASDAQ index down for the month

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Forex Short News

Both the S&P index only NASDAQ index closed lower for the month. The S&P fell -0.87% after a gain of 1.37% in the month of January. The NASDAQ index-3.38%. That was its worst month since March 2025. The Dow industrial average rose by a modest 0.17%.

For the trading day, the major indices are all closing lower:

  • Dow industrial average -1.05%
  • S&P index -0.43%
  • NASDAQ index -0.92%.

For the trading week:

  • Dow industrial average -1.31%
  • S&P index -0.44%
  • NASDAQ index -0.95%

Some of the loser this week:

Consumer & Retail Weakness

  • Whirlpool: -19.00% — largest decline; cyclical consumer demand concerns and rate sensitivity weighing on appliances.

  • Macy’s Inc: -11.78% — continued pressure on discretionary retail spending outlook.

  • Dollar Tree: -5.98% — defensive retail also seeing margin and consumer-trend worries.

  • Best Buy: -3.92% — electronics demand uncertainty persists.

  • Nike: -4.91% — growth expectations moderating.

High-Beta Growth & Tech Selling

  • First Solar: -18.51% — clean energy names hit hard amid rate/yield volatility.

  • Zoom Video: -18.11% — growth multiple compression continues.

  • NVIDIA: -6.65% — profit-taking despite strong AI narrative.

  • Synopsys: -5.90%

  • Broadcom: -3.92%

  • Micron: -3.69%

➡️ Semis and AI leaders saw rotation and valuation pressure, not outright fundamental deterioration.

Financials Under Pressure

  • American Express: -10.80%

  • PNC Financial: -9.00%

  • Wells Fargo: -8.21%

  • Bank of America: -6.13%

  • Morgan Stanley: -5.09%

  • Citigroup: -5.02%

  • Goldman Sachs: -6.72%

➡️ Lower yields and macro uncertainty weighed broadly on banks and credit-sensitive names.

Travel & Cyclicals Rolling Over

  • United Airlines Holdings: -5.95%

  • Southwest Airlines: -5.45%

  • Delta Air Lines: -5.37%

  • American Airlines: -3.83%

➡️ Cyclical reopening trades softened as growth expectations cooled.

Industrials / Defense

  • Raytheon: -17.17% — notable individual weakness within defense.

For the trading month, the biggest losers (selected highlights)

Crypto & Crypto-Linked Assets Hit Hard

  • BTCUSD: -26.48%

  • Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC): -26.39%

  • Bitcoin Futures: -26.05%

  • Robinhood Markets: -26.64%

  • Strategy (MicroStrategy): -18.27%

➡️ A broad risk unwind in crypto spilled into crypto-levered equities and trading platforms as momentum reversed sharply.

High-Growth Tech & AI Names Repriced Lower

  • Snowflake: -22.09%

  • Zoom Video: -23.16%

  • CrowdStrike: -20.72%

  • Palo Alto Networks: -18.95%

  • Synopsys: -19.04%

  • AMD: -20.80%

  • Microsoft: -18.46%

  • IBM: -18.42%

  • Intuit: -24.07%

➡️ Investors rotated out of long-duration growth and AI leaders, reflecting valuation compression rather than a single catalyst.

Speculative / High-Beta Growth Under Pressure

  • SoFi Technologies: -27.80%

  • Trump Media & Technology Group: -21.31%

➡️ Higher-beta retail favorites were among the hardest hit as risk appetite faded.

☀️ Cyclicals & Industrials Weakening

  • First Solar: -20.97%

  • Raytheon: -36.14% (largest decline of the group)

➡️ Cyclical and policy-sensitive sectors saw aggressive repositioning.

🏥 Defensive Growth Also Pulled Lower

  • Boston Scientific: -18.06%

➡️ Even higher-quality defensive growth names were not immune, signaling broad market de-risking.

Biggest winners this month (selected highlights)

🔌 AI Infrastructure & Connectivity Leaders

  • Corning: +44.24% — strongest performer; beneficiary of data-center and fiber demand tied to AI buildout.

  • Ciena Corp: +35.51% — networking infrastructure strength as bandwidth demand accelerates.

  • Dell Technologies: +26.11%

  • Arm Holdings: +15.91%

  • Taiwan Semiconductor: +9.46%

➡️ Capital spending tied to AI infrastructure and hardware buildout remained a dominant market theme.

Industrials, Transport & Cyclical Rebound

  • FedEx: +23.01%

  • Caterpillar: +15.50%

  • Southwest Airlines: +20.53%

  • Marriott International: +9.48%

➡️ Investors rotated toward real-economy cyclicals, signaling confidence in economic resilience.

Energy Strength

  • Occidental Petroleum: +18.45%

  • Baker Hughes: +15.22%

  • Exxon Mobil: +9.91%

  • Chevron: +9.90%

➡️ Rising commodity expectations and steady cash-flow stories supported energy stocks.

Healthcare & Defensive Growth

  • Moderna: +18.26%

  • Merck & Co: +15.77%

  • Biogen: +9.70%

  • Stryker: +8.32%

➡️ Healthcare attracted flows as investors balanced growth exposure with defensive positioning.

Consumer & Media Winners

  • Tapestry: +23.38%

  • Target: +11.80%

  • Walmart: +9.73%

  • Netflix: +13.71%

  • Live Nation Entertainment: +9.86%

  • Paramount Skydance: +19.14%

  • Twitter Inc: +9.19%

➡️ Select consumer and entertainment names benefited from improving sentiment and positioning shifts.

Overall Monthly Takeaway for the winners

The winners this month reveal a clear rotation beneath the market surface:

  • AI spending broadened beyond software into infrastructure and hardware.

  • Investors favored cash-flow-generating cyclicals and energy over speculative growth.

  • Healthcare and defensive growth attracted diversification flows.

  • The market rewarded tangible earnings visibility and real-economy exposure.

Overall Monthly Takeaway for the losers

This month’s losers point to a clear regime shift in market positioning:

  • Crypto weakness led the risk-off move, dragging related equities sharply lower.

  • AI and software leaders experienced valuation resets after extended upside runs.

  • Selling was systematic and cross-sector, not tied to one industry.

  • Markets rotated away from momentum, leverage, and long-duration growth assets.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.