S&P 500 is little changed amid lingering tech pressure, weak jobs data: Live updates
Written by admin on February 4, 2026
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Jan. 21, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged on Wednesday as traders continued to move out of technology stocks and digested the latest labor market data.
The broad market index hovered around the flatline, while Dow Jones Industrial Average added 363 points, or 0.7%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.7%.
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices pulled back 14% after its first-quarter forecast underwhelmed some analysts, adding to the recent pressure seen in tech. Other names in the space such as Broadcom and Micron Technology dipped as well. The former was down 3%, while the latter fell 8%.
Software stocks also continued to face pressure, with stocks such as Oracle and CrowdStrike extending their losses from the prior trading day. Oracle shed 3%, while CrowdStrike lost more than 1%.
“Bottom line, something I said back in late November, the GenAI tech trade is no longer a one way ride. We’ve transitioned it from ‘buy everything’ to ‘not everyone can win,'” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at One Point BFG Wealth Partners. “I believe we are losing this trade in terms of its ability to carry the market but luckily so far investors have found other things to buy and that includes other parts of the S&P 500, small and mid cap and for sure international stocks.”
Amgen was among the names leading the Dow’s outperformance. The biotechnology stock was higher by 6% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter. Also offering a boost to the index, industrial stock Caterpillar gained 1%, signaling that investors were continuing to rotate into more value-oriented names.
Meanwhile, ADP on Wednesday released its monthly look at private payroll growth for January, which showed an increase of just 22,000 on the month. That’s below the gain of 45,000 jobs that economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast.
The release generally precedes the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on nonfarm payrolls, but that won’t be out this week due to the partial government shutdown. The shutdown, which began Saturday, officially ended Tuesday, when President Donald Trump signed a funding bill into law.
On Tuesday, the major averages sold off as investors gravitated out of riskier growth names and toward cyclical stocks like Walmart. Nvidia and Microsoft each lost almost 3% in the previous session. Big-name artificial intelligence infrastructure names Broadcom, Oracle and Micron also closed in the red. The tech sector was the worst performer in the S&P 500, down more than 2%.
All eyes are now on Alphabet, as the company is slated to report earnings after the bell Wednesday. The quarterly results of fellow “Magnificent Seven” member Amazon are due Thursday.
ISM services index beats forecast as prices rose and inventories and exports slide
Service-sector activity in the U.S. increased in January though exports and hiring slowed while prices rose, according to an Institute for Supply Management report Wednesday.
The ISM services index posted a reading of 53.8 to kick off the new year, the same as the revised December number and slightly better than the Dow Jones consensus of 53.5. The index measures the percentage of businesses reporting growth, so anything above 50 is positive.
Internally, the business activity index hit 57.4, 2.2 points above the prior reading. However, a number of other indexes slumped, including inventories (-9.1), new export orders (-9.2) and new orders (-3.4).
The employment index was still in expansion at 50.3, but down 1.4 points from December. Prices rose, with the index now at 66.6, a gain 1.5 points.
“There was more respondent commentary in January on tariff impacts and uncertainty, potentially the result of annual contract renewals and geopolitical tensions,” said ISM Chair Steve Miller.
— Jeff Cox
Wall Street cautious on ‘Trump homes’
A drone view of new residential home construction at Fox Point Farms, a development by Shea Homes, is shown in Encinitas, California, U.S., June 18, 2024.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Wall Street isn’t jumping aboard a reported push by builders to develop so-called “Trump Homes.”
Shares of homebuilders, such as Lennar and Taylor Morrison Home, jumped Tuesday after a Bloomberg report on the plan, which said the homes would address the affordability crisis. Both names extended their gains in morning trading Wednesday, rising around 3% each.
Barclays said it’s hard to see how the move would be positive for homebuilders, other than the optics of a political “win.”
“As we have noted previously, we think any supply-driven solution would be detrimental for homebuilder margins given elevated inventory levels today in the markets where builders have lots, and the lack of supportive fundamental demand,” analyst Rafe Jadrosich wrote in a note Tuesday.
However, it sees positive implications for supplies such as Builders FirstSource, Louisiana-Pacific and Owens Corning.
UBS believes the industry should proceed with caution.
“We have been of the view that 2026 will be a better year for housing … for a number of reasons, including that inventory has stabilized/been worked down across key markets,” analyst John Lovallo,said in a note. “If this program does come to fruition, we believe it must be done thoughtfully as to not force supply into unreceptive markets.”
Meanwhile, Piper Sandler believes the story will be forgotten in a matter of days or weeks.
“Calling them ‘Trump Homes’ makes for good copy, but we fail to see what’s significant here,” Andy Laperriere, head of U.S. policy, said in a note Wednesday. “The private sector could do something like this at any time, and there is a good reason why it hasn’t at scale – because this is a fraught business model.”
— Michelle Fox
S&P 500 opens little changed
The S&P 500 began Wednesday’s session little changed.
The broad market index rose 0.1%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 173 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite declined 0.2%.
— Sean Conlon
Super Micro, Silicon Laboratories, Eli Lilly among the names making premarket moves
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
- Super Micro Computer — Shares jumped 10% as strong demand for Super Micro’s AI-optimized servers helped fiscal second-quarter results top expectations and prompted the company to raise its annual revenue forecast. Super Micro earned 69 cents per share on an adjusted basis, soundly outpacing the second-quarter consensus estimate of 49 cents per share, per LSEG. Revenue of $12.68 billion, topped the $10.23 billion estimate. The company anticipates fiscal 2026 revenue will be at least $40 billion, which compares with a $36.09 billion estimate.
- Silicon Laboratories — Shares surged 52% after The Financial Times reported Texas Instruments had agreed to purchase chip designer Silicon Laboratories for $7.5 billion amid ongoing consolidation in the semiconductor industry.
- Eli Lilly — The drugmaker’s stock rose nearly 7% after it posted higher-than-expected results on its top and bottom lines for the fourth quarter. The company also issued full year guidance for non-GAAP earnings of between $33.50 and $35 per share excluding some items, topping analysts’ consensus estimate of $33.04, per FactSet. It is also forecasting revenue of $80-$83 billion by the end of 2026 versus analysts’ expectations of $77.64 billion.
Read more here.
— Liz Napolitano
Private payrolls increased by 22,000 in January, ADP reports
A ‘now hiring’ sign is displayed in a business’s window in Manhattan on January 09, 2026, in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The U.S. labor market barely budged in January, with hiring below even muted expectations, according a report Wednesday from payrolls processing firm ADP.
Private companies added just 22,000 positions for the month and the number would have been negative had it not been for a surge of 74,000 hires in the education and health services category. The total was less than the downwardly revised 37,000 increase in December and below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 45,000.
The report starts 2026 off on basically the same note where 2025 ended: A lackluster job market in a low-hire, low-fire environment that likely will do little to quell fears from Federal Reserve policymakers that more support may be needed. Read more.
— Jeff Cox
How analysts are reacting to AMD’s earnings
Analysts across Wall Street remained largely neutral on Advanced Micro Devices despite its latest earnings beat, citing brewing concerns around the chipmaker’s overall profitability.
In its fourth quarter, AMD reported earnings of $1.53 per share, exceeding the $1.32 analysts polled by LSEG had penciled in. The firm’s $10.27 billion revenue also came in above the expected $9.67 billion. AMD also guided for first-quarter revenue of $9.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million. Again, this was above the $9.38 billion consensus estimate.
Still, shares of AMD plummeted 9% in Wednesday’s premarket session as analysts expressed worries that the company does not have enough to show for its high spending, as its outsized operating expenditures, or opex, have continued to weigh down profitability.
JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur pointed out that AMD’s operating expense was $200 million higher than guidance, marking several quarters of the company “overshooting expenses.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Eli Lilly shares jump 8% after company reports better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, strong guidance
A screen displays the logo and trading information for Eli Lilly and Company on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Nov. 21, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Wednesday posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue and 2026 guidance that blew past estimates, as demand for its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro soars.
The pharmaceutical giant anticipates its 2026 revenue will come in between $80 billion and $83 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $77.62 billion, according to LSEG.
Lilly also expected adjusted earnings to be between $33.50 and $35 per share for the year. That compares with analysts’ estimate of $33.23 per share, according to LSEG.
The strong outlook comes days after Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC in an exclusive interview that he expects upcoming government Medicare coverage of obesity treatments to expand the U.S. market for those drugs this year, saying it’s a “big multiplier on the eligible pool” of patients. Read more.
LLY, 1-day
— Annika Kim Constantino
Why AMD is down after earnings
Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during a fireside chat at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, India, on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024.
Gabriela Bhaskar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) dropped 9% in early market premarket trading on Wednesday after its first-quarter forecast fell short of some analyst expectations.
AMD reported revenue of $10.27 billion for the fourth quarter that topped LSEG consensus estimates of $9.67 billion on Tuesday.
The company said it expects $9.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter, plus or minus $300 million, versus expectations of $9.38 billion. But some analysts had predicted the chipmaker would provide stronger guidance for the first-quarter amid an ongoing boom in spending for the processors needed to power AI. Read more.
AMD, 1-day
— Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Chipotle, AMD, Match Group among stocks moving after Tuesday’s close
Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading.
- Chipotle — Shares of Chipotle tumbled 6% after the fast-casual burrito chain reported that traffic to its restaurants declined for the fourth straight quarter. The company also projected flat same-store sales growth for 2026. To be sure, adjusted earnings and revenue for Chipotle’s fourth quarter still beat analysts’ consensus expectations, according to LSEG.
- Match Group – The maker of the online dating app saw shares jump 7%. Fourth-quarter earnings came in at 83 cents per share on revenue of $878 million, surpassing the LSEG consensus estimate for 70 cents per share and $871 million. The company said it expects full-year cash flow to range between $1.085 to $1.135 billion, topping the FactSet consensus of $955.4 million.
- Advanced Micro Devices — The chipmaking stock declined about 7%. AMD said that it sees first-quarter revenue landing at $9.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million, while analysts sought $9.38 billion. The company also called for first-quarter non-GAAP gross margin of about 55%, landing roughly in line with the consensus StreetAccount estimate of 54.5%.
- Take-Two Interactive Software – Shares popped nearly 5%. The video game publisher raised its 2026 guidance for net bookings, calling for a range of $6.65 billion to $6.7 billion.
For the full list, read here.
— Pia Singh
