Investing.com — Building on the momentum from the previous week, equities have continued to climb, but not without some volatility following President Trump’s inauguration.
Here’s a look at some of the names that stood out:
Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) & Softbank (OTC:SFTBY)
To start things off, Oracle and Softbank. Shares of both companies rallied this week following the announcement of a joint venture, Stargate, with OpenAI and MGX.
President Trump announced the venture, which aims to invest up to $500 billion in developing AI infrastructure within the United States.
RBC Capital explained in a note that “SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners, where OpenAI has operational responsibility and SoftBank (TYO:9984) has financial responsibility. Masayoshi Son (CEO of SoftBank) will be the chairman. Shares of Oracle rallied 7%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) 4%, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) 4%, while the IGV was up 2%.”
The news was also helpful for Microsoft, Nvidia, Arm, Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Dell (NYSE:DELL), Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) and SMCI.
“In the Stargate partnership, Microsoft is described as a “technology partner”, not a funding partner,” added RBC. “We view the formation of Stargate as slightly positive for both Microsoft and Oracle in our coverage, primarily from the standpoint that both can benefit from close ties to a new administration focused on defending domestic AI leadership.
They added: “On the other hand, we question how much of the move in shares of Oracle has been driven by the announcement, versus encouraging news related to TikTok.”
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Netflix shares surged Wednesday after it reported its latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday after the close, topping top and bottom-line expectations.
“NFLX reported 4Q24 revenue ~1% above the Street and operating income 2% above the consensus. In addition, Netflix reported 18.9 million net adds during the quarter, well above the VA consensus (+9.6 million),” explained Citi analysts following the announcement.
“The company’s 1Q25 outlook came in below consensus estimates. However, NFLX raised its 2025 revenue and operating income margin outlook, which on a midpoint basis fall above Street estimates.”
Various analysts raised their target for Netflix following the earnings report, with Goldman Sachs lifting theirs to $960.
“The company’s messaging remains consistent heading into 2025 (with forward guidance providing proof points of the narrative building) – solid revenue compounding, subscriber growth aided by ad mix, solid/rising operating margin and a commitment to return free cash flow to shareholders via buyback,” said the investment bank.
“Looking long term, this array of business model and product initiatives likely set up NFLX as a sustained double-digit revenue growth compounder with margin expansion in the coming years.”
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA)
EA shares sank more than 16% on Thursday in reaction to its quarterly earnings release, which saw the video game maker cut its bookings guidance for the third quarter and the full year.
The lowered guidance followed weaker demand for its soccer franchise, EA Sports FC and the role-playing game Dragon Age.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson said: “Dragon Age and EA SPORTS FC 25 underperformed our net bookings expectations.”
Following the earnings release, Bank of America downgraded EA to Neutral from Buy, saying it is “no longer confident that EA can gain enough share of player engagement and spend to drive meaningful growth in a struggling PC/Console game industry.”
Tempus AI
Finally, Tempus AI rallied this week, starting with a more than 35% jump in Tuesday’s session. The rise came after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disclosed that she had purchased call options on the stock.
Pelosi disclosed in a filing that she had purchased 50 call options in the AI firm with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of Jan 16, 2026, for between $50,000 to $100,000 earlier this month.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, the company announced the national launch of olivia, its AI-enabled personal health concierge app.
