The S&P 500 ended lower on Friday, but rose slightly this week. At one point on Wednesday, the number exceeded 7,000 for the first time in history. There was no saving of news. Ten portfolio stocks, including three of our mega-cap stocks, reported earnings throughout the week. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. Software stocks tumbled on Thursday. And on Friday, President Donald Trump announced his pick to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chairman. .SPX .IXIC Mountain 2026-01-26 S&P 500 vs. Nasdaq For the week, the S&P 500 is up 0.34% and up 1.37% for the month. As our friends at CNBC Pro pointed out, gains in January historically bode well for the rest of the year, according to the January Barometer. The Nasdaq was almost flat for the week, rising 0.95% in January. Here are the factors that moved the market in the last week of this month. 1. Technology Earnings Meta Platforms and Microsoft announced earnings that moved their stock prices in opposite directions. Shares in the parent company of Facebook and Instagram ended the week up nearly 9% after Wednesday night’s report that the company significantly missed revenue and earnings expectations. The market was not bothered by the latest spending. Late Wednesday, Microsoft’s stock price fell more than 8% for the week after the company’s key cloud computing business failed to impress investors. We remain committed to Microsoft. Apple stock has finally ended its eight-week losing streak, but it’s not because of profits. Management said late Thursday that the company had a blockbuster quarter with iPhone sales up 23%. But on Friday, the stock fell. Investors still appear concerned about how the memory shortage will affect Apple’s costs. I’m not too worried. GE Vernova hit a record high on Friday following Wednesday night’s results. Corning announced better-than-expected results in the same session. Corning stock hit a record high Tuesday after the company signed a new $6 billion contract to supply fiber-optic data center cables to Meta. GE Vernova and Corning rose 10% and 11%, respectively, last week. 2. Outside of tech, Starbucks stock fell more than 6% last week despite a promising quarter on Wednesday and a bullish investor day on Thursday. Both showed that CEO Brian Nicol’s turnaround plan is on track. The stock initially rose in both sessions, but was unable to sustain its gains by the close of trading. If Starbucks stock continues to fall, we will want to add to our position. Honeywell stock hit an all-time high on Friday after Thursday’s impressive earnings report, which included news of accelerated spinoff plans for the aerospace industry. Industrial stocks rose nearly 3% for the week. Dover fell more than 2% last week after taking profits in Thursday’s beat-and-raise quarter. The price target was raised from $210 to $220 per unit. Danaher’s better-than-expected report failed to boost stock prices, and Boeing’s mixed results caused wide fluctuations in its stock price. Both companies ended the week lower. 3. Software slams Club Holding Salesforce is down 7% for the week, following Thursday’s decline in the large enterprise software sector. We told our members that there is no shortage of additions to Salesforce. ServiceNow fell 10% despite generally better-than-expected results and aggressive share buyback efforts. This weakness comes as software names continue to be hit by AI disruption concerns. This software decline is a reassessment of what the market is willing to pay for SaaS companies, meaning price-to-earnings ratios are being compressed. It didn’t help that Microsoft’s revenue fell 10% on Thursday. It was unfair for our cybersecurity name to be caught up in a weakness. AI helps cyber. Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike fell more than 4% and 5%, respectively, on Thursday. We viewed these dips as buying opportunities. Both stocks each fell more than 2% for the week. 4. Big Fed Week Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that “economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. Employment growth remains low and the unemployment rate is showing signs of stabilizing.” For these reasons, central bank officials ended their two-day January meeting this afternoon by leaving interest rates unchanged after three consecutive rate-cutting meetings. Just two days later, President Trump announced that he would nominate Kevin Warsh to replace Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May. Warsh, who served as Fed director from 2006 to 2011, must be confirmed by the Senate. The stock market reacted little to either event. But gold and silver, which had soared on concerns about the future independence of the Fed, fell sharply on Friday. Mr. Warsh is seen as more hawkish than other Fed candidates and is considered well-known given his past work at the Fed. We created a video on how to prepare your portfolio for the Fed transition. (See here for a complete list of Jim Cramer Charitable Trust stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, you will receive trade alerts before Jim makes a trade. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on CNBC TV, he will issue a trade alert and then wait 72 hours before executing the trade. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, along with our disclaimer. No fiduciary duties or obligations exist or arise from your receipt of information provided in connection with the Investment Club. No specific results or benefits are guaranteed.
