[Market Summary]
On January 14 (local time), the New York stock market closed lower due to rising geopolitical risks, including anti-government protests in Iran, and uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's "reciprocal tariffs."
Dow Jones: 49,149.63 (-42.36 pts, -0.09%)
S&P 500: 6,926.60 (-37.14 pts, -0.53%)
Nasdaq: 23,471.75 (-238.12 pts, -1.00%)
Geopolitical & Policy Friction: Investor sentiment was dampened by geopolitical instability. Amid ongoing protests against economic hardship in Iran, speculation arose that the U.S. might soon take military action, with President Trump reportedly reviewing options. Additionally, the Supreme Court failed to issue a ruling on the legality of Trump’s "reciprocal tariffs" imposed on South Korea and other nations, leaving tariff-related uncertainty unresolved.
[Featured Stocks & Analyst Updates]
■ Nvidia (NVDA)
China Hurdle: Reports emerged that Chinese customs authorities are blocking the entry of Nvidia’s H200 chips. This follows the U.S. government’s official approval just yesterday for H200 exports to China in exchange for a portion of the sales revenue.
Impact: Shares fell on the news of China’s refusal. CEO Jensen Huang has previously described the Chinese AI market as a $500 billion opportunity.
■ Alphabet (GOOGL)
Growth Momentum: AI strategy remains a core driver. The Gemini 3 LLM is receiving positive reviews, and AI Overviews have surpassed 2 billion monthly users. Google Cloud revenue rose 34% YoY to $15.2 billion, with a backlog of $155 billion.
Valuation Caution: While BofA noted that the integration of AI, data, and search is leading to rapid monetization, they remain cautious regarding valuation premiums.
■ Tesla (TSLA)
FSD Sales Shift: Elon Musk announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Tesla will stop selling FSD (Full Self-Driving) outright after February 14.
Subscription Model: FSD will only be available through a monthly subscription starting at $99/month. Currently, FSD can be purchased for a one-time fee of $8,000 or a $99/month subscription in the U.S.
■ Netflix (NFLX)
M&A Rumor: Reportedly preparing a $72 billion all-cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) studio and HBO Max.
■ Wells Fargo (WFC)
Mixed Earnings: Reported Q4 EPS of $1.76 (vs. $1.66 est), but revenue came in at $21.29 billion, missing the $21.64 billion consensus.
■ Bank of America (BAC)
Earnings Beat: Reported Q4 EPS of $0.98 and revenue of $28.4 billion, both exceeding Wall Street expectations ($0.96 and $27.55B).
■ Coca-Cola (KO)
Leadership Shuffle: Creating a new Chief Digital Officer (CDO) position to accelerate digital transformation. Sedef Salingan Sahin will take the role starting March 31, 2026.
■ CoreWeave (CRWV)
Legal Risks: Facing a class-action lawsuit regarding data center expansion delays. Investors claim the company was overly optimistic about its scaling capacity and failed to disclose risks associated with its reliance on a single external partner.
■ XPeng (XPEV)
Ambitious Targets: Setting a 2026 sales goal of 550,000 to 600,000 units, a 28–40% increase from last year. The strategy focuses on transitioning into a "Physical AI" and robotics company, with humanoid robot mass production planned for 2026.
■ Biogen (BIIB)
One-time Charge: Warned of a large Q4 one-time charge of $222 million for R&D and milestone payments, which is expected to reduce net income by approximately $1.26 per share.
■ AppLovin (APP)
Analyst Action: Evercore ISI initiated coverage with a Buy rating and an $835 target. However, the stock struggled due to broader tech sell-offs and profit-taking.
■ Trip.com (TCOM) & Travel Sector
Regulatory Pressure: Reports that Chinese regulators are investigating Trip.com soured sentiment. WTTC data also showed foreign visitors to the U.S. dropped 6% last year despite a global surge in tourism spending, impacting ABNB, BKNG, and EXPE.
■ Cybersecurity Sector (PANW, CHKP, FTNT)
China Ban: Chinese authorities reportedly instructed domestic firms to stop using cybersecurity software from U.S. and Israeli companies.
■ Visa (V) & Mastercard (MA)
Long-term Outlook: Despite Trump’s proposed 10% rate cap, Goldman Sachs argues these firms will be winners in the era of "Agentic Commerce," where AI agents handle purchases using secure payment tokenization infrastructure provided by the card giants.
■ Alibaba (BABA)
Cloud Dominance: Held a 35.8% share of the China AI cloud market in H1 2025. Alibaba plans to capture 80% of new industry revenue growth in 2026 through its "Qwen" AI model ecosystem.
■ KLA (KLAC)
Dominant Position: Bernstein set a $1,700 target (Outperform), noting KLA’s dominance in the $14.3B process control segment. KLA’s technical complexity makes it less vulnerable to China’s localization efforts.
■ Honeywell (HON)
Quantum IPO: Pursuing an IPO for its quantum subsidiary, Quantinuum, which was valued at $10 billion last year after raising funds from Nvidia’s VC arm.
■ Palantir Technologies (PLTR)
Legal Conflict: Three former employees sued Palantir, alleging "intimidation tactics" to suppress their new AI consulting startup. Palantir claims intellectual property theft.
■ Rivian (RIVN)
Downgrade: UBS downgraded Rivian to Sell ($15 PT), stating that AI-related hype is already priced in and expectations for the upcoming R2 model are excessively high.
■ Citigroup (C)
Strong Core: Reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.81 (vs. $1.67 est) and revenue of $21 billion. Net Interest Income (NII) rose 14%. However, the Russia exit resulted in a $1.1 billion after-tax loss.
■ SanDisk (SNDK)
Price Target Surge: Bernstein raised its target to $580 (Buy), citing an unprecedented NAND shortage and surging storage demand from the AI PC transition.
■ Homebuilders (DHI, LEN, PHM, KBH)
Investigation: The Trump administration (FHFA) is investigating homebuilders for record-high share buybacks during periods of massive profitability.
■ MicroStrategy (MSTR)
Bitcoin Surge: Reclaimed the $95,000 level. MSTR purchased an additional 13,627 BTC for $1.25B last week, bringing its total holdings to 687,410 BTC (valued at over $65B).
■ BlackRock (BLK)
Downgrade: TD Cowen downgraded to Hold ($1,209 PT), citing a lack of clear positive catalysts for 2026 despite long-term optimism.
■ Intuitive Surgical (ISRG)
Cautious Guidance: While Q4 preliminary revenue ($2.87B) beat estimates, investors were concerned by the 2026 guidance for Da Vinci surgery growth (13–15%), which is slower than 2025’s 18%.
■ Rigetti Computing (RGTI)
Delay: Postponed the launch of its "Cepheus" quantum processor to late Q1 2026.
■ Glaukos (GKOS)
Sales Miss: Net sales of its "iDose" glaucoma implant ($45M) missed the Wall Street estimate of $48M–$50M.
■ Oracle (ORCL)
Bondholder Lawsuit: Faced a class-action lawsuit in New York for allegedly failing to disclose massive additional debt issuance ($38B) needed to fund its $300B OpenAI deal. This follows an initial $18B bond issuance in September.
