{"id":72392,"date":"2026-02-01T12:53:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/888446252"},"modified":"2026-02-01T12:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:53:33","slug":"wall-street-sees-divide-in-tech-stock-performance-after-earnings-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/01\/wall-street-sees-divide-in-tech-stock-performance-after-earnings-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street sees divide in tech stock performance after earnings reports"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Big Tech’s post-earnings stock performance diverged this week, with clear winners<\/a> and laggards emerging as Wall Street looks for clear signs of returns on AI investments to determine market leaders.<\/p>\n

Meta stock (META<\/a>) jumped over 10% in one day as investors cheered productivity gains<\/a> and the integration of AI across the company\u2019s social media apps, advertising and shopping tools, and internal workflows.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA<\/a>) shares rebounded on Friday after selling off as investors weighed a massive spending forecast after Elon Musk underscored the company’s transition<\/a> from an electric vehicle maker to autonomous driving and robotics.<\/p>\n

And tech giant Microsoft’s stock (MSFT<\/a>) was hammered<\/a> following its results amid concerns over slowing cloud growth and massive AI-related spending. Shares in cloud software leaders Salesforce (CRM<\/a>) and ServiceNow (NOW<\/a>) also tumbled on worries that AI could disrupt the software-as-a-service model.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to monetization. That\u2019s what the Street wants to see here,\u201d Wedbush Securities managing director and global head of technology research Dan Ives told Yahoo Finance on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I think what you’re seeing is really a bifurcation in tech. It’s kind of the haves and the have nots, and that’s really what’s playing out across tech earnings,” he added.<\/p>\n

The market has been wary of an AI bubble <\/a>in recent quarters and wants to see that companies’ billions of dollars in investments in the technology are paying off in their results.<\/p>\n

“Investors are voting with their feet, and they’re going into sectors where the growth is more obvious to see and they feel like there is durability,” said Wolfe Research managing director and head of software research Alex Zukin.<\/p>\n

Still, Wall Street views the recent sell-off in software stocks<\/a> as overdone, arguing that the benefits of AI will take longer to materialize.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot more complexity associated with enterprise, data, governance, security, compliance, risk, and we think that some of these trends and themes can play out over a longer period of time,” he said, adding, “We’re still in phase zero of adoption.”<\/p>\n

The analyst sees buying opportunities in data platform companies such as MongoDB (MDB<\/a>), data warehouse providers like Snowflake (SNOW<\/a>), observability vendors such as Datadog (DDOG<\/a>), and communications platform companies like Twilio (TWLO<\/a>), all of which have declined in sympathy with broader weakness across software stocks.<\/p>\n

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\"Nasdaq<\/div>\n<\/div>
Nasdaq 100 year-to-date chart <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One clear theme is on track \u2014 strong demand for memory and storage for AI.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sandisk (SNDK<\/a>) stock surged to all-time highs on Friday after a blockbuster quarter and earnings forecast as market focus shifts beyond chips to other parts of the AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Shares of the maker of memory storage products are up more than 150% year to date, while peer Micron (MU<\/a>) is up 52% after triple-digit-percentage gains in 2025.<\/p>\n

“It’s a super cycle of memory. That’s the reality,” said Wedbush Securities’ Ives.<\/p>\n

Higher memory demand and rising prices did not impact Apple\u2019s (AAPL<\/a>) gross margin in its most recent quarter, though CEO Tim Cook said on the iPhone maker\u2019s earnings call last week that it would have \u201ca bit more of an impact\u201d on second quarter gross margins.<\/p>\n

“We don’t obviously provide outlooks beyond the current quarter, but we do continue to see market pricing for memory increasing significantly,” said Cook.<\/p>\n

Apple stock was fractionally higher on Friday.<\/p>\n

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\"Apple<\/div>\n<\/div>
Apple reported its first quarter earnings on Thursday, beating Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines, on strong iPhone sales. (AP Photo\/Kathy Willens, File) \u00b7<\/span> ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the bifurcation, Wall Street continues to see AI and technology underpinning the broader market rally, even as other sectors begin to outperform.<\/a><\/p>\n

After the S&P 500 (^GSPC<\/a>) pulled back from a record high of 7,000 last week, UBS strategists said investors should maintain equity exposure but focus on broadening allocations to capture a widening opportunity and diversify against potential risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestors with excessive exposure to technology should look to diversify across the expanding U.S. sector opportunity set, including financials,\u201d the strategists said, adding that healthcare and consumer discretionary could also benefit from the Trump administration\u2019s affordability initiatives.<\/p>\n

Energy (XLE<\/a>), Materials (XLB<\/a>), and Consumer Staples (XLP<\/a>) have been the strongest-performing sectors year to date.<\/p>\n

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at <\/em>@ines_ferre<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… autonomous driving and robotics. And tech<\/span> giant Microsoft's stock … is really a bifurcation in tech<\/span>. It's kind … #39;s playing out across tech<\/span> earnings," he added. The … \u00e2\u0080\u009cInvestors with excessive exposure to technology<\/span> should look to diversify across …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}