By Teresa Rivas

EveryTHING Rally. Bulls are back in control after last week's artificial intelligence angst. Risky assets including tech are back favor too, even as the rally in real things rolls on ahead of a slew of data in the coming days.

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 20 points, or 0.04%, good enough for its sixth record close of 2026. The S&P 500 added 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9%.

Last week was dominated by fears that artificial intelligence would make large swaths of the tech industry obsolete, leading investors to favor makers of physical goods. Since Friday, investors have been moving back toward tech and other riskier assets, but with the Dow squeaking toward a record, it shows they aren't abandoning things either.

"We believe markets are in a period of healthy rotation," noted Anthony Saglimbene, Ameriprise chief market strategist, on Monday. "Investors are rightfully looking for opportunities beyond the AI theme. And a more diverse set of sectors is helping broader averages like the S&P 500 tread water while near- and intermediate-term Tech dynamics play out."

Moreover, the expansion beyond tech is happening at a time when markets are still near highs -- not like in the past when stocks were selling off. That's more indicative of healthy investor interest beyond the usual suspects.

"A prolonged economic expansion, driven by a strong consumer AND a massive investment capex investment cycle would typically encourage a rotation into smaller caps with more leverage and strong fundamental momentum," writes 22V Research's Dennis DeBusschere, who thinks investors should be looking toward banks, retail, and cyclical names too. "Today's backdrop, where mega caps' capex is expanding at an accelerating pace only encourages that rotation."

Indeed, investors are also looking toward a good deal of data this week, from additional earnings reports to jobs data and the latest reading on employment, with cautious optimism. Two-thirds of the way through earnings season, 70% of S&P 500 companies are beating sales estimates and roughly 75% are beating earnings estimates. Nonfarm payrolls on Wednesday are predicted to show a resilient labor market, while the consensus sees the January Consumer Price Index edging lower from December when the data are reported on Friday.

"A big economic week this week, with CPI and payrolls will test the stability of bond markets, but we suspect 'Goldilocks' will continue for economic data," notes Raymond James's Tavis McCourt.

The Hot Stock: AppLovin +13.2% The Biggest Loser: Waters Corporation -13.9%

Best Sector: Information Technology +1.6% Worst Sector: Healthcare -0.9%

Back to the Future

At this point, you've probably heard of the Super Bowl as a stock market prediction tool, but what about the real highlight of the night -- the ads?

From Good Will Dunkin' to the original (and best) Jurassic Park, this year's Super Bowl advertisements were chock-full of '90s nostalgia. Yet any viewers old enough to remember that decade might be feeling some uncomfortable déjà vu: Back then, plenty of tech companies were spending gobs of money to advertise during the big game, only to be gone with the wind a few years later in the dot -om crash. That raises the question about whether today's crop of big spenders could face the same fate.

Not to worry, says my colleague Adam Levine: For one thing, many of last night's ads came from big companies like Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com or well-funded start-ups like OpenAI and Anthropic. These established Goliaths aren't going anywhere, even with hundreds of billions of dollars pledged to AI R&D.

That said, never say never:

One ad did stand out, from a $1.6 billion start-up named Genspark, which promises to automate business workflows for apps like Microsoft and the competing office suite from Google. Both Microsoft and Google sell similar AI tools integrated into their software. Genspark raised $300 million in January; it just spent $8 million on a 30-second ad featuring Matthew Broderick.

Genspark is hoping to do what Monster.com accomplished in 1999, when it aired a highly-regarded ad that put it on the map as a top resource for job seekers. It was the success of that Super Bowl commercial that led to the 2000 dot-com ad rush. But even though Monster survived the stock market crash, it was outcompeted by other sites like Indeed. Monster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.

If we are replaying the '90s script, we're not yet close to partying like its 1999.

The Calendar

American International Group, Assurant, AstraZeneca, BP, Cloudflare, Coca-Cola, CVS Health, Datadog, Duke Energy, Dupont, Ecolab, Edwards Lifesciences, Ferrari, Fiserv, Ford Motor, Gilead Sciences, Hasbro, Incyte, Marriott International, Masco, Quest Diagnostics, Robinhood Markets, S&P Global, Spotify Technology, Trimble, Welltower, Xylem, and Zimmer Biomet Holdings report earnings tomorrow.

The National Federation of Independent Business releases its Small Business Optimism Index for January. The consensus estimate is for a 99.8 reading, slightly higher than the December figure.

The Census Bureau reports retail and food services sales for December. Sales are expected to increase 0.4% month over month, after a 0.6% increase in November.

What We're Reading Today

   -- Walmart Is Letting Big Tech Foot the Bill for AI. Who Else Can Win. 
 
   -- Japan's Takaichi Scores Sweeping Election Win. Why It's a Victory for 
      Global Markets. 
 
   -- Hims & Hers Plunges 24% After Losing Novo Battle 
 
   -- Gold and Silver's Setback Should Prove Temporary 
 
   -- How the Software Panic Hit Private Credit -- and Why Some BDC Stocks 
      Might Be Worth Buying 

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February 09, 2026 19:55 ET (00:55 GMT)

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