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Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq falter with big week of Big Tech earnings, Fed meeting ahead

Web Desk January 26, 2026

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Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq falter with big week of Big Tech earnings, Fed meeting ahead

US stock futures nudged into the red on Monday as pressure built on the dollar, keeping the mood cautious ahead of a big week filled with a Federal Reserve rate decision and Big Tech earnings reports.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) traded flat, and S&P 500 futures (ES=F) were also little changed. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) edged down 0.2%, following back-to-back weekly losses for Wall Street’s major indexes.

Markets took a risk-off tinge after the dollar (DX-Y.NYB) dropped to a four-month low amid speculation that the US — in a rare move — could work with Japan on intervening to halt the yen’s slide. That extended a sell-off in the US currency, which lost some appeal as a haven as President Trump’s aggressive push for Greenland roiled markets.

At the weekend, Canada came under the trade cosh again with Trump’s threat of new 100% duties for the US neighbor it goes ahead with a China trade deal.

A weak dollar could spur the already relentless rally in gold, which topped $5,000 an ounce for the first time on Sunday and continued to rise on Monday. Prices passed the key milestone earlier than Wall Street expected, raising questions about the stunning speed of gold’s gains.

Currencies have largely taken a back seat to stocks since the post-pandemic market rally took hold and investors focused on earnings growth, AI-driven optimism, and the steady resilience of US equities. That said, some analysts believe that may be starting to change as Trump continues to make tariff threats.

This week’s flood of earnings could test that view, in particular potentially pivotal quarterly reports from four of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacaps. Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA) are slated to post results on Wednesday, and Apple’s (AAPL) update is set to follow a day later. Eyes will be on AI spending plans, after Intel’s (INTC) downbeat outlook last week highlighted challenges to the AI build-out.

At the same time, the Fed’s policy decision looms at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, where the central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady. Wall Street is wondering how long the Fed will wait to make its next rate cut amid division among policymakers and building tensions with the White House. Trump has hinted he could name his choice of replacement for Powell as soon as this week, with BlackRock’s Rick Rieder tapped as the favorite.

LIVE 5 updates

Gold rises after topping $5,000 for the first time in ‘breathtaking and profoundly scary’ rally

Yahoo Finance’s Ines Ferré reports:

Read more here.
Premarket trending tickers: Freeport-McMoRan, Newmont, Sarepta, and Intel

US gold mining companies Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) and Newmont (NEM) climbed higher on Monday by 4% as gold topped $5,000 an ounce for the first time. Investors piled into safe-haven assets due to the risk of another US government shutdown.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (SRPT) stock rose 7% on Monday during premarket hours after announcing on Friday that it will present three-year, topline functional results from its Phase 3 study of a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Intel (INTC) stock fell 1% before the bell today. Shares in the chipmaker fell % on Friday after the company said it expects losses to continue into quarter one.
Big Tech earnings, Fed meeting feature as markets end January with busiest week of Q1: What to watch

Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley digs into what to watch in a packed week of megacap earnings and a Fed meeting.

He reports:

When two of the market’s biggest tech giants report earnings on Wednesday, investors will be watching for two things: How much are these companies planning to spend on their AI and cloud computing arms race, and how are they planning to fund it?

Meta (META) CFO Susan Li boosted spending projections from a range of $66 billion-$72 billion to between $70 billion and $72 billion on the company’s third quarter call in October, while Microsoft (MSFT) CFO Amy Hood said the company would spend more in 2026 than the $88.2 billion it spent in 2025.

… To fund this investment, hyperscalers are now issuing so much debt they are changing the landscape of investment-grade credit, Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk wrote in a note on Friday. The tech sector issued nearly $700 billion in investment-grade debt over the past quarter, closing in on the just-over $800 billion in issuance by the financial sector, which has long led the credit market. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management.)

While the share of people citing an “AI bubble” is falling, Bank of America strategists Haim Israel and Menka Bajaj wrote in a recent client note that investors can’t not consider the risks of bottomless spending and sky-high valuations.

Read more here.
Revolution Medicines stock sinks after Merck deal talks collapse

Shares in Revolution Medicines (RVMD) tumbled over 20% before the bell after the Wall Street ‌Journal reported that Merck (MRK) is no longer in discussions to buy the cancer drug developer.

The talks cooled after the ‌two could not come to an agreement on price, the Journal said on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Merck and Revolution Medicines were looking at a deal valued at as much as $32 billion, focused on adding the experimental drug daraxonrasib to the US pharma giant’s portfolio, the Financial Times reported earlier in January.
US Rare Earth stock surges as US takes 10% stake in $1.6B deal

US Rare Earth (USAR) stock jumped more than 30% on Monday before the bell after the FT reported that the Trump administration was planning to inject $1.6 billion into the miner and take a 10% stake.

Elsewhere in the market, rare earths firm, MP Materials (MP), rose 4%, alongside Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC), which climbed 5% following the news.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.