10 Firms Close Shortened Trading Week Higher

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Wall Street’s main indices ended the shortened trading week in the red territory on Friday after labor market data came in much hotter than expected, fueling concerns that the Federal Reserve will not cut rates again.

Both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite dived by 1.63 percent, while the S&P 500 declined by 1.54 percent.

Meanwhile, 10 companies in the mixed sector posted notable gains amid fresh catalysts that perked up buying appetite. In this article, let’s explore the reasons behind their rally.

In Friday’s top advancers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A man in long sleeves looking at stock market data. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels

10. IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN)

Shares of IREN Ltd. (IREN) finished the shortened trading week stronger, rallying by 4.66 percent to close at $11 apiece after an investment banking firm upgraded its third-quarter earnings per share (EPS) estimates.

Roth Capital, in a report published on Tuesday, upgraded its EPS forecast for IREN to $0.29 per share for the quarter from the $0.28 earlier, while giving the company a “strong-buy” rating.

Roth Capital also issued estimates for IREN’s earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025 at $0.30 per share, while giving a $0.43 EPS forecast for the first quarter of 2026; $0.35 for the second quarter of 2026; $0.33 EPS for the third quarter, and $0.22 for the fourth quarter.

Finally, full-year 2026 earnings are expected to hit $1.32 EPS while full-year 2027 is pegged at $0.79 EPS.

9. PENN Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN)

Share prices of American entertainment firm PENN Entertainment (PENN) ended the week higher by 4.92 percent to end at $19.19 per share as investors resorted to profit-taking following an intra-day dip.

In other news, the company strengthened its partnership with premier sports media brand ESPN with the rebranding of the former’s 10 more retail sportsbooks with the ESPN brand.

According to PENN, it would launch the ESPN Bet sportsbook at various locations across Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, and West Virginia and will serve customers under PENN’s Hollywood and Ameristar casino brands.

Apart from the newly converted sportsbook, PENN already has existing ESPN Bet retail locations in Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, and Ohio.

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