10 Firms Defy Market Pessimism

Ten companies finished firmer on Friday, bucking an overall market pessimism, over a series of catalysts sparking buying appetite.

Wall Street’s main indices all finished in the red territory, with the Dow Jones down by 0.32 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 0.29 percent, and the Nasdaq down 0.50 percent.

In this article, let’s take a look at which companies defied broader market pessimism and explore the reasons behind their growth.

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

A person with stock market data on a laptop. Photo by Anna Nekrashevich on Pexels

10. TAL Education Group (NYSE:TAL)

China-based TAL Education rose for a second day on Friday, ending the day up by 5.6 percent at $11.69 apiece as investors bought up positions after posting double-digit growth in its earnings performance in the past quarter of the year.

According to the company, revenues surged by 62.4 percent in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 to end at $606.4 million as against the $373.5 million reported year-on-year.

The strong revenues bolstered the company’s swing to profitability, with a net income of $38.6 million as against a net loss of $1.9 million in the same period last year.

Operating loss also narrowed by 81 percent to $1.9 million from $10.2 million year-on-year.

“We achieved healthy year-on-year revenue growth this quarter. Our AI learning devices remained one of our faster-growing business lines and received encouraging user feedback and market recognition,” said TAL Education President and Chief Finance Officer Alex Peng.