Ten companies kicked off this week’s trading on a positive note, defying a broader market pessimism amid growing trade tensions among the US, Mexico, China, and Canada over the retaliation of tariffs on each other’s goods.
On Monday, the Dow Jones lost another 0.28 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both registered steep declines of 0.76 percent and 1.20 percent, respectively. The slump came following President Donald Trump’s announcements that he would slap a 25-percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, while a special 60-percent rate would be taxed on Chinese products.
Ten companies under mixed sectors defied a broader market downturn, leading the charge among market advancers. In this article, we will examine which companies performed well and the factors driving their success.
This list of 10 top advancers only considered the companies with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.
The New York Stock Exchange building. Photo by Дмитрий Трепольский on Pexels
10. IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN)
Shares of IREN grew by 4.5 percent on Monday, adding 0.46 points to close at $10.68.
IREN, a Bitcoin mining firm, traded in line with Bitcoin prices which at the time of writing marked a 3.54-percent gain at $101,000 apiece.
Investors also seemed to have repositioned their portfolios ahead of the company’s release of its earnings performance for the fourth quarter of 2024, due for release on February 12.
Year-to-date, IREN’s current valuation marked a mere 2-percent growth from the $10.46 price registered on the first trading day of 2025.
Earlier this month, IREN announced that it was planning to raise as much as $1 billion from a follow-on offering to expand its Bitcoin mining operations. It said it plans to increase its capacity to 57 EH/s by the second half of the year, with 50 EH/s targeted in the first half of the year.
9. Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd. (NYSE:HMY)
Shares of Harmony Gold rose by 4.7 percent on Monday to finish at $11.8 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by news that it was on track to surpass its annual gold production target of 1.5 million ounces, despite booking lower output for the first half of the financial year.
Harmony, the largest gold producer in South Africa, said in a recent trading update that gold production for the six months ending December 2024 was expected to settle between 790,000 ounces to 805,000 ounces. The figures, however, marked a decline from the 832,349 ounces produced in the same period a year earlier mainly due to planned lower output from its South African underground mines and Hidden Valley in Papua New Guinea.
However, South African underground recovered grades are expected to be higher than the projected 5.80 grams per ton, on the back of a strong performance from Mponeng, the world’s deepest mine.
8. IONQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)
IONQ shares initially dipped on Monday, but gained momentum later in the session, closing up 5.01 percent at $41.47 per share.
During intra-day trading, investor sentiment was dampened by remarks from Bill Gates, who echoed comments by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding the practical use of quantum computers. Gates, however, offered a more optimistic perspective, suggesting that quantum computers could achieve practical utility within the next three years.
“There is the possibility in the next three to five years that one of these techniques would get enough true logical Qubits to solve some very tough problems. And Microsoft is a competitor in that space,” he said.
He underscored that in November 2024, Microsoft started to co-design and build “the world’s most powerful quantum machine.”
Despite the overall cautious outlook, investors turned to bargain-hunting, helping lift IONQ’s shares by the close of trading on Monday.
7. Venture Global Inc. (NYSE:VG)
Venture Global, a global player in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and exportation, extended its three-day winning streak on Monday, adding another 4.84 percent to its valuation to close at $21.44 apiece.
However, the current valuation still reflects a 14-percent drop from its initial public offering price of $25 when it debuted on the stock market on January 24.
As the first IPO of 2025, Venture Global raised $1.75 billion on its opening day, issuing 70 million shares—short of its initial target of $2.3 billion.
Still, Venture Global remains one of the largest publicly listed energy players in the US, having surpassed its competitors, namely Cheniere Energy, and high-profile players such as Occidental Petroleum, and Marathon Petroleum.
6. Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE:TPX)
Beddings manufacturer Tempur Sealy grew its share prices on Monday by 5.99 percent to finish at $66.92 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by optimism that it was moving forward with its planned acquisition of Mattress Firm Inc. for $4 billion.
On Friday, a US Judge in Texas gave his go signal for Tempur Sealy to acquire Mattress Firm, overturning an earlier decision from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that had blocked the deal in July last year over concerns that it would hurt consumers, arguing that the takeover violates antitrust laws and would reduce options for US mattress buyers.
Despite the go-signal, the judge, however, emphasized that Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm cannot close the acquisition deal until February 7, to allow time for FTC to file an appeal.
Tempur Sealy is the world’s largest mattress maker with top brands including Tempur-Pedic, Sealy Posturepedic, and Stearns & Foster. Meanwhile, Mattress Firm, owned by South African retailer Steinhoff International Holdings NV, operates more than 2,300 stores across 49 states.
5. AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS)
AST SpaceMobile rose for a third day on Monday, rising by 6.08 percent to finish at $21.47 each as investors resumed buying shares in the company after it recently secured the Special Temporary Authority approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would enable it to test its first five commercial BlueBird satellites.
FCC’s approval would support AST SpaceMobile’s voice, full data, and video applications and other native cellular broadband capabilities for mobile services giants AT&T and Verizon.
Last week, AST SpaceMobile Global Head of Regulatory Affairs Vikram Raval said that the FCC USA regulatory approvals represent a pivotal moment for AST SpaceMobile as it advances toward delivering seamless space-based cellular broadband connectivity.
In other recent news, AST SpaceMobile welcomed the appointment of Keith Larson as a new member of the board for AT&T following the immediate resignation of Christopher Sambar.
4. Tempus AI Inc. (NASDAQ:TEM)
Tempus AI grew its share prices by 7.23 percent on Monday to end at $61.54 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by news that it completed the acquisition of Ambry Genetics, a recognized leader in genetic testing that aims to improve health by understanding the relationship between genetics and disease.
The $600 million acquisition included $375 million in cash payments and $225 million in shares. Of the latter, $100 million will be subject to a lock-up agreement for one year following the transaction.
Tempus AI said Ambry Genetics will continue operations as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tempus under its current leadership team.
“This acquisition complements our strategy of leveraging diagnostics and data to drive innovation, further strengthening our ability to deliver cutting-edge solutions to clinicians, patients, and life sciences companies,” said Eric Lefkofsky, founder and CEO of Tempus AI. “We are excited to welcome Ambry to the Tempus team as we work together to improve patient outcomes and transform treatment journeys through the power of technology.”
3. Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX)
Shares of Equinox Gold increased by 8.24 percent on Monday to close at $6.57 apiece in line with a surge in gold prices which climbed by 22.10 percent to $2,857.10.
The continued rally also appears to reflect growing investor confidence, following the company’s impressive gold production results reported just last month.
According to Equinox, it was able to produce 213,960 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 621,870 ounces for the full year. Its Greenstone mine, which it now fully controls, contributed 111,710 ounces in its first partial year of operations after achieving commercial production.
Equinox Gold Corp. also said it ended the year with approximately $240 million in cash and equivalents and $105 million available to draw on its revolving credit facility, as well as another $100 million undrawn accordion feature.
During the fourth quarter, the company was able to slash its debt by $180 million with the payment of the final $40 million due to Orion Mine Finance for the purchase of its 40 percent interest in Greenstone and with the conversion to equity by the holders of $140 million in convertible notes.
2. Oklo Inc. (NYSE:OKLO)
Shares of Oklo grew 10.38 percent on Monday to close at $45.93 apiece as investors snapped up shares in the company to push its valuation to a new all-time high, signaling a remarkable display of confidence.
The buying momentum seemed to have been continually driven by optimism that Oklo would benefit from a projected boom in the US energy sector. During his inauguration, President Donald Trump promised that he would bank on the energy industry to bolster US manufacturing.
He said that the US “will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”
In other news, Oklo recently partnered with RPower to energize data centers using its gas generators for about 24 months.
Oklo said the model will combine immediate energy deployment using RPower’s natural gas generators with a transition path to clean, reliable energy from Oklo’s Aurora powerhouses, thereby eliminating reliance on diesel generators and supporting scalable, sustainable operations.
1. Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:KC)
Kingsoft’s shares surged by 20.45 percent on Monday to close at $15.14 apiece, with analysts pointing to news of Xiaomi’s poaching of a key developer of China-based DeepSeek as having fueled investor sentiment.
While not directly involved in DeepSeek, Kingsoft’s chairman Lei Jun, who also chairs technology giant Xiaomi, reportedly poached Luo Fuli, a top developer of ChatGPT’s new competitor DeepSeek, to join Xiaomi’s Artificial Intelligence development team.
The news boosted investor sentiment on hopes that any AI development in Xiaomi will create a ripple effect on Kingsoft’s business in cloud computing.
Luo Fuli is poised to take on a leadership role in Xiaomi’s large model team. Xiaomi plans to leverage his expertise in developing DeepSeek-V2 to improve the efficiency and user experience of its AI models, further advancing the company’s capabilities in artificial intelligence.
While we acknowledge the potential of KC as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than KC but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
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