The stock market ended mixed on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones emerging as the sole decliner, as investors digested more news of tariff threats from President Donald Trump.
The Dow dropped by 0.20 percent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq clocked in gains of 0.49 percent and 1.22 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, 10 companies, predominantly those riding the AI wave, were touted as investors’ haven, clocking in gains during a cautious trading session.
In this article, we have identified the 10 strongest firms on Wednesday and detailed the reasons behind their performance.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in trading volume.
A trader cheers his market gains. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels
10. Amentum Holdings Inc. (NYSE:AMTM)
Amentum snapped a two-day losing streak on Wednesday, jumping 8.10 percent to close at $18.42 apiece as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following news that it partnered with Rivada Space Networks to establish a unique, ultra-secure low Earth orbit (LEO) network to support the US government’s mission-critical communications globally.
In a statement, Rivada said it was building a uniquely capable LEO constellation focused on zero-trust networking, which would see the establishment of a highly secure global communications backbone in space.
“The Outernet not only strengthens digital infrastructure but also expands mission capabilities for our US government customers,” it said.
For his part, Dave Marlowe, vice president for intelligence and cyber at AMTM, said: “Our goal is to ensure our customers have access to the latest innovation in secure space architecture as part of their national security solutions.”
9. Rocket Companies Inc. (NYSE:RKT)
Rocket Companies rose by 8.12 percent on Wednesday to end at $14.25 each as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following Tuesday’s second consecutive day of dip, as investors continued to digest news of its $1.75-billion acquisition of real estate brokerage company Redfin.
In a statement, RKT said it had entered into an agreement with Redfin for an all-stock deal for $12.50 per Redfin share or a total of $1.75 billion.
Founded in 2004, Redfin is one of America’s most recognized real estate brands, operating a top-three home search platform with more than 1 million for-sale and rental listings and a tech-powered brokerage of more than 2,200 agents.
Meanwhile, RKT boasts itself as a growing provider of home financing to homebuyers for 40 years now. By combining Redfin’s home search and real estate agent network with RKT’s mortgage origination and servicing capabilities, the company envisions a more seamless experience from search to close, to servicing and future transactions.
8. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)
Cleveland-Cliffs rallied by 8.54 percent on Wednesday to end at $9.79 apiece, in line with its counterparts, following President Donald Trump’s imposition of 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports entering the US.
According to Trump, the imposition of new tariffs was aimed at correcting the perceived trade imbalance while supporting the domestic steel and aluminum industry.
The latest salvo spelled good news for CLF, an American steel manufacturer based in Ohio, as it could lead to lower competition for US steelmakers and cheaper prices offered to consumers.
Lourenco Goncalves, CLF’s chief executive officer, earlier expressed his support for the imposition of tariffs on imports, saying that they can make a “long-term positive impact” in making “America a manufacturing superpower once again.”
7. Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRDO)
Credo rallied for a second day on Wednesday, adding another 9.62 percent to finish at $47.53 each as funds continued to flock to safer assets such as Artificial Intelligence stocks to mitigate risks from the ongoing tensions between the United States and its trading partners.
Additionally, CRDO announced that it would participate in the upcoming NVIDIA GTC 2025 conference in California next week, where it is expected to showcase products aimed at supporting the growth of AI.
“[CRDO] will showcase its Toucan PCI Express (PCIe) Gen6.x/CXL3.x retimers in a full rack demo, highlighting their role in enabling scalable AI infrastructure. In addition, [CRDO]’s Associate Vice President of PCIe Product, Phil Kumin, will deliver a technical session on GPU disaggregation and PCIe scaling for AI workloads,” the company said.
6. Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE:ACHR)
Archer Aviation rallied for a second straight day on Wednesday, adding 9.84 percent to finish at $7.48 apiece as investors bought up on the nearing launch of its flying taxis.
At the JP Morgan Industrials Conference on Wednesday, ACHR reaffirmed its commitment to transforming aviation into an electric, affordable, and accessible mode of transportation through the launch of its first revenue-generating Midnight aircraft this year.
According to the company, it launched a comprehensive “Launch Edition” commercialization program for its Midnight aircraft to establish a pragmatic and repeatable playbook to deploy Midnight commercially in dozens of early adopter markets. It said that Abu Dhabi Aviation would be its first customer for Midnight.
Looking ahead, ACHR said it would begin producing 10 Midnight aircraft at its ARC facility in Covington, Georgia, this year to support its ongoing certification-related testing programs and deployments with key partners.
It also plans to ramp up the factory’s capacity to a range of 650 to 2,000 aircraft annually.
5. Rigetti Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI)
Rigetti Computing extended its winning streak for a second day on Wednesday, adding 11.18 percent to finish at $8.95 apiece as the company continued to benefit from the more cautious economic environment, pushing investors to flock to safer assets like AI.
RGTI, one of the companies riding the AI wave, recently announced securing a $35-million investment and $100-million partnership agreement with Quanta for the development of quantum computers.
Under the transaction, Quanta purchased RGTI shares at $11.59 apiece for a total of $35 million. Following the investment, the two parties would jointly invest $100 million over the next five years for the development of quantum computers.
Meanwhile, RGTI is expected to release a 36-qubit system based on four 9-qubit chips by mid-2025.
By the end of the year, it expects to release a system with over 100 qubits with a targeted 2x reduction in error rates from the current level.
4. Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)
Viking Therapeutics jumped by 11.43 percent on Wednesday to end at $29.55 each as investor sentiment was fueled by news that it partnered with CordenPharma for the production of its weight loss treatment VK2735.
Under the terms of the agreement, VKTX and CordenPharma would manufacture and supply 100 million autoinjectors and an additional 100 million vial and syringe products for the subcutaneous formulation, as well as an annual capacity of over 1 billion oral VK2735 tablets.
“These API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) and final finished product capacities are further expandable at Viking’s option,” the company said.
In exchange, VKTX said it would make prepayments totaling $150 million, to be paid over the period from 2025 to 2028. Prepayments will be credited against future orders. VKTX said it retains ownership of all global rights to VK2735 under the agreement and expects to maintain standard pharmaceutical product margins.
3. Nebius Group NV (NASDAQ:NBIS)
Nebius Group snapped a two-day losing streak on Wednesday, growing 11.59 percent to end at $28.40 apiece as the company benefited from investor funds’ shift to AI stocks to mitigate the risks of the ongoing trade war.
Additionally, investor confidence was boosted by the company’s partnership with Stevens Institute of Technology for the launch of the Laboratory for AI in Mathematics Education at Stevens in Hoboken, New Jersey.
With the aim of exploring and promoting innovative AI uses in math research and education, NBIS said the new laboratory will investigate how large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies can be used to promote mathematical reasoning skills and transform teaching practices.
“We strongly believe that the math research process will soon change by accepting AI’s assistance in proposing scientific hypotheses, proving theorems, and verifying proofs. This will introduce AI-assisted experimentation in math research and free up scientists from routine technical tasks, giving them more time for meaningful exploration,” said Elena Bunina, Head of Nebius Academy.
2. Sprinklr Inc. (NYSE:CXM)
Sprinklr surged by 16.58 percent on Wednesday to end at $9.42 each as investors cheered the company’s stellar earnings performance during the last quarter.
In a statement, CXM said net income for three months ending January 31, 2025, soared by 367 percent to $98.68 million from $21.14 million in the same period a year earlier, as revenues inched up by 4 percent to $202 million from $194 million.
Meanwhile, net income for the full year alone jumped by 136 percent to $121.6 million from $51.4 million, as revenues rose 8 percent to $796 million from $732 million.
Looking ahead, CXM expects total revenues for the next quarter to settle between $201.5 million and $202.5 million and between $821.5 million and $823.5 million for the full year.
“The transformation of Sprinklr is well underway, with swift actions taken to optimize our expense base, re-define our GTM coverage model, strengthen our product innovation roadmaps, and rebalance our investments and resources to better serve our customers and partners,” said CXM President and CEO Rory Read. “[Full Year 2026] will be a transition year for Sprinklr as we execute our strategy that we believe will position the company to drive durable, efficient growth as we march towards the Rule of 40,” the company said.
1. IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)
IonQ shares soared by 16.68 percent on Wednesday to finish at $21.82 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by news that Rakuten Securities gobbled up worth $3.7 million shares in the company, signaling the brokerage firm’s confidence in the company.
In a regulatory filing, Rakuten Securities said it bought 90,000 IONQ shares. The purchase represented 1.5 percent of its total shareholdings and its ninth largest investment so far.
Additionally, investors also gobbled up shares after its subsidiary ID Quantique expanded IONQ’s owned or controlled patent portfolio by nearly 250 patents, pushing its total patents to almost 400.
“Our extensive patent portfolio in quantum networking technologies, paired with our consistent delivery and outperformance of quantum networking technological and business milestones, enables new market opportunities to help our customers solve problems unsolvable with current technologies,” said IONQ CEO Niccolo de Masi.
While we acknowledge the potential of IONQ as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IONQ but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
