The stock market finished Tuesday’s trading in the red territory anew, erasing two consecutive days of gains, as investors repositioned their portfolios ahead of the Fed rate decision on Wednesday.
The Nasdaq registered the biggest drop among Wall Street’s main indices, declining 1.71 percent, followed by the S&P 500 with 1.07 percent, and the Dow Jones by 0.62 percent.
Despite the decline, ten companies showed off resilience during the session, finishing with modest gains. In this article, we have named the 10 top performers and detailed the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we only considered the stocks with a $2-billion market capitalization and $5 million in trading volume.
Stock market data is shown on a tablet. Photo by Burak The Weekender on Pexels
10. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:MUFG)
Mitsubishi UFJ saw its share prices rally for a sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, adding 3.03 percent to finish at $3.03 apiece as investor sentiment was buoyed by its recent acquisition of 9.98 million shares in financial services firm JACCS.
In a statement last week, MUFG said the transaction would be done through a capital increase by a third-party allotment and would allow MUFG to gain a 40-percent voting right in JACCS after closing.
According to MUFG, the acquisition forms part of its mission to beef up its domestic retail customer base, in which it expects JACCS to play a key role.
In other news, MUFG announced plans to withdraw from an international banking framework supporting decarbonization efforts, joining several of its global banking counterparts.
The Net Zero Banking Alliance, convened by the United Nations, promotes investment and lending projects with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
MUFG became the third bank to withdraw, following Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Nomura Holdings.
9. Nio Inc. (NYSE:NIO)
Nio Inc. rose for a third day on Tuesday, adding 3.18 percent to close at $5.19 each following news that it entered into an agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), one of the largest battery manufacturers in China, to develop a battery-swapping network across the mainland to help drivers avoid recharging slowdowns.
Nio, a China-based electric vehicle manufacturer, said the deal with CATL would benefit passenger vehicles over a wide range of products, including unifying industry technical standards, enhancing capital and business collaboration, and providing efficient recharging solutions for users.
It added that the collaboration will create the largest and most advanced battery swapping service network for passenger vehicles, leveraging their respective strengths in technology, management, platforms, and brand influence.
Battery swapping allows EV drivers to switch out depleted batteries for fully charged ones, eliminating the need to spend longer hours at a charging station.
8. Banco Santander SA (NYSE:SAN)
Banco Santander grew its share prices by 3.78 percent on Tuesday to close at $7.14 apiece as investor sentiment was buoyed by the company’s new partnership with telecommunications giant Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ).
SAN and VZ teamed up to introduce the Verizon + Openbank Savings account for VZ customers who want to take advantage of a 10x higher-yielding savings account while giving them the potential to save up to $180 on their Verizon bill annually.
The partnership was aimed at expanding the bank’s national scale and reach in line with its mission to become a leading bank in the US with a strong branch presence.
Meanwhile, VZ expects the partnership to enhance its financial services offering, providing benefits to its customer base.
The two firms promised to deliver a secure and seamless digital banking experience without fees. It would also offer minimum deposits and 24/7 access to funds.
7. United States Steel Corp. (NYSE:X)
Shares of US Steel rose by 3.96 percent on Tuesday to close at $41.70 apiece as investors reacted positively to the Trump administration’s plea to extend the deadlines for two lawsuits filed against a national security panel to give the government more time to wrap up merger talks between US Steel and Nippon Steel.
The motion for reconsideration sparked confidence that President Donald Trump may already give the green light for X and Japan-based Nippon Steel for the acquisition.
In January this year, X and Nippon filed a lawsuit against the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews foreign investments for national security risks, after recommending the merger be axed on national security grounds.
Former president Joe Biden blocked the potential merger before stepping down, saying that the steel producers and the American steelworkers “are the backbone of our nation.”
Meanwhile, Trump said last month that he would not mind if Nippon acquires a minority stake in X.
6. Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. (NYSE:SBSW)
Sibanye Stillwater rallied for a third straight day on Tuesday, adding 5.62 percent to close at $4.32 apiece as investors took path from a recent rating upgrade for the company from an investment firm.
In its report, RBC Capital Markets said it upgraded SBSW’s stock rating to “outperform” from “sector perform” previously while increasing its price target to $5.3 from $4.7. The new price target represented a 22.68 percent upside from SBSW’s closing price on Tuesday.
According to RBC, SBSW shares have underperformed against other platinum group metals (PGM) and gold producers by 10 percent and 20 percent, respectively, making the company already undervalued.
According to the investment firm, it expects SBSW to perform better than the average return of the sector over the medium term.
5. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (NYSE:DB)
Deutsche Bank saw its share prices increase by 4.09 percent on Tuesday to end at $24.93 apiece following news that it partnered with DWS to develop private credit origination and investment opportunities for DWS clients across the private credit space.
Under the agreement, DB and DWS will have preferred access to certain asset-based finance, direct lending, and other private credit asset opportunities originated by DB.
The cooperation leverages DB’s extensive sourcing and origination capabilities to provide additional private credit investment opportunities to its global client base.
“Investor demand for private credit assets is strong and we have a market-leading financing business with a long track record in private credit origination across all asset classes going back more than two decades,” said Ram Nayak, co-head of investment banking and global head of fixed income and currencies at DB. “With over 1 trillion [euros] of assets under management and a global distribution network, as well as close ties to Deutsche Bank, DWS is the ideal partner to leverage our expertise, delivering our offering to their clients.”
4. Marqeta Inc. (NASDAQ:MQ)
Marqeta Inc. extended its winning streak for a sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, adding 4.40 percent to finish at $4.51 each as investors continued to gobble up shares after the company bagged a new deal to become the issuer processor for Spendesk Financial Services in Europe.
Spendesk is a spend management platform that helps businesses manage employee expenses, automate invoice management, and track spending features, among others.
Under the agreement, Spendesk would integrate MQ’s card processing services into its core banking platform, giving Spendesk’s customers both physical and virtual cards and enhancing B2B spend management with controls that let them screen and approve expenses in real-time.
The partnership aims to take advantage of the growing recognition of virtual cards which are now becoming the go-to payment mode of businesses with annual sales of $50 million to $1 billion.
According to research by PYMNTS Intelligence late last year, 56 percent of business executives who use virtual cards for their business purchases have seen improvements in their working capital management.
3. RLX Technology Inc. (NYSE:RLX)
RLX Technology snapped a two-day losing streak on Tuesday, adding 6.63 percent to close at $2.09 each as investors repositioned portfolios on continued optimism about the company’s business outlook, supported by its strong earnings performance last year.
On Friday, RLX said net income attributable to the company was up by 3.18 percent to RMB551.8 million from RMB534 million in 2023, while revenues increased by 73 percent to RMB2.748 billion from RMB1.586 billion year-on-year on the back of a strong international market presence.
The better full-year performance was achieved despite a 42.8-percent drop in net income attributable to the company in the fourth quarter of the year, which ended at RMB121.96 million versus RMB213.5 million in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenues for the quarter rose by 56 percent to RMB813.4 million from RMB520.5 million year-on-year.
2. Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID)
Lucid Group extended its winning streak for a third straight day on Tuesday, closing 8.8 percent at $2.35 each as investors snapped up shares in the company after receiving a rating upgrade from an investment firm.
In its latest report, Morgan Stanley assigned LCID with an “underweight” rating, an upgrade from the “equal weight” rating previously.
It also gave the company a new price target of $3, or a 27.7-percent upside from its Tuesday closing price.
According to Morgan Stanley, it believes that LCID has the opportunity to execute an AI strategy leveraging strategic partnerships with the context of urgency to develop onshore manufacturing capacity for Battery Electric Vehicles as the socket for the AI brain.
“While [LCID] can continue to license out their industry-leading drivetrain technology to legacy OEMs, we see the real value in potential partnerships with AI/ADAS players for advancing autonomy in a software-defined EV socket,” Jonas added.
1. Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME)
Tencent rallied for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, adding 15.54 percent to close at $15.09 apiece as investors snapped up shares following a stellar earnings performance coupled with news that it integrated DeepSeek into its operations.
In its latest earnings release, TME said net income for the last quarter of 2024 increased by 47 percent to RMB2.076 billion from RMB1.409 billion in the same period a year earlier, while revenues increased by 8.2 percent to RMB7.458 billion from RMB6.893 billion year-on-year.
Net profit for the full year 2024 grew by 36 percent to RMB7.109 billion from RMB5.22 billion, while revenues inched up by 2.3 percent to RMB28.401 billion from RMB27.752 billion.
Meanwhile, TME said it integrated DeepSeek into song creation which invigorated passion for music creation among its users and garnered an increasingly personalized music experience through its integration with AI assistants, comment sections, and recommendation pages.
While we acknowledge the potential of TME 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 as promising as TME but 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 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
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