Wall Street’s main indices ended firmer on Wednesday as share prices remained boosted by positive catalysts from President Donald Trump’s inauguration coupled with better-than-expected earnings performance.
The Dow rose by 0.30 percent, the S&P 500 grew 0.61 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite increased 1.28 percent.
Meanwhile, 10 companies under mixed sectors mirrored Wall Street’s gains. In this article, we will look at which companies led the rally and explore the reasons behind their impressive performance.
To come up with Wednesday’s top gainers, 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. Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE:ANET)
Shares of Arista Networks Inc. (ANET) rose by 6.83 percent on Wednesday to finish at $129.82 apiece, hitting a new all-time high, as investor sentiment was buoyed by President Donald Trump’s promise of some $500 billion in government funding to boost the Artificial Intelligence sector. Arista Networks traded higher in line with its technology counterparts.
Arista Networks (ANET) is part of a growing AI ecosystem fueled by major players like OpenAI, which recently formed a partnership with SoftBank and Oracle, for a joint venture company called Stargate, with an initial $100 billion investment and plans to commit up to $500 billion over the next four years to propel the AI industry.
Arista Networks (ANET) is poised to reap even greater benefits from the government’s AI-focused support over the coming years.
9. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)
Seagate Technology (STX) saw its shares rise by 6.84 percent on Wednesday to close at $108.18 per share after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings performance.
On Wednesday, Seagate said its revenues jumped by 49.5 percent year-on-year on the back of structural business improvements and a strong focus on harnessing value in a favorable demand environment.
In related news, analysts upgraded their price targets for the company, with Morgan Stanley calling the company “a stock pick” citing AI-driven demand for data storage, while raising its price target by 3.87 percent to $134 from $129 previously, and maintaining its overweight rating.
Seagate Technology (STX) is a US-based data storage company, manufacturer, and distributor of hard disk drives and other data storage solutions.
8. Amphenol Corp. (NYSE:APH)
Amphenol Corp. (APH), one of the leading manufacturers of fiber optic connectors, antennas, and specialty cables, saw its share prices surge by 7.04 percent to finish at $77.84 per share as investors took heart from better-than-expected earnings performance.
On Wednesday, Amphenol hit an earnings-per-share (EPS) for the fourth quarter of the year settled at $0.55, higher than the $0.50 projected by analysts.
In addition, sales jumped by 30 percent to $4.318 billion owed to its AI interconnect technologies and strategic market diversification.
Notably, the IT Datacom market, driven by AI applications, saw a 76-percent increase in sales.
In the first quarter of the year, Amphenol expects sales to settle between $4 billion to $4.1 billion, with adjusted EPS guidance of $0.49 to $0.51.
The company also anticipates continued growth in AI-related investments and a mid-single-digit sequential increase in the IT Datacom market.
7. Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)
Pharmaceutical giant Moderna Inc. (MRNA) grew its share prices by 7.27 percent to end at $38.5 apiece after bagging a $590-million deal to develop and accelerate the creation of a bird flu vaccine.
While bird flu used to be more of an agriculture concern, reports said that 66 humans were confirmed to have contracted the flu, with at least one individual succumbing to the virus.
Moderna was previously awarded funds to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and has been struggling to keep its pandemic-era revenue levels.
Moderna’s $590-million deal was on top of the $176 million awarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services to complete the development of a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza.
6. IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN)
IREN Ltd. (IREN) jumped by 7.86 percent on Wednesday to end at $11.66 each as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following Tuesday’s drop.
Investors appear to have snapped up shares in the company following a recent announcement that it plans to raise as much as $1 billion from a follow-on offering to expand its Bitcoin mining operations.
IREN Ltd. (IREN) said that 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.
The company is underway with the implementation of direct-to-chip liquid cooling systems in existing data centers to accommodate liquid-cooled NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and meet the growing demand for liquid-cooled data center capacity. IREN is also advancing its 1,400MW Sweetwater project, scheduled for energization in April 2026, with ongoing substation procurement and construction activities.
5. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RXRX)
Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (RXRX), a biotechnology company, reported an 8.87-percent increase in its share prices on Wednesday, a third consecutive day, to finish at $7.49 each.
According to analysts, the firm appears to be earning a boost from the booming AI industry after the Trump administration pledged support to the expansion of the said sector.
At his inauguration event on Monday, President Donald Trump promised that the US government would support the expansion of artificial intelligence through a $500-billion funding.
According to analysts, companies utilizing artificial intelligence to bolster growth, such as Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX), stand to benefit from the AI expansion.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology firm leading the space by decoding biology to industrialize drug discovery.
4. OKLO Inc. (NYSE:OKLO)
Nuclear power operator Oklo Inc. (OKLO) saw its share prices jump for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, adding 9.34 percent to finish at $34.17 apiece.
Investors appeared to have snapped up shares in the company fueled by hopes that it would benefit from a projected boom in the US energy sector.
During his inauguration on Monday, 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.
3. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) saw its share prices on Wednesday jump by 9.69 percent to finish at $953.99 each fueled by news that it grew its customer base by 18.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, beating analysts’ expectations of 9.2 million.
As of this writing, Netflix’s customer base was already at 301.6 million.
The actual figure was markedly higher than the 13.1 million increase posted year-on-year.
According to Netflix (NFLX), the jump in its customer base can be owed to its biggest investment in sports, as well as the release of Squid Game 2, signaling that the company still had growth potential.
Meanwhile, Netflix (NFLX) also crossed the $10-billion mark for the first time, ending at $10.2 billion, beating analyst projections.
2. FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ:FTAI)
Shares of FTAI Aviation Ltd. (FTAI) surged by 9.79 percent on Wednesday, ending the day at $91.99 apiece after earning a rating upgrade from a financial services company.
On Wednesday, investment firm BTIG maintained its buy rating for the company and a $190 price target following a strong revenue performance over the last 12 months.
Earlier this week, FTAI Aviation (FTAI) was hit by an investigation notice from a shareholder law firm after a research report from Muddy Waters said that the company has been recording one-time engine sales as Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) revenue in its Aerospace Products segment.
Muddy Waters earlier said that this enabled the company to present a misleading narrative on its financial performance, benefitting insider sellers.
1. Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ:ARM)
Shares of Arm Holdings plc (ARM) soared by 15.93 percent to close at $179.93 apiece following announcements from its chief executive about its role in the massive artificial intelligence Stargate projects.
During an interview with CNBC, Arm Holdings CEO Rene Haas announced that the financial details for the Stargate project of the government are being finalized.
He also underscored that SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son remained enthusiastic about SoftBank’s investment in Arm Holdings.
Arm will be a direct recipient of Project Stargate, which is expected to rake in billions of dollars in private investment in the AI industry, alongside its partner, Oracle.
Project Stargate will, in part, help fund the building of Oracle AI data centers—good news for Arm, whose technology is featured heavily in the servers that fill these data centers.
While we acknowledge the potential of ARM 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 ARM 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.
