Wall Street Optimism Spills Over to These 10 Stocks on Friday

Wall Street finished the trading week stronger, posting gains by more than 1 percent after slipping into the negative territory at intra-day trading following a clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Following the televised meeting, the two leaders concluded the encounter without a deal for joint development of mineral resources.

The Dow Jones jumped by 1.39 percent, the S&P 500 surged by 1.59 percent, and the Nasdaq soared by 1.63 percent.

The broader market optimism spilled into individual stocks, with 10 companies ending the trading session with strong gains. In this article, we have detailed the reasons behind their impressive performance.

To come up with Friday’s top gainers, we considered only the stocks with $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. Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT)

Riot Platforms grew its share prices by 7.16 percent on Friday to finish at $9.28 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by its impressive earnings performance last year.

In a statement, RIOT said it achieved a net income of $109.4 million and a 34-percent increase in revenues at $376.7 million from $280.7 million in the same period a year earlier on the back of a $132-million increase in Bitcoin mining revenue.

Total Bitcoin mining revenues stood at $321 million for the year, as compared with only $189 million in 2023, primarily driven by higher average Bitcoin prices and an increase in operational hash rate, partially offset by an increase in network difficulty and the block subsidy ‘halving’ event.

Due to the halving event, the number of Bitcoins produced was lower by 27 percent, at 4,828, versus the 6,626 mined in 2023.

9. Venture Global Inc. (NYSE:VG)

Venture Global rose by 8.41 percent on Friday to finish at $15.09 apiece as investors scrambled to snap up shares in the company ahead of its fourth quarter earnings performance on March 6 and a $40-million dividend payout by the end of March.

In a statement, VG said its board of directors gave the green light for the company to pay a $0.0165 dividend per common A and B shares, amounting to $40 million, payable on March 31, 2025. The dividends will be paid to shareholders with the company’s stock as of the record date, March 10, 2025.

In recent news, the company also received the approval of US federal regulators to increase the export capacity of its liquefied natural gas plant in Plaquemines, Louisiana, to 27.2 million metric tons per year from 24 million tons previously.

The capacity increase represents a 13-percent higher capacity and strengthened the US as the world’s largest fuel exporter.