Why IONQ Inc. (IONQ) Soared on Monday

We recently compiled a list of the 10 Firms Shine Amid Market Slump. In this article, we are going to take a look at where IONQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) stands against the other stocks.

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.

The list of top advancers only considered the companies with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A quantum computer on a countertop in an engineering laboratory with a technician at work.

IONQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ)

IONQ Inc. 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.

Overall IONQ ranks 8th on our list of the stocks that shone amid market slump. While we acknowledge the potential of IONQ 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 IONQ 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.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.