What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the broader market rebounded from a tech-driven sell-off, with investors taking the opportunity to buy stocks at lower prices. This rally was fueled by a recovery in technology stocks and a significant bounce in Bitcoin, which stabilized after losing over half its value from its October peak. Investor sentiment was also lifted by a surprising improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment and the realization that massive AI-related capital expenditure, such as Amazon's planned $200 billion, directly benefits chipmakers like Nvidia and Broadcom. These "pick-and-shovel" winners jumped as much as 7%, helping the S&P 500 edge back into positive territory for 2026. The highlight of the day was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which surged and crossed the historic 50,000 threshold for the first time.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Renewable Energy company American Superconductor (NASDAQ:AMSC) jumped 6.8%. Is now the time to buy American Superconductor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Electronic Components company Vishay Precision (NYSE:VPG) jumped 6.2%. Is now the time to buy Vishay Precision? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Engineering and Design Services company Sterling (NASDAQ:STRL) jumped 10.2%. Is now the time to buy Sterling? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Renewable Energy company SolarEdge (NASDAQ:SEDG) jumped 7.6%. Is now the time to buy SolarEdge? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Electronic Components company Corning (NYSE:GLW) jumped 7.8%. Is now the time to buy Corning? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Sterling (STRL)
Sterling’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 46 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Sterling and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 13.7% on the news that the broader U.S. stock market declined amid investor caution and a pullback in technology stocks.
The main story? Investors are cashing in on a good run and feeling a bit cautious. After a fantastic run, many of those high-flying AI and technology stocks saw investors take profits: selling shares to lock in their gains. This is often called a "market rotation." Money is moving out of the red-hot tech sector (which some worry has become too expensive) and into other parts of the market that investors may currently deem more stable or reasonably-priced. There's a secondary reason for the cautious mood: The long government shutdown came to an end. Though it's typically interpreted as good news, it also means a flood of delayed economic reports will be released.
For weeks, investors were "flying blind" without key updates on the economy's health, like inflation data and the jobs report. In typical "sell the news" fashion, investors may also be taking profits and selling in anticipation that the new data would potentially give the Federal Reserve reasons to slow or even pause future rate cuts.
Sterling is up 25.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $401.73 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $411.07 from November 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Sterling’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $17,674.
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