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Happy Wednesday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Feb. 4, 2026. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog
Update: 4:08 p.m. ET
Closing Bell
The U.S. markets are now closed. It was another rough day for tech stocks today, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq falling 1.5% and hitting a new 2026 low.
A rotation from technology stocks into sectors with more favorable valuations and setups also weighed on the S&P 500 (-0.51%) and Russell 2000 (-0.21%). For the former, 363 of the index’s components gained, while 189 traded to the downside. The bulk of those decliners came out of four sectors: tech (-2.78%), communication (-0.80%), discretionary (-0.69%), and utilities (-0.44%).
That left just the Dow (+0.51%) to put up a modest gain, with 23 of its 30 holdings finishing out the day in the green.
Alphabet Reports Strong Result, High Spending
There might be one small consolation now that the market is closed. Google parent Alphabet just reported earnings, and the results are pretty good. Here’s the top and bottom-line figures to know, with estimates from Bloomberg:
- Q4 Revenue: $113.83 billion (est. $111.4 billion)
Cloud Revenue: $17.66 billion (est. $16.2 billion) - Q4 EPS: $2.82 (est. $2.65)
However, there is a pretty big snag in these earnings, which might not come as a surprise to most tech investors. Like most AI-focused firms, Alphabet is spending gobs of money on capital expenditures, and by the looks of it, they’re prepared to spend biblical sums this year:
- Q4 Capex: $91.45 billion (est. $28.17)
- 2026 Capex Forecast: $175 – 185 billion (est. $119.5 billion)
Maybe one positive bit of information is that the company’s AI product, Gemini, surpassed 750 million monthly active users. That puts it much closer in competition with OpenAI, which has seen it first-mover advantage in the LLM space eroded by new entries.
Still, it’s hard to figure how these investments will ever pay off for Alphabet, much less any major tech company. At some point, the era of “free access” to AI models will have to end and end-users will have to pay the piper.
Bank of America Observes Historic Buying in Staples
BofA Securities has an interesting note out today, noting that appetite for the staples in the S&P 500 has hit a fever pitch. Investors have been stuffing money into the sector at the fastest rate since at least 2008, according to its note.
The report observes that four-week average net flows as a percent of market cap hit an all-time high, one piece of evidence for where (and how quickly) money is leaving tech and rotating. However, it’s also could serve as another indicator: a premonition among the investing crowd. When investors jump into staples, they are generally betting on a downturn or recession.
Bitcoin Below $72K
We’ve been keeping an eye on the decline in the crypto market, which renders big implications for publicly traded crypto trading companies like Robinhood and Coinbase, as well as crypto treasury firms like Strategy.
Today, Bitcoin briefly dipped below the $72,000 mark, once again testing this increasingly tenuous support area on the chart. That decline marked the lowest point the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency had reached in the last year.
Much further below these levels could mean big problems afoot, particularly for the opportunistic treasury firms which acquired crypto assets in a bid to win over retail speculators. Many of them did this at prices well above the current valuation, often with the use of external financing or leverage. That could end poorly.
Update: 12:58 p.m. ET
Russell, Nasdaq Plummets 2%
Past the midday mark, things could be doing much better in the market. The Nasdaq (-2.22%) and Russell 2000 (-2.07%) are now down more than 2% on the day in a sign of the steepening declines in tech land. Stocks are at day lows, with the S&P 500 (-0.91%) and Dow (-0.16%) also facing losses.
56.3% (3,123) of U.S. issues are declining against 41.1% (2,282) that are in the green.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is leaning in this afternoon, largely because so much of the disruption ravaging the market has to do with Anthropic’s new enterprise plugins, which are creating concerns that the world of SaaS might be doomed. Huang believes the repricing in tech is “illogical”, but it might represent a pivot in the market’s attitude towards tech companies.
After private markets gave AI outrageous multiples, maybe the multiples enjoyed by software companies is no longer as steep as it once was. As investors have grown to enjoy the fantastical growth of AI companies, it might just be the case that tech names are turning from growth stories into value stories. Not through any fault of their own; it’s just a sign of the times.
Speaking of value, that corner of the market is showing out in force. Value has started 2026 on much stronger footing, attracting large inflows in the face of new market difficulties. It’s fair to assume, based on the movement of capital, that much of this week’s rotation happening from “growth-y” tech with steep valuations is pivoting to more appropriately-priced value stocks.
Bitcoin Losses Steepen
Making matters worth for the retail crowd, bitcoin is not taking today in stride. The world’s most-valuable cryptocurrency just fell below $73,000, putting it closer to the range where… in short… things might get very real. Much lower from here and a handful of crypto treasury companies, which amassed various digital assets to drum up buzz in their shares, might very well be forced sellers. Worst case, they might be heading to the dust bin.
Here are the midday movers, our list of the top and bottom 20:
Winners
Losers
Update: 10:03 a.m. ET
Opening Bell
Good morning. Less than an hour into trading, the U.S. markets are fairly balanced: 49.3% of U.S. equities (2,733 issues) are declining against 48.1% (2,560 issues) advancing.
The Dow (+0.52%) leads among major U.S .benchmarks, trailed by the Russell 2000 (+0.07%), which is up a few basis points. The S&P 500 (-0.17%) and Nasdaq (-0.71%) continue their recent declines, with hopes for a leg higher today.
It seems the persistent theme across the markets are continuing their rotation out of tech-related firms. After strong earnings from Advanced Micro Devices (-14.3%), Palantir(-10.4%), EBay (-10.5%), and Micron (-5.8%), and are all seeing hefty declines today. On the bright side, Apple (+2.3%) and Microsoft (+1.1%) are among the few mega caps lifting this pocket of the market.
Despite that, the biggest decliners this morning are from a variety of sectors — largely reacting to earnings. Boston Scientific (-16%), Applovin (-15.4%), and Performance Food Group Company (-14.2%) are the worst-performing equities among the crop worth over $10 billion. On the flip side of that coin, MGM Resorts International (+12.5%), Super Micro Computer (+12.5%), and Fortive Corp. (+10.3%) are leading.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on Eli Lilly (+7%), though. Blowing past expectations this morning, the company forecasted even steeper estimates for weight-loss drug sales in 2026. While analysts expected $77.62 billion in revenue, the company actually expects to make between $80 billion and $83 billion. Profits will also be higher than expected. That’s lifting the broader health care sector this morning as well.
Also a theme to watch: crypto-related stocks are continuing to struggle as bitcoin fell below $75,000 again. It’s down 4.7% over the last 24 hours, dragging down the broader universe of digital assets in the process. Much further a decline could trigger problems for publicly-traded digital asset treasury companies. It might also mean persistent declines for companies engaged in the sale of digital assets.
Heatmap: S&P 500
Chief among this morning’s started as a continuation of yesterday’s mega cap tech selloff. Not only did big software players continuing their drawdown, but so too did the semiconductor names. That seems to have been abating in recent minutes.
There are four S&P 500 sectors in the red today, including technology (-1.32%), communications (-0.44%), and utilities (-0.13%). Discretionary (-0.00%) is nearly flat.
Among the sectors in the green, materials (+2.09%) and real estate (+1.23%) are up more than one percent, while staples (+0.98%) and energy (+0.94%) are almost over that hump.
Here’s this morning’s S&P 500 heatmap:
Earnings Today: Alphabet, Eli Lilly, Abbvie
This morning, Eli Lilly kicked off today’s earnings with a bang, good for the market’s biggest reaction, up 7.34%. It was joined by other health care names like Abbvie, Novartis, and competitor Novo Nordisk. Here are the earnings and their respective reactions:
And coming up after the closing bell, tech has an opportunity to redeem itself with earnings out of Alphabet, Qualcomm, and Arm Holdings, among others. The message is clear: Miss at your own risk…
Economic Data: ISM Services, ADP Employment Change
Among the bigger reports from this morning have been the ISM Services PMI, which came in unmoved at 53.8. Here are the economic reports from this morning:
