Midday Market Update: Nasdaq leads while Energy and Utilities lag

Introduction#

U.S. equities are mixed into the lunch hour on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, with the broader tape holding near record territory after an early push to fresh highs. According to Monexa AI intraday data, the S&P 500 notched a new intraday peak before easing, while the Dow flipped modestly lower and the Nasdaq outperformed on ongoing strength in megacap technology and chipmakers. Headlines around a cooling labor market, ongoing CES product news flow, and a notable split within energy and utilities shaped the morning session. Wire coverage throughout the morning, including Reuters and Bloomberg, highlighted that gains remain narrow and catalyst-driven, with investors parsing sector dispersion rather than chasing a uniform rally.

Market Overview#

Intraday Indices Table & Commentary#

According to Monexa AI, the S&P 500 (^SPX) is up a modest +0.25% at midday near 6,962, having set a fresh intraday record high at 6,965.69 earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) leads with a +0.70% advance to 23,711.61, supported by continued strength in megacap tech and select semiconductors, while the Dow (^DJI) has slipped -0.18% to 49,373.56 after touching a new high at the open. The NYSE Composite (^NYA) is off -0.50%, suggesting breadth remains tentative. Volatility is mixed: the CBOE Russell 2000 Volatility Index (^RVX) is lower by -1.10% at 19.75, while the CBOE VIX (^VIX) is slightly higher at 14.91 (up +1.08%). Real-time index levels are drawn from Monexa AI; broader session context and record-high milestones have been noted in morning coverage by Reuters and Yahoo Finance.

Notable intraday catalysts include outsized moves around CES-related chip headlines, a downgrade-driven slump in solar, and upgrades in select healthcare and staples names. The tape’s tone is best described as cautiously constructive: strength in technology and parts of healthcare offset weakness in defensives and energy, while volatility remains contained, consistent with Monexa AI’s read of market breadth and the morning’s wire commentary from Reuters and Bloomberg.

Macro Analysis#

Economic Releases & Policy Updates#

Mid-morning attention centered on fresh signs of labor-market cooling. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ JOLTS report for November indicated job openings at 7.1 million, a roughly four-year low, according to the Labor Department and coverage from CNBC and Reuters. Monexa AI’s mid-morning synthesis of the JOLTS data aligns with broader commentary that demand for labor continues to normalize. Separately, U.S. factory orders for October declined -1.3% to $604.8 billion versus $612.9 billion in September; economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a -1.2% decrease, as noted by the Journal’s economic desk and summarized by Monexa AI. These releases, while dated relative to the current month, framed an early risk calculus: cooling labor demand and softer goods orders have tended to support the case for patient monetary policy even as equities probe record levels, a dynamic noted in morning write-ups by Reuters and Bloomberg.

The near-term macro calendar remains focused on Friday’s December employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to preview coverage from Reuters, economists expect a modest print and a stable to marginally easing unemployment rate; Monexa AI’s newswire roundup cited one estimate of roughly 55,000 nonfarm payroll additions and a tick down in the unemployment rate to 4.5% from 4.6%. Today’s intraday equity leadership—growth-tilted tech and selective healthcare—paired with underperformance in interest-rate sensitive pockets of financials, appears consistent with investors digesting these macro signposts without making outsized factor bets.

Global/Geopolitical Developments#

Overnight and early-session headlines around the global technology supply chain intersected with the morning’s leadership in semiconductors. The Information reported that Beijing asked some Chinese tech firms to halt orders for Nvidia’s H200 chips and may mandate domestic AI chip purchases, a storyline widely echoed in morning aggregations and monitored by Reuters. Even with that backdrop, Monexa AI shows NVDA up intraday, aided by a drumbeat of CES-related product and ecosystem news and ongoing AI infrastructure demand stories. Separately, Bloomberg reported that Discord confidentially filed for an IPO, pointing to a potential 2026 pipeline for public listings and adding to the day’s broader risk appetite signals even as index gains narrowed later in the morning (Bloomberg.

In digital assets, CNBC reported that MSCI paused a proposed index methodology change that could have excluded “crypto treasury” stocks, removing a near-term overhang for names such as MSTR (CNBC). Monexa AI noted the stock rose on the headline as investors reassessed the risk of forced passive selling tied to index eligibility. Meanwhile, News Corp’s Dow Jones announced an exclusive deal with Polymarket to incorporate prediction-market data into outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, a data innovation that could influence how investors digest probabilities across policy and event risks, as noted by Reuters.

Sector Analysis#

Sector Performance Table#

According to Monexa AI intraday sector data, leadership sits in healthcare (+1.86%), consumer cyclical (+1.30%), and technology (+0.90%), while utilities (-2.15%) and energy (-1.77%) lag meaningfully. Monexa AI’s heatmap adds important texture: technology remains internally bifurcated. Megacaps NVDA (approximately +1.55%), MSFT (approximately +1.95%), and AAPL (near flat) are steady-to-higher anchors, but some hardware and storage names are sharply lower, including SWKS (about -11.88%), WDC (about -9.54%), and STX (about -8.10%). A conspicuous outlier on the upside is INTC, up roughly +8.44% as investors react to CES disclosures around its next-gen client processors, as captured by Monexa AI’s news and pricing feed and echoed in tech coverage during the morning session.

Healthcare’s outperformance is anchored by large-cap therapeutics strength. Monexa AI highlights LLY (about +4.27%), AMGN (about +3.39%), ABBV (about +2.70%), and VRTX (about +2.59%), while managed care is softer with UNH down about -3.02%. This mix aligns with a day where drug pipelines and label momentum are front and center: BofA upgraded REGN to Buy with an $860 price target, citing Eylea HD momentum and pipeline optionality, which Monexa AI noted pushed shares higher in pre-market trading and reinforced defensive growth leadership (coverage summarized by Monexa AI and reported by market outlets including Reuters.

Consumer cyclicals are stronger in the aggregate, with Monexa AI showing gains in AMZN (about +1.32%), BKNG (about +2.02%), and LOW (about +1.93%), while names such as SBUX trade lower (about -3.25%). Energy trades lower overall, but refiners diverge positively: Monexa AI shows VLO up about +4.25% even as integrateds like XOM and CVX slip and renewables weaken. Notably, FSLR is down materially (about -9.26%) following a downgrade, an intraday drag corroborated by wire coverage (Reuters. Utilities remain the day’s worst cohort, with outsized declines in VST (about -5.92%), NRG (about -4.87%), and CEG (about -3.15%).

A note on data consistency: Monexa AI’s sector tape shows consumer cyclical up +1.30% midday, while the heatmap flags mixed performance with pockets of weakness. We prioritize the sector table for aggregate direction and use the heatmap to explain dispersion—particularly the divergence between strength in e-commerce/travel and weakness in select hospitality and discretionary names.

Company-Specific Insights#

Midday Earnings or Key Movers#

In semiconductors, INTC is a standout with an intraday gain of roughly +8.44%, driven by CES headlines around its Core Ultra Series 3 processors and the 18A manufacturing process introduction. According to Monexa AI’s intraday price data and morning event coverage, the update sharpened investor focus on the AI PC category and competitive positioning in client compute, which in turn boosted broader chip sentiment even as storage names broadly sold off.

AI ecosystem stalwarts continue to command attention. NVDA trades higher intraday, with Monexa AI surfacing headlines about large-scale private AI funding—xAI’s $20 billion round reportedly backed by prominent investors—and ongoing China-related chip policy uncertainty as reported by The Information, monitored across the morning by Reuters. The net effect into midday is steady demand for AI-levered leaders, with market breadth narrower beneath the surface. Alphabet’s classes GOOGL and GOOG outperformed within Communication Services earlier, while META lagged modestly, according to Monexa AI’s sector heatmap.

In healthcare, REGN was upgraded to Buy by BofA Securities with a target of $860, citing improved Eylea HD momentum and pipeline catalysts in 2026, including fianlimab. Pre-market gains exceeded 2% per Monexa AI’s pre-open tape, dovetailing with broader large-cap pharma/biotech strength. The day’s healthcare leadership also reflects individual names such as LLY, AMGN, and ABBV advancing on steady drug-demand narratives highlighted by morning market coverage from Reuters and Bloomberg.

Staples are mixed, but HSY caught a notable bid after a Piper Sandler upgrade to Overweight and a price target lift to $213. The broker argued that easing cocoa costs and tariff relief open room for reinvestment and margin expansion, an assessment tracked by Monexa AI and reported in morning briefs by Reuters. Even as the broader Consumer Defensive sector is down -0.40% on Monexa AI’s table, selective staples with improving input-cost dynamics are outperforming.

Renewables are under pressure. FSLR fell sharply—approximately -9.26% intraday—after a downgrade to Hold by Jefferies and a price-target cut to $260, citing limited 2026 booking visibility and policy risk around tariffs. Monexa AI’s energy heatmap shows the weakness spreading across solar-adjacent names, with divergence against refiners like VLO, which are rallying on favorable margin dynamics. Elsewhere in energy services, SLB is softer intraday even as Susquehanna raised its price target to $52 in a separate morning note; BKR retains a Positive rating at Susquehanna with a price-target lift to $58, per Monexa AI’s broker recap.

In retail and staples-adjacent large caps, WMT saw a fresh KeyBanc target of $128, an 11.95% premium to a referenced mark near $114.34, as relayed by Monexa AI. And in grocery, ACI reported EPS of $0.72 versus $0.67 expected on revenue of $19.12 billion (below an anticipated $20.56 billion), with strength concentrated in pharmacy and digital, according to Monexa AI’s earnings feed and corroborating coverage on Reuters.

In the rideshare/platform arena, UBER remains in focus following a maintained Buy from Jefferies, paired with separate legal-news flow flagged by Monexa AI. The stock’s fundamental narrative into midday remains anchored by cash generation and product expansion, as covered in morning segments on Yahoo Finance.

Within AI infrastructure, APLD continues to attract attention after Arete Research set a $99 price target and management advanced plans around dedicated AI compute clusters via its ChronoScale initiative. Monexa AI’s research roundup ties the story to persistent GPU scarcity and new campus ramps, themes echoed in morning industry coverage across Bloomberg and sector trade publications.

Extended Analysis#

Intraday Shifts & Momentum#

The morning’s tone evolved from a clean “risk-on” print—fresh records for the S&P 500 and Dow at the opening bell—into a more nuanced session where leadership narrowed and dispersion dominated. According to Monexa AI, the S&P 500’s push to an all-time high of 6,965.69 faded slightly into midday, leaving the index up a modest +0.25%, while the Dow reversed to -0.18%. The Nasdaq’s +0.70% outperformance reflects an AI-tilted growth impulse centered on semiconductors and megacap platforms, even as certain hardware and storage pockets sold off sharply.

A cooling-labor narrative served as the morning’s macro backdrop. The JOLTS print at 7.1 million openings—described by CNBC and Reuters as a four-year low—reaffirmed a controlled deceleration in demand for workers. That was complemented by October factory orders down -1.3% versus expectations of -1.2%, per The Wall Street Journal. In practice, risk-taking did not vanish; it rotated. Financials underperformed on Monexa AI’s sector board (-0.42%), while healthcare, tech, and consumer cyclicals paced gains. The volatility mix—^VIX up +1.08% and ^RVX down -1.10%—is consistent with a session where large-cap growth leadership persists while small-cap volatility compresses marginally.

Under the surface, company-specific catalysts dictated outsized moves. INTC rallied on CES disclosures, an event-driven pop that spilled over into sentiment for broader PC and AI-adjacent supply chains, while FSLR’s downgrade-driven drop acted as a counterweight in renewable energy. Healthcare’s strength was amplified by large-cap therapeutics, with REGN benefitting from a fresh upgrade tied to Eylea HD’s trajectory and 2026 pipeline optionality—including fianlimab milestones described in company filings and highlighted in BofA’s note, as recapped by Monexa AI and covered during the morning session by Reuters.

Narratives around AI infrastructure remain dominant as a medium-term positioning theme. Monexa AI’s morning research sweep connected large private funding rounds and capacity expansions to ongoing demand for GPU-rich workloads. That lens helps explain persistent leadership in NVDA and selective strength in data-center plays, even as storage and certain memory-exposed hardware names sold off amid headlines about rising memory prices and supply-demand recalibration in parts of the stack.

The energy tape showed pronounced bifurcation. Refiners such as VLO gained, while E&Ps and services, including SLB and COP, eased, and solar took a downgrade-driven hit. Utilities were hit hard across both regulated and merchant names, with VST, NRG, and CEG notable decliners. The combined weakness in energy and utilities weighed on the Dow and NYSE Composite, offsetting tech-led buoyancy in the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

For portfolio construction, the morning reinforced that breadth is improving only selectively. Monexa AI’s sector and heatmap data point to a day when owning the right subsectors mattered more than a high beta to the tape. Within tech, the divergence between AI compute leaders and storage/hardware laggards was stark; in healthcare, therapeutics outperformed managed care. Consumer cyclicals advanced, but with dispersion between e-commerce/travel and certain discretionary staples. Financials underperformed, with Monexa AI flagging weakness across large banks (JPM, BAC) and asset managers (BLK), while market-structure names such as CBOE traded higher earlier, benefitting from volatility product and derivatives activity.

Conclusion#

Midday Recap & Afternoon Outlook#

By midday, U.S. stocks were holding near highs but painting a disciplined picture of rotation rather than a blanket risk-on rally. According to Monexa AI, the S&P 500 is up +0.25% after setting another intraday record, the Nasdaq is up +0.70%, and the Dow is down -0.18% as defensive sectors and energy weigh. Volatility is contained, with ^VIX at 14.91 (+1.08%) and ^RVX at 19.75 (-1.10%). Macro data pointed to a continued cooling in labor demand—JOLTS at 7.1 million—and soft October factory orders (-1.3%), as covered by CNBC, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal. Sector leadership favors healthcare, parts of tech, and consumer cyclicals, while utilities and energy lag with pronounced dispersion within each.

Into the afternoon, positioning attention remains on CES headlines, broker-driven single-stock moves, and any pre-NFP adjustments in rates-sensitive sectors. According to Monexa AI’s newsflow review, upcoming catalysts include Friday’s jobs report and ongoing corporate updates out of CES that could shift sentiment in semiconductors, PCs, and AI infrastructure. The actionable takeaway remains the same: this is a market rewarding precision. Emphasize high-quality leaders within favored themes—AI compute and software, large-cap therapeutics with visible catalysts, and consumer platforms with durable demand—while avoiding broad exposure to subsectors showing persistent distribution without clear catalysts, particularly where downgrade risk and policy uncertainty are immediate headwinds.

Key Takeaways#

The morning’s set-up shows a market that is near records but selective beneath the surface. According to Monexa AI, leadership in technology and healthcare offset notable weakness in energy and utilities, while consumer cyclicals advanced with internal dispersion. Macro headlines around JOLTS at 7.1 million and October factory orders at -1.3% informed a cautious risk budget without derailing appetite for growth leaders. Single-stock drivers—INTC’s CES-fueled rally, FSLR’s downgrade slump, HSY’s upgrade lift, and REGN’s pipeline-driven momentum—were decisive in shaping sector outcomes. For investors, the midday message is straightforward: lean into liquid, high-quality names with clear catalysts and avoid overextending into segments where earnings visibility and policy clarity are still lacking. All figures and sector moves above are based on Monexa AI’s intraday market data, with additional context from Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal for macro and event coverage.