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happy monday This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for January 26, 2026. You can follow the latest market updates here on our daily live blog.
The Trump administration has proposed keeping reimbursement rates for Medicare plans nearly constant from year to year, at the expense of already criticized health insurance like UnitedHealth, Humane, CVS Healthand the like.
The proposal, first reported in the WSJ tonight, says payments would grow at an average rate of “0.09%” in 2027. The after-hours reaction was savage. On news of the report, the three aforementioned firms — among the largest Medicare Advantage providers — fell 8.8%, 12.8% and 9.5% after the bell.
US markets are now closed.
Although more than half of US stocks were down today, large caps kept the market on track. The Dow (+0.64%), S&P 500(+0.50%), and Nasdaq (+0.43%) went on a four-day winning streak, while Russell 2000 (-0.36%) suffered modest decreases.
Most investors focused on future earnings and the Fed’s rate decision due out tomorrow. Earnings alone would have been enough of a distraction this week with reports from Apple, Microsoft, Meta, adzeand others. Still, the Fed is expected to release its rate decision tomorrow, adding to this week’s crowded situation.
By noon, things took a bit of a turn. The Russell 2000 (-0.21%), once the leader of the pack, is now the only decliner among the major indices. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq (+0.71%) moved ahead.
In its fourth consecutive winning session, 56.1% (3,103) US shows are now seen down, but the market’s 41.5% (2,293) lift is putting up quite a fight.
That said, here’s what’s moving at noon today, our daily list of the 20 best and worst stocks with a market cap of at least $2 billion. Here, we aim to capture the biggest stories in the markets
US Rare Earth (+14.86%) is receiving an offer today after the US government confirmed it will take a 10% stake in the business, making it the top performer today.
It is joined by a handful of software companies; DigitalOcean (+12.27%), The model group (+12.06%), Cloudflare (+10.74%), and Zoom Communications (+9.87%) also performed strongly today after a weak week for software stocks.
Also rounding out the group is CoreWeave (+9.06%), which received a new capital injection from the chip giant Nvidiatoday. The company invested $2 billion in the firm, adding to an existing investment in the hyperscaler.
At the other end of the market, some repeat members of the list are declining leaders — Anbio Biotechnology (-21.91%) and TMC metal company (-18.7%) are lower without clear news.
However, rounding out the final three, Medicines of the Revolution (-16.76%) is decreasing after Merck It is reportedly no longer in talks to acquire the cancer drug developer. Such a deal was reportedly in the region of $30 billion, but they could not agree on a price.
Among other notable decliners today, a controversial government contractor responsible for operating private prisons and ICE facilities, The Geo Group (-11.82%), is still falling today. It continues a recent streak of declines in the company’s stock.
Space stocks are also a notable decliner today, with Firefly Aerospace (-11.81%), Voyager (-7.9%), Intuitive machines (-6.84%), and The rocket lab (-6.79%) down.
US markets are now open. The Russell 2000 (+0.59%) is back on top after a disappointing weekend, along with all three major large-cap indexes — S&P 500 (+0.43%), Dow (+0.39%) and Nasdaq (+0.34%).
Out of the gate, the market is pretty flat this morning. 48.1% (2,660) issues are advancing versus 47.5% (2,627) declining. The balance comes even as weekend trading in crypto, commodities, and ultimately futures saw mixed reactions.
Nasdaq tech stocks finish last as investors continue to digest Intel’s disappointing earnings for next quarter, which sent shares down more than 17% on Friday. Today, it’s down another 3.6%, weighing on peers.
Here’s the S&P 500 at last glance (15 minutes late):
At the same time, as markets continue last week’s recovery, traders in the currency and commodity markets appreciate a chaotic period. The dollar continued its recent slide this week amid US turmoil, along with European pensions selling Treasuries. Adding to concerns today, the US is weighing some form of intervention with the Japanese yen, which has played a significant role in the US currency’s recent moves.
Speaking of Treasury, 10Y is down 2.8 bps to 4.211% today, even after Swedish pension fund Alecta was said to have sold “the majority” of its treasury holdings after a report said northern European nations could dump America’s government debt amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.
Speaking of uncertainty, those commodity safe havens are still operating. Analysts at Societe Generale and Morgan Stanley upgraded gold after the precious metal topped $5,000 on Friday. Continuous floods in gold (+2.27% to $5,092.80) and silver (+9.71% to $111.175) both climbed to record highs today amid weak US politics and global business.
Here are some of the other notes from the day:
As of this morning, more than 814,000 US households are still without power, with the bulk coming from states like Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. These states — plus others in the Southeast, Midwest and Northeast — were especially hard hit by this weekend’s winter storm.
That storm has since moved northeast, leaving the remaining pockets of the original warning in the northeast (in pink). In its place, an extreme cold warning (in dark blue) has been issued for large parts of the US population, contributing to higher natural gas prices.
It also contributed to a banner day for US air travel—in a bad way. More than a dozen US airports were closed, while more than 40 percent of commercial flights were canceled. The country has not seen the worst day for the US since March 2020, when airlines released their schedules amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This week, we continue to digest the results from the fourth quarter, starting with Nucor Corp., Ryanairand Brown and Brownamong others. Here are today’s 20 biggest earnings reports, sorted by market cap:
Today’s economic reports were mostly released before the opening bell, including Durable goods for November, which turned out to be up 5.3%, impressing investors. However, the strength of that number is likely to come under scrutiny due to the recent government shutdown. In addition, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for October and November was also released, leaving only the Dallas Fed Manufacturing for January to come later this morning. Here is the slate:
This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest Business & Market News section. Add TheStreet as a favorite source by clicking here.
