Stocks continue to climb as tech and hyperscalers rise

Tech continued its rally ahead of Nvidia earnings after the bell.

Your Evening Briefing February 25, 2026 Stocks continue to climb as tech and hyperscalers rise The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 extended yesterday's rally as investors resumed a risk-on posture. Every Mag 7 stock climbed higher, and tech was the best-performing sector while real estate fared the worst. In the longest State of the Union address on record last night, President Trump said tech companies will pay more for electricity in areas where they build data centers, with Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, and xAI planning to agree to "build, bring, or buy" the power they use at a March 4 White House event. Bitcoin also bounced back following President Trump's address. Crypto assets and crypto-adjacent companies continued to rise today after stablecoin issuer Circle soared after reporting strong earnings this morning. Altcoins ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, hype, chainlink, and avalanche all rose. Stocks that moved higher: Cava skyrocketed after reporting same-store sales growth of 0.5%, beating forecasts for a 1.1% decline. Netflix rose as Paramount's new bid for Warner Bros. Discovery shifted the outlook the bidding war for Warner Bros. Western Digital and Seagate Technology Holdings jumped head of Nvidia's earnings report. A rise in crypto sentiment sent the following companies higher: bitcoin treasury firms Strategy and Strive Inc.; ethereum treasury firms BitMine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink Gaming, and Bit Digital; solana treasury firms Upexi and DeFi Development Corp.; miners MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms; and crypto trading platforms Coinbase and Robinhood. (Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.) Lithium miners Albemarle Corp., Lithium Argentina, Lithium Americas, Mineral Resources, and Sociedad Quimica y Minera jumped after Zimbabwe suspended its export of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates. Recursion Pharmaceuticals soared after posting better-than-expected Q4 results and larger than expected cash reserves. Klarna shot higher after announcing 55 million monthly active users and a 53% increase in engagement from 2025. Axon soared after Q4 adjusted EPS beat estimates by 38%. Energy companies Talen Energy, Constellation Energy, and Vistra rose after President Trump announced data center electricity deals in his State of the Union address. Uber rose amid plans to roll out robotaxis in 10 markets. Joby Aviation ticked higher after announcing plans to offer air taxi rides via Uber's app in Dubai this year. Stocks that moved lower: First Solar tumbled after its sales guidance of $4.9 billion to $5.2 billion fell way short of estimates. Driven Brands cratered after delaying the release of its Q4 financials, saying that the previous results contained material errors. Cancer diagnostics company and sometimes retail shareholder favorite Tempus AI reported soft Q4 adjusted EBITDA numbers after the bell yesterday, sending shares lower. ODDITY Tech plummeted after saying Q1 revenues will be down 30% year-on-year, blaming algorithm changes by its advertising partner. GoDaddy tumbled as underwhelming revenue guidance overshadowed solid Q4 earnings. Shares of Diageo got crushed as the company slashed its dividend and cut annual sales and profit guidance. Molson Coors sank as Bank of America downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral, cutting its price target to $42 from $50. Lowe's dropped after its earnings forecast underwhelmed, overshadowing its 2% adjusted EPS beat in Q4. Everybody's talking about AI; just two companies are quantifying benefits There's still little clarity on the tangible benefits companies are getting from AI, despite talking about it a whole heck of a lot.  Read more. How GLP-1s elevated Hims — and brought it back down to earth Here's a look at how the company's GLP-1 business has sent the stock on a wild ride. Read more. Nvidia and AMD's different deals show that while AI chatbots may be commoditized, the chips aren't Commoditization is inverted. Anthropic doesn't want Claude controlling autonomous weapons. The Pentagon may not give them a choice. A looming Friday deadline to get onboard with the Pentagon's demands could lead to an unraveling of years of the company's work with the government. The way different states use ChatGPT could tell us a lot about their economies New data from OpenAI reveals a geographical divide in how Americans interact with the chatbot. How many people can you cram into one gym? For Planet Fitness, the jury's still out The limit does not exist. But if it did, it might be about 7,263. Waymo announces Chicago and Charlotte expansion as driverless rollout accelerates The company is currently operating in 10 US cities. Will the US government release the alien files? In the last few weeks, two US presidents have weighed in on the presence of extraterrestrial life — fueling one of America's longest-held suspicions. xAI's trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI dismissed In September, xAI sued rival OpenAI, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets by hiring away key employees. Was this email forwarded to you? Don't miss out on future stories — subscribe to The Wrap and get your daily dose of financial news straight to your inbox.  Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to Chartr and Snacks for quality reads. We care what you think! 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