Trading results for 6 February 2025

Last Thursday was perhaps the first day in a while that fully met analysts' expectations – calm and entirely uneventful. The market opened near zero but remained in positive territory for most of the day. All indexes followed this trend, except for the Dow Jones (DJIA-30), which was dragged down primarily by healthcare stocks such as Amgen (AMGN, -3.26%), UnitedHealth (UNH, -1.81%), Merck (MRK, -1.81%) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, -0.76%). However, tech stocks also played a role, with heavyweights like Salesforce (CRM, -4.92%) and IBM (IBM, -3.74%) further weighing down the oldest U.S. index. As a result, the Dow ended the day down 0.28%.

Meanwhile, its counterparts – the S&P 500 (+0.36%) and NASDAQ Composite (+0.51%) – had a more successful session, staying above zero throughout the day despite some downward pressure. In the final hour, the bulls staged a small rally, pushing both indexes up by around half a percentage point, closing at their daily highs.

Once again, as in the previous session, Nvidia (NVDA, +3.08%) was one of the key drivers of growth. The stock has become so cheap over the past week that eager investors are scooping it up like hotcakes for the second day in a row. However, some stocks performed even better than NVDA, including Palantir Technologies (PLTR, +9.79%) and Philip Morris International (PM, +10.95%), both of which saw strong demand following their impressive quarterly reports. Nonetheless, Nvidia continues to be the primary driver of market optimism.

The ITS index family also put up a strong effort, finishing the day with modest gains. The global market index ITS World (ITSW) added 0.2%, while the Islamic securities index ITS Shariah (ITSS) rose by a smaller margin of 0.08%. Notably, the ITSW index briefly hit an all-time high of 1,284.77 points during the session but failed to maintain this level, retreating slightly before the close. As a result, the record remains unbroken on a closing basis.

The best-performing stock in the ITSS index was pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY, +3.35%), which attracted strong investor interest following its earnings report. However, in the ITSW index, it ranked second, behind Chinese automaker Li Auto (LI, +6.18%).

At first glance, the rise in auto stocks might suggest a sector-wide rally, prompting investors to buy into automakers. However, a closer look reveals that these stocks remain highly volatile, frequently swinging up and down without making any real progress. A prime example is Ford (F, -7.49%), which faced a sharp sell-off after releasing its quarterly earnings, in stark contrast to Li Auto’s strong gains.

For now, automakers remain out of favour. Instead, stocks of companies focused on artificial intelligence, cloud services, and related technologies continue to attract strong demand. This remains the backbone of modern business, and investors show no signs of stepping away from this trend.