Stock Market Today, Jan. 29: Dow, Russell 2000 escape Microsoft fallout; Apple reports after bell
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Happy Thursday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Jan. 29, 2026. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog.
Update: 4:35 p.m. ET
Apple Earnings Are In
Apple's earnings have landed. Here are the details:
- Revenue: $143.756 billion, +16% (est. $138.48 billion)
iPhone Revenue: $85.269 billion (estimates were $78.65 billion) Services: $30.013 billion Wearables, Home, Accessories: $11.493 billion (est. $12.04 billion) iPad Revenue: $8.6 billion (estimated. $8.13 billion) Mac Revenue: $8.39 billion (est. $8.95 billion) - Earnings Per Share: $2.84 (est. $2.67)
The results are a handy beat for the company, made possible by the "best-ever quarter" for iPhone, per CEO Tim Cook. Cook also gave a nod to the firm's strong showing in Greater China, where the company pulled in $25.53 billion in sales, up 38% year-over-year. (Analysts were only looking for $21.32 billion from that market.)
The company's Services division also graduated to a new record for revenue, surpassing $30 billion, up 14% year-over-year. However, products remained the faraway leader in the company's revenue mix, grossing $113.74 billion.
The only low light was Wearables, which disappointed amid supply chain problems with the new AirPods Pro 3.
Apple stock jumped over 1% after the bell.
Update: 4:00 p.m. ET
Closing Bell
The U.S. markets are now closed. Last quarter, it was Meta that fell over ten percent after its earnings report. Today, it's Microsoft. (And ironically, Meta is up 10% today.)
Yesterday's biggest earnings report was defining factor in today's trading. Although it largely met the mark, the company's report apparently left Wall Street wanting a little more. The stock declined 10%, perhaps owing to its decline to its largest quarter of AI spending.
We reflected yesterday, in brief, about how both Microsoft and Meta spent a lot of time talking about their AI capex. Microsoft remarked at its record level of spend, while Meta warned investors that it would spend more this year as it pursues superintelligence. Even Tesla (-3%), which declined today after a small pop yesterday, was sort of beating around this topic as the company chose to invest in Xai, even after shareholders voted against such an effort.
For all three, it's the promise of what could be. Some firms have more to prove than others, but the story is all the same. The spending on AI, of course, calls for a repricing of some equities. Yes, there is lots of revenue and growth, but if the breakeven or payoff isn't coming as quick, then when?
As a result, U.S. large cap indexes lagged today. At one point, the Nasdaq Composite was down nearly 2%, while the S&P 500 declined over 1%. They finished out the day down 0.72% and 0.13% each, while the Dow (+0.11%) managed to muster a last-minute comeback, despite the nearly ten percent decline offsetting gains in the index's other 29 holdings.
Small caps also managed to pull out a similar comeback today, with the Russell 2000 (+0.05%) adding a few bips as smaller, growthy companies were able to stand up in the face of Big Tech's mixed day. This test continues this evening with Apple earnings.
Update: 1:40 p.m. ET
Midday Update
Midway through the day, the tech sector is still experiencing as memorable a drawdown as one can remember. With Microsoft (-12%) off more than ten percent and sympathetic software names following its lead. ServiceNow (-12.25%) Salesforce (-7.11%), Oracle (-4.36%), and Palantir(-4.28%) are just a handful of the S&P 500-listed firms facing a haircut.
As a result, the Nasdaq (-1.3%) and S&P 500 (-0.60%) are still facing steeper declines than the 30-strong Dow (-0.28%), which also has Microsoft to blame for offsetting gains from the rest of the index. What's more, small caps have shown some resilience in the face of today's tech tumble; the Russell 2000 (-0.40%) is off less than half a percentage point.
That's not to say there aren't winners, though: Southwest Airlines (+16.76%), which reported yesterday under the noise of Big Tech earnings, is the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 today after forecasting a bump in 2026 profits after it recently discontinued 'bags fly free' and added extra legroom seating. Meta (+10.29%) isn't far behind, among the market's best-performing stocks today, up more than ten percent. Payment processor Mastercard (+3.4%) is up more than three percent after its A.M. earnings call, lifting shares of competitor Visa (+1.38%), too.
The Movers
Let's zoom out on the whole universe of U.S. stocks. At last look, 56.8% (3,148) issues were in decline, against 40.4% (2,241) advancing. In our daily midday movers list, we seek to ID the biggest stories on market by looking at the top and bottom 20 stocks with at least a $2 billion market cap. Here are your midday winners and losers today:
Winners
Losers
Update: 9:46 a.m. ET
Opening Bell
The U.S. market is now opened for the day. This morning, the Nasdaq (-1.62%) is off over one and a half percentage points; the S&P 500 (-0.76%) is off closer to one.
What gives? Well, it's the first trade since three Big Tech earnings reported their big earnings last night. Although all three companies met expectations, investors in particular were disappointed with Microsoft (-9.96%), which is down nearly 10%. They also shrugged off results from Tesla (-1.9%), even though the report saw an initial pop.
A common theme was AI spending; it was also a problem for Meta (+8.58%), which expects a larger sum of spending in 2026 as it continues its superintelligence efforts. The only difference is that Meta largely exceeded investor expectations.
Here's the S&P 500 this morning, which is whipsawing in either direction after yesterday's earnings:
That leaves just the Dow (-0.22%) and Russell 2000 (-0.28%) close to where they were yesterday. They are in position to recover today's trade; the majority of U.S. equities are trading up this morning, meaning it's just the weight of Big Tech that is holding down the market.
Speaking of "weight" and "holding it down", continuous futures in gold (+3.10% to $5,463.70) and silver (+3.2% to $117.465) continued to rally into the evening and early morning, only paling back in the last few minutes by a percentage point.
The 10Y Treasury is little moved; down about 0.8 bips at 4.243%.
Here is what else is on today's docket:
Earnings Today: Apple, Visa, Mastercard
Continuing the 'Big Tech' earnings theme today, tech giant Apple, payment processors Visa and Mastercard, and industrial firm Caterpillar will be among today's largest earnings reports. Here are the earnings which were part of the A.M. lot:
You can see the morning earnings reactions on the far right --- some are obviously steeper than others, like SAP SE (-16%) or Lockheed Martin (+6.43%).
And after the bell, we'll have even more reports to square. Here are the earnings coming this evening:
Economic Events: Jobless Claims, Exports/Imports, Factory Orders
With the FOMC meeting in the rear view, today will see a slower day for economic data. Jobless Claims, Exports/Imports data, and Factory Orders will be the standout reports. Here are the various events that are due out today, including already-released data (updated at 10:10 a.m. ET):
