By Teresa Rivas
Q4TheWin. Oil is down, earnings are up, and so were stocks on Thursday, after two days of losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 293 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each gained 0.3%.
Earnings were the big catalyst for stocks today. Goldman Sachs' report was a boost for the Dow while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing helped breathe fresh hope into the artificial intelligence trade, with the biggest surprise being its plans to spend as much as $56 billion this year -- well above the capital expenditure budget that analysts were expecting.
"On the surface, it might seem odd to reward a company simply because it's spending more money than anticipated, but there are two major positive takeaways when a key semiconductor manufacturer makes an announcement of that sort," notes Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. "First, only a thriving company can afford to spend even more billions than it was already planning to. Second, that money will be spent with key suppliers, boosting their prospects as well."
Elsewhere stocks got a break from oil's recent rise, as crude futures snapped a five-day winning streak, backing off a seven-month high. Tensions with Iran seem to be ratcheting down slightly, and as Macquarie analyst Walt Chancellor wrote, most avenues to boosting Venezuela's oil production will be on the scale of years, not months: "Indeed, while the speed of change in Venezuela may only be matched by the size of U.S. ambition for its petroleum industry, we believe we are only in the very earliest stages of this transition."
The Hot Stock: KLA +7.7% The Biggest Loser: Robinhood Markets -7.8%
Best Sector: Utilities +1% Worst Sector: Energy -0.9%
Right at Home
Another thing that's on the rise: enthusiasm from home buyers.
The middle of winter isn't usually the hottest time for the housing market but as one Las Vegas-area real estate agent told my colleague Shaina Mishkin, "I've had as much showings in the last week on my properties as I had all of last December."
Black Friday starts in October now, so is January the new start of spring selling season? Not quite -- but with mortgage rates hitting their lowest point since 2022, buyers aren't willing to wait around in a market that's been low on supply for years. As Shaina writes:
Many economists view 6% as an important psychological threshold for mortgage rates. "Even though rates are not as low as where people want them to be, I think it's low enough where a lot of people are starting to get off the fence," says Todd Luong, a Dallas-area Re/Max agent.
Should recent enthusiasm hold, buyers this spring risk encountering more frequent bidding wars and rising home prices in places where homes remain in short supply. It's a risk National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun warned about on a call with reporters Wednesday.
Quick home price growth would be a headache for buyers -- and, potentially, the broader economy. A spark in home price growth could, eventually, put upward pressure on housing services inflation.
The move, she writes, came after President Donald Trump posted on social media that he had instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds. Not surprisingly, those stocks aren't responding well to the news.
Common shares of the two secondary mortgage market giants under government conservatorship logged their lowest closes since late November on Thursday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Freddie Mac, which has fallen for six consecutive days, is down 13.4% in that time frame. Fannie Mae is down four days in a row, dropping roughly 12%...
Ramping up the companies' mortgage-backed securities portfolio could be seen as a sign that the administration plans to maintain control of the two companies as a tool to lower mortgage rates.
The Calendar
M&T Bank, PNC Financial Services Group, Regions Financial, and State Street report results tomorrow.
The National Association of Home Builders releases its Housing Market Index for January. The consensus call is for a 39 reading, one point more than in November. Readings less than 50 indicate that home builders are pessimistic about the single-family housing market in the next six months.
-- Dan Lam
What We're Reading Today
-- A New Trade Pact Is Giving a Boost to European Stocks. Why It Isn't
Bigger.
-- Trump's Mortgage Bond Plan Is Bad News for Fannie and Freddie Stocks
-- Private Markets Enter 'New Era.' Family Offices and Other Big Investors
Could Lose Out.
-- Sports-Betting Allegations Hit NCAA Basketball as Prosecutors Charge 20
-- Verizon Offers $20 Credits After Resolving Outage Affecting Millions
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January 15, 2026 19:55 ET (00:55 GMT)
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