Chapter 1: What were the stock market trends on January 8th?
Here's your closing bell brief for Thursday, January 8th. I'm Katherine Sullivan for The Wall Street Journal. U.S. stocks saw a split performance today as investors rotated away from the technology sector and into other areas of the market. The Dow was up 0.6%, supported by strength in industrial and consumer companies.
Small-cap stocks also had a standout session, with the Russell 2000 index climbing 1.1% to reach its first record high in nearly a month.
Chapter 2: How did defense stocks respond to the proposed defense budget?
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq dropped 0.4% as major semiconductor companies weighed on the tech-heavy index. The S&P 500 finished the day nearly flat. Among individual companies, Northrop Grumman shares rose over 2 percent.
The move came after President Trump called for a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which provided a boost to several weapons manufacturers that had previously faced pressure from the administration.
Chapter 3: What factors influenced Costco's strong sales performance?
Applied digital shares jumped 8 percent today. The artificial intelligence infrastructure provider reported adjusted earnings that beat analyst expectations, while its revenue roughly tripled over the last quarter. Costco shares rallied nearly 4% after the warehouse retailer reported strong results for the end of the year.
The company said its sales for December rose 8.5% compared to a year earlier.
Chapter 4: Why did Jefferies shares decline despite better-than-expected revenue?
And Jefferies shares slid over 5.5%. Although the financial firm reported better-than-expected revenue, its overall profit was dragged down by losses linked to a collapsed auto parts supplier and a decline in asset management revenue.
Heads up, an artificial intelligence tool helped us make this episode by creating summaries that were based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor. We'll have a lot more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.