10 Firms Stealing the Spotlight; 4 Are Climbing to Record Highs

Ten stocks stood firmer on Thursday, outperforming a mixed broader market, as investors took heart from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut, while cheering more corporate earnings and upbeat outlooks, among others.

Of the firms, four companies notably surged to new record highs.

In this article, we spotlight the names of the 10 top performers and detail the reasons behind their gains.

To come up with the list, we focused on the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels

10. New Gold Inc. (NYSEAmerican:NGD)

New Gold jumped to a 12-year high on Thursday, as investors continued to load up portfolios after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates in its last committee meeting for the year.

At intra-day trading, the stock jumped to its highest price of $8.77 before trimming a few cents to finish the session just up by 9.20 percent at $8.55 apiece.

On Wednesday, the central bank announced that it slashed the benchmark rates by 25 basis points, marking the third and final rate cut for the year.

Mining companies such as New Gold Inc. (NYSEAmerican:NGD) stand to benefit from the move, as lower rates typically weaken the US dollar, thus making it cheaper for foreign and local investors to purchase precious metals like silver and gold.

New Gold Inc. (NYSEAmerican:NGD) is a Canada-based gold, silver, and copper miner that owns the Rainy River mine in Ontario as well as the New Afton mine in British Columbia.

Last month, the company announced that it was set to be acquired by Coeur Mining, Inc. for $7 billion, under which, the latter, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, would acquire all its outstanding shares.

Under the terms of the agreement, New Gold Inc. (NYSEAmerican:NGD) shareholders are set to receive an equivalent of 0.4959 Coeur shares for every NGD they own.

9. Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN)

Ciena Corporation extended its rally to a 6^th day on Thursday to hit a new 24-year high as investors cheered its impressive earnings performance in the full fiscal year of 2025, alongside an upbeat outlook for next year.

At intra-day trading, Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) jumped to its highest price of $248 before trimming gains to finish the day just up by 9.25 percent at $242.37 apiece. The last time the stock touched the said level was in July 2001.

In an updated report, Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) said that net income for the full fiscal year expanded by 47 percent to $123 million from $83.9 million in the same period last year. Revenues jumped by 18.9 percent to $4.77 billion from $4.01 billion year-on-year.

For the fourth quarter, however, net income declined by 47 percent to $19.5 million from $37.03 million, despite revenues jumping by 20 percent to $1.35 billion from $1.12 billion.

“Our results reflect Ciena’s market momentum within a strong demand environment and our commitment to financial discipline, delivering strong top and bottom line performance that exceeded our guidance for the fourth quarter,” Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) Chief Finance Officer Marc Graff said.

“With our growing operating leverage and strong cash generation and balance sheet, we are well-positioned to deliver value for our customers and shareholders in 2026,” he added.

For the 2026 fiscal period, the company expects revenues to be at $5.7 billion to $6.1 billion, or an implied growth of 19.5 percent to 28 percent from fiscal year 2025.

For the first quarter, revenues are targeted at $1.35 billion to $1.43 billion.