Ten big names clocked in double-digit gains on Monday, mirroring a broader market rally, as investor optimism was fueled by a flurry of macroeconomic developments, including continued momentum in the nuclear sector and renewed strength in Bitcoin. Of the said stocks, four hit new record highs.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones led the charge among Wall Street’s main indices, jumping 1.23 percent, followed by the Nasdaq, up 0.69 percent, and the S&P 500, inching up 0.64 percent.
Indices aside, this article spotlights the 10 top-performers on Monday alongside the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we focused exclusively on stocks with a market capitalization of at least $2 billion.
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10. Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR)
Amkor Technology rallied to a 25-year high on Monday, as investors took heart from Needham & Company’s more bullish stance for its stock, having upgraded its price target by 35 percent.
At intra-day trading, the stock jumped to its highest price of $48.41 before trimming a few cents to finish the day just up by 12.14 percent at $48.13 apiece. The last time it touched the said level was in the year 2000.
The jump followed Needham’s price target bump for Amkor Technology Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMKR) stock to $50 from $37 previously, while maintaining its “buy” recommendation, saying that Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) is set to become one of the largest Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS) leaders in next few years amid the growing demand for CoWoS.
In particular, the investment firm expects that the booming demand for chips from the AI sector, as well as an expected transition to Chip on Polymer on Substrate (CoPoS), could push Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. to outsource its excess CoWoS demand to Amkor Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:AMKR) and ASE Technology Holding Co Ltd.
Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the largest chipmakers globally and produces semiconductors for some of the largest technology giants in Silicon Valley.
9. IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN)
IREN rallied for a second day on Monday, surging 12.97 percent to close at $48.24 apiece as investors took path from Bitcoin’s renewed strength
IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) surged alongside its Bitcoin mining counterparts, namely Hut 8 Corp., American Bitcoin, Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings, and Strategy Inc., among others, in line with the cryptocurrency’s retest to a nearly six-week high of $95,000 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin prices were up as traders placed bets ahead of US jobs data for December, where economists expect 54,000 new jobs to be created. The Labor Department would release the official results on Friday, January 9.
Bitcoin aside, IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) recently received a “neutral” rating from Goldman Sachs, saying that the former’s current valuation was “relatively full.”
Last year, IREN Ltd. (NASDAQ:IREN) bagged a number of billion-dollar agreements with technology giants, including a $9.7 billion GPU cloud services contract with Microsoft Corp., where it supplies the latter with NVIDIA GB300 GPUs over a five-year term.
It also entered into an agreement with Dell Technologies to purchase the GPUs and ancillary equipment for approximately $5.8 billion.
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