Market in Pain? Not For These 10 Celebrating Stocks

Ten stocks boasted a strong performance amid a lackluster market on Tuesday, with four soaring to new all-time highs, as investors placed bets after a series of industry-specific developments.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by 0.95 percent, while the S&P 500 declined by 0.55 percent. The Dow Jones was down by 0.19 percent.

In this article, we focus on the 10 top performers on Tuesday and explore the reasons behind their gains.

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

Stock market data on a laptop screen. Photo by Alesia Kozik on Pexels

10. D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS)

Shares of D-Wave Quantum rallied to a new all-time high on Tuesday, as investors continued to place confidence in stocks riding the booming artificial intelligence and quantum computing industries.

In intra-day trading, D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS) jumped to its highest 52-week price of $27.99 before trimming gains to end the session just up by 7.21 percent at $27.52 apiece, on broader optimism for the AI sector that was fueled by Nvidia Corp.’s aggressive expansion into AI.

Being the linchpin of the AI and high-performance computing industries, announcements and developments from Nvidia Corp. are highly watched by the investing community and typically influence share prices of other technology stocks.

In other developments, sentiment was further boosted by reports that the US government was setting its sights on updating its quantum computing strategy to create a broader set of actions to improve cybersecurity capabilities against future quantum-enabled hacks and ensure US dominance in the sector.

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS) rallied alongside its counterparts, namely Rigetti Computing Inc., IonQ Inc., and Quantum Computing Inc., among others, following the news.

9. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL)

Shares of oil drilling firm Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) extended their winning streak to a fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, jumping 7.34 percent to close at $24.27 apiece as investors snapped up shares following the rise in oil prices.

Higher oil prices were sparked by immediate worries on supply risks, after Russia—one of the largest oil-producing countries globally—engaged in brewing tensions with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries.

This came after Russian jets were seen hovering on Estonian airspace for more than 10 minutes earlier this week before they were confronted and ordered to retreat.

NATO issued a stern warning to Russia after an emergency meeting called by Estonia, saying that it was ready to take necessary measures as it deems fit, including the use of armed force, if a member of the treaty is attacked.

Russia, on the other hand, accused Estonia of making up accusations, saying it was pursuing a “continuation of a completely reckless pattern of escalating tensions and provoking a confrontational atmosphere.”

As of writing, prices of Brent crude were up by 1.59 percent to $67.63 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose by 0.46 percent to $63.70 per barrel.

Meanwhile, Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) rallied alongside its energy counterparts following the news.