What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after investor attention turned to the annual CES 2026 technology conference in Las Vegas, with artificial intelligence emerging as a central theme. 

Attention shifted to tech giants, whose CEOs would headline the event. This focus continued the AI-fuelled momentum that drove market gains the previous year. The rally had global reach, with an MSCI Asia Pacific Index surge being driven by heavyweight chip names like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The event reinforced investor confidence in the long-term demand for the booming AI and chipmaking trend, boosting shares of companies across the semiconductor and technology space.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

• Sales Software company ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM) jumped 5.5%. Is now the time to buy ZoomInfo? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Lending Software company Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) jumped 9%. Is now the time to buy Upstart? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Content Delivery company F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV) jumped 6.5%. Is now the time to buy F5? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Payments Software company Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) jumped 6.2%. Is now the time to buy Marqeta? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.
• Marketing Software company Upland Software (NASDAQ: UPLD) jumped 6.8%. Is now the time to buy Upland Software? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free for active Edge members.

Zooming In On Upstart (UPST)

Upstart’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 69 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 18 days ago when the stock gained 5.7% on the news that cooler-than-expected inflation data reignited hopes for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. The November Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key measure of inflation, rose 2.7% year-over-year, coming in below economists' expectations of a 3.1% increase. Similarly, "core" inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.6%, beating the consensus forecast of 3.0%. This encouraging report meant that inflationary pressures were easing more quickly than anticipated. As a result, investors grew more optimistic that the Federal Reserve would have the flexibility to cut interest rates in the near future. Lower interest rates generally reduce borrowing costs for companies and can make stocks, particularly growth-oriented tech shares, more attractive to investors.

Upstart is up 9.7% since the beginning of the year, but at $50.27 per share, it is still trading 43.4% below its 52-week high of $88.77 from February 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upstart’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,039.

While Wall Street chases Nvidia at all-time highs, an under-the-radar semiconductor supplier is dominating a critical AI component these giants can’t build without. Click here to access our full research report.