Tech Does the Heavy Lifting as Wall Street Holds Its Breath for Jobs and Inflation

CNBC, Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Market Watch contributed to this report.

Wall Street kicked the week off with a quiet, slightly optimistic shrug – the S&P 500 ticked up 0.3% on Monday, helped along by tech names, while the Nasdaq gained about 0.5% and the Dow added roughly 99 points (0.2%). It felt less like a roar and more like a collective exhale: investors are bracing for a packed week of economic data and another round of corporate reports after a volatile finish to last week.

Big tech and AI-adjacent stocks led the charge. Oracle jumped after getting an upgrade from D.A. Davidson – the note pointed to renewed optimism around OpenAI and its ecosystem, and traders shoved the stock higher. Chip names extended their bounce too: Nvidia climbed nearly 3% and Broadcom added more than 1%, continuing a rebound that started late last week.

The market’s attention is glued to two calendar items that were delayed by the partial government shutdown: the January jobs report, now due Wednesday, and the January Consumer Price Index, set for Friday. The jobs print is especially nerve-wracking after ADP said private payrolls rose by just 22,000 in January – far below expectations. Economists polled by Dow Jones are penciling in about a 55,000 gain for the official nonfarm payrolls number. For CPI, the consensus is looking for a 2.5% year-over-year reading for January. Put simply: weak jobs or hotter inflation could yank markets in either direction.

There’s also a string of earnings to prod investor sentiment. Coca-Cola and Ford are on deck Tuesday, and companies that beat expectations could keep the rally alive – or flip the script if results disappoint. Market technicians are watching for renewed tech participation to drive sustainable gains: Adam Turnquist, LPL Financial’s chief technical strategist, noted that buyers “finally stepped back into the software space” last Friday after an eight-day losing streak, but he warned the broader tech complex still needs to clear some key resistance to make the rally stick. He’s skeptical the S&P can sustainably hit lofty levels without more tech muscle, especially from software.

Not every stock read the same script. Roblox earned praise – Roth upgraded the gaming platform to buy after a solid quarterly beat and raised its price target to $84. Roblox reported better-than-expected revenue, improved losses, a stronger bookings outlook, and 144 million daily active users (vs. an expected 138 million). Even so, the stock’s still down sharply over the past six months; Monday morning it was up about 7% on the upgrade.

Other movers: STMicroelectronics rallied after unveiling an expanded partnership with Amazon Web Services to beef up cloud and AI infrastructure, Kroger jumped as reports surfaced about naming ex-Walmart exec Greg Foran as CEO, and Oracle’s upgrade reverberated through related names. On the downside, Hims & Hers shares plunged after the company pulled a cheaper copycat weight-loss pill following legal threats from Novo Nordisk and the FDA – the hit to sentiment sent the stock tumbling (estimates of the early drop ranged around 20–26%), while Novo Nordisk popped on the news.

So, the mood is cautious with an undercurrent of hope: last week’s tech sell-off shook markets, Bitcoin swooned then clawed back, and investors are weighing whether last Friday’s bounce was a true turnaround or just a breather. This week’s jobs and inflation readings – plus how top companies report earnings – will probably decide which it is. For now, traders are letting tech do the heavy lifting while they wait for the data that could actually move the needle.