Special Edition: Dow 50K. A painful week for markets ended with a wave of optimism.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1200 points on the day, bursting through 50,000 for the first time ever. The milestone is particularly symbolic after a week in which tech stocks wobbled over AI fears and put the whole market at risk.

A broad mix of Dow stocks came to the rescue on Friday, including Nvidia (+7.8%), Caterpillar (+7.1%), 3M (+4.6%), Amgen (+4.5%), and Goldman Sachs (+4.3%).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite snapped its worst three-day stretch in a year, surging 2.2% on the day. The S&P 500 was up 2%.

So what happened? It wasn’t the fundamentals. In fact, Amazon.com, which reported strong earnings last night, ended the day down 5.6%. Instead, Friday seemed to be more of a vibe shift and the kind of dip buying that often follows rapid selloffs.

“Markets realized that outsized spending on Capex by large tech firms and a strong economy are bullish after all,” Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, wrote this afternoon.

That’s a reference to the vast sums of money still being spent by Big Tech platforms. This past week, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet boosted their budgets for capital expenditures well beyond already bullish estimates. Amazon said it would spend $200 billion in the coming 12 months to build out its cloud capacity, while Alphabet plans to spend $175 billion to $185 billion.

The question for the market has been how much of that will come back to shareholders in the form of profits. There’s no answer yet, but today’s view was, money is money.

The Dow’s record close makes sense given its more tech-light status. The Nasdaq remains nearly 4% off its record level, while the S&P 500 continues to chase its own milestone.

“For the broader market to make sustainable progress, renewed tech participation will likely be essential,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, wrote late today. “We expect the S&P 500 may have difficulty clearing the 7,000‑point milestone without stronger contributions from the tech sector—especially from software.”

Software stocks also rebounded Friday, but they’re still deeply in negative territory on the year. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF is down 22% in 2026.

A wave of software stocks including Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe will report results in the coming weeks. Those results could be the market’s next big event.

Until then, Dow 50K will have to do.

The Dow has doubled since this newsletter launched exactly eight years ago on Feb. 5, 2018. That night the index closed just shy of 25,000.

I’ll leave you with a few more stats about the Dow’s watershed moment, courtesy of my colleagues at Dow Jones Market Data:

• The Dow first closed at 10,000 on March 29, 1999—28,000 trading days after it was created in 1896

• Some 4,500 trading sessions later, on Jan. 25, 2017, the index reached 20,000.

• Subsequent 10,000 milestones have come much quicker. Of course, each 10K level represents a smaller percentage gain. The Dow hit 30,000 in November 2020 and 40,000 in May 2024.

• Since 25K, three stocks have contributed more than 11,000 points to the index’s rise: Goldman Sachs, Caterpillar, and Apple

Watch our TV show on Fox Business Saturday and Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET. This week, investment strategist Meredith Whitney on finding opportunities in the market.

The Hot Stock: Robinhood Markets +14.0%
The Biggest Loser: Molina Healthcare -25.5%

Best Sector: Technology +4.1%
Worst Sector: Communication Services -1.5%

Next week brings two of the most important economic data releases in the same calendar week, a rare occurrence due to the brief government shutdown earlier this month. The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the January jobs report on Wednesday and the consumer price index on Friday. That means both sides of the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate will be represented with fresh data.

Earnings season rolls on with about 75 more S&P 500 index companies set to report next week. Of the roughly 300 companies that have reported so far, nearly 80% have beaten earnings-per-share estimates, while just over 70% have exceeded revenue expectations. Coca-Cola, CVS Health, and Ford Motor announce results on Tuesday, followed by Cisco Systems, McDonald’s, and T-Mobile US on Wednesday. Airbnb, Applied Materials, and Arista Networks release results on Thursday.

—Dan Lam

• The Software Apocalypse Will Be a Buying Opportunity—Eventually

• Robinhood’s Battered Stock Gets Some Relief. A Full Recovery Will Take More Time.

• Bitcoin Rebounds From Below $60,000. The Crypto Crisis Isn’t Over.

• Stock Market Survives AI Panic, Even as Tech Collapses. It’s a Monster of Our Own Making.

• And this weekend’s cover story: The Robot Revolution Is Real. Tesla, Hyundai, and More Stocks to Play It.

Join Barron’s Live on Monday. The market now views artificial intelligence as a disrupter, causing a massive rotation underneath the surface. Barron’s Ben Levisohn, Al Root, and Josh Schafer will discuss what it all means for stocks, sectors, and our favorite themes.

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