Big Tech Earnings Dominated Wall Street Sentiment, Gold and Silver Touched New Record Highs

Barry Adams
27 Jan, 2026
New York City

Wall Street indexes retained an upward bias as earnings season gathered momentum.

The S&P 500 index edged up 0.2%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.5% ahead of a barrage of earnings from key tech leaders.

Earnings are on top of investors minds this week, and at least 90 companies are scheduled to release their quarterly results. 

American Airlines, Boeing, and UnitedHealth Group are set to release their results on Tuesday, followed by updates on Wednesday from IBM, Meta Platforms, Tesla, and Microsoft. 

Apple, Visa, Mastercard, and Caterpillar are scheduled to release their quarterly results on Thursday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely anticipated to hold the Fed funds rate between 3.5% and 3.75% at the end of a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.  

On the economic front, investors are awaiting the latest update on home prices and consumer confidence data later in the day. 

Gold futures advanced 1.5% to $5,087 an ounce, and silver traded at $112.58 an ounce, extending their record runs amid rising elevated geopolitical tensions and trade frictions. 

Gold and silver prices also benefited from the debasement trade as investors shifted from bonds and currencies into real assets amid growing anxieties over elevated debt levels in developed economies.  

 

U.S. Movers 

Health insurance companies fell sharply after the Trump administration proposed to keep Medicare Advantage rates flat in 2027. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid proposed to raise insurance rates 0.09% in 2027, sharply lower than the 4% estimated by several analysts. 

UnitedHealth Group, Humana, CVS Health, Molina Healthcare, Centene, and Elevance Health dropped between 5% and 14%. 

Separately, UnitedHealth reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results and issued a softer guidance for the current quarter. 

Revenue increased to $113.2 billion from $100.8 billion, net income attributable to shareholders fell to $10 million from $5.5 million, and diluted earnings per share dropped to 1 cent from $5.98 a year ago. 

The company's performance in the fourth quarter was negatively impacted by costs related to cyber attacks ($799 million), restructuring and other charges ($2.5 billion), and gains from portfolio divestiture ($442 million). 

The net negative impact on the quarterly net earnings was $1.6 billion or $1.78 billion.