Dow, S&P 500 Hit Record Highs; Guardant, Intuitive Surgical, Incyte In Focus

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0:39Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Stock Market Today for Tuesday, January 6th. It's Alexis Garcia here, and it was another bullish day on Wall Street as the Dow and S &P 500 hit record highs today. Investors continue to weigh the developments in the U.S.-Venezuela situation happening. And we also get some new economic data coming in later this week. But here with me now to help break down everything you need to know about today's trading action is IBD markets writer Ken Shreve. Ken, it's great to see you. I'm sure you're happy to get a little bit of a hosting break today. But what's on the docket for today?

1:24Well, I'm looking at a really strong close for the Russell 2000. Looks like we got an all-time closing high for the Russell 2000, all-time closing high for the S &P 500, second straight all-time closing high for the Dow Jones. So really strong start to 2026, Alexis. So I want to take a look at three stocks in the health care sector. Garden Health, ticker GH, also Intuitive Surgical, ISRG, and then a very profitable biotech stock, Insight, INCY. I love the theme we have going today, Ken. Before we dive into those stocks, let's just quickly go over how the major index has finished the day. The S &P 500 up six-tenths of a percent.

2:10The Dow up almost a percent. The NASDAQ up seven-tenths of a percent. And again, small caps up 1.3%. So I'm going to go ahead and get my chart up here, Ken. But as you mentioned, great to see small caps joining in. We have the indexes making new high ground here, especially we're looking at the S &P 500. Nice day today and finishing in the upper part of that trading range. Yeah, and this is an all-time closing high for the S &P 500. So a noteworthy day for the benchmark index. I mentioned yesterday was a noteworthy day for the Dow. We got an all-time closing high for the Dow. So the S &P 500 joined the party today.

2:53So look at that blue chip index, all-time closing high yesterday. It extended gains today. We had a really nice gain for, excuse me, Amazon was a really nice gainer in the Dow Jones today. Noteworthy technical move for Amazon today. So really nice day for Amazon in the Dow Jones today and really S &P 500 all-time closing high today as well. And then the Russell 2000 just really strengthened late in the session. That ended, it looks like, with a gain of 1.3%, and that is right on the verge of a breakout here. That looks to be an all-time closing high as well. So really, I could not think of a better start to the year with the gains that we're seeing for the market here.

3:44Haven't even talked about the innovator IBD50 ETF. Let's go ahead and just take a quick look. Yeah, it seems like there's more sectors participating, Ken, at least in the first couple days of the trading week. But yeah, the FTY, nice move today above the 50. Yeah, and yesterday that was up 1.9%. Today it strengthened. That was up 3.3%. So for people who know IBD, we follow growth stocks, and it's really just been a tremendous start to the year. I mean, yesterday we saw growth stocks breaking out in spades and it was more of the same today. Obviously, 2025 was a was a great year for gold stocks and biotech stocks, fiber optic stocks.

4:35And, you know, a lot of these stocks have just continued the leadership this year. And it really, like you said, it's just been a great, great cross section of leadership. It is so much more. In fact, the Magnificent Seven stocks, you know, really are more or less struggling. And the leadership has really broadened out quite a bit in the market. Yeah. Here's a look at FNGS. And this is just sort of a sort of a good a good picture of the lagging, you know, nature of a lot of these FANG stocks. You've got, you know, names like NVIDIA, NVDA, really kind of struggling, you know, kind of holding at the 50-day moving average.

5:19But you can see the relative strength line has really started to flatten out ever since NVIDIA has started to, you know, consolidate starting in, you know, late October, early November. It's really just started to flatten out and, you know, started to lag the market. So you are still seeing some leadership in large cap technology, but even a name like Apple. You know, Apple really lagged badly today. Apple, you know, down below the 50-day moving average. But you really are, you know, seeing some growth stocks start to get into the driver's seat here. So very, very encouraging. Obviously, you know, some negative headlines that the market is dealing with.

6:03with a lot of uncertainty regarding Venezuela and got some uncertainty about the jobs market, too. I mean, the Fed is optimistic. I mean, seeing some slowing in the job market, unemployment rate ticking higher in recent months. But we do have a jobs report Friday, so hopefully no big surprises there. But really nice start to the year, and we'll hope it continues here. Yeah. And again, we saw how resilient the market was in 2025 with some of these headlines. And I just want to quickly jump over to the NASDAQ here, Ken, too, and get your thoughts. Because again, up about seven tenths of a percent today.

6:44But as you mentioned, a lot of the tech, at least the major tech leaders that we've seen, sort of lagging behind lately. So any thoughts here on the NASDAQ before we move ahead? Yeah, it looks like it's just right on the verge of a breakout, really. We're just keeping an eye on the NASDAQ and where it is in relation to Friday's high. Friday was not a great day for the NASDAQ. It did have that reversal, that downside reversal. It came in higher volume, closed just below its 50-day moving average. You can see the NASDAQ today came close to that high. Yep, came very close to Friday's high, closed just below it.

7:22So if it can pop above that, I think it's really going to open the door for a run towards that 24 ,000 level. You see that the NASDAQ came up close to 24 ,000, actually went just a little bit above it right in that area there. So maybe 2026 is going to be the year where the NASDAQ can break out with conviction over 24 ,000. And I have to say, just the way that leading growth stocks are acting, it could be sooner rather than later. Excuse me. So, you know, the breadth in the market today, when you just look at the actual number of advancers versus decliners, it was actually less than two to one positive, which, you know, is not is not bad.

8:06But when you look at the QQEW, which is the equal weighted version of the NASDAQ 100, You look at the NASDAQ 100, which late in the session, it might have been up maybe 1%, 9 tenths of a percent or so, but QQEW ended with a gain of 2%. So it was almost double the performance of the market cap weighted NASDAQ 100. So that tells you that underneath the surface, there was a lot of strong breadth underneath the surface. Look at RSP, which is the equal weighted version of the S &P 500. Very strong today. S &P 500 is a market cap weighted index. And, you know, we just looked at the S &P 500. RSP was double, you know, what the S &P 500 was today.

8:54So very, very strong movement underneath the surface. So, again, very encouraging breadth below the surface today. and, you know, RSP moving into new high ground here. Very, very strong day for the market. And again, for IBD growth style investors, sure, a lot of portfolios were up a lot more than the S &P 500 today. So very, very encouraging start to the year. Yeah, and speaking of encouraging, Ken, let's take a look at XLV. That's the Healthcare Select Spider ETF. This one, a gain of almost 2 % today, But we saw a lot of positive action here within this sector. So your thoughts here? I think ETF investors that want some health care in their portfolio, XLV gave a buy signal today unequivocally up 1.9 percent.

9:51Nice jump in volume. Even yesterday when it traded lower, you can see it closed well off lows and just with a very, very modest loss yesterday and then broke out over some recent highs today. The three stocks that we are looking at today are all from the health care sector. So this was the top performing S &P 500 sector today. XLV made a very bullish move today. So I thought this was a good ETF to look at today. And again, leadership is so much, obviously, tech stocks outside of mega cap tech, outside of large cap technology, there is a lot of technology working. But health care, biotech, there's a lot of areas in health care that are working nicely here.

10:40Yeah, let's just quickly take a look at XLB. That is the material select spider ETF. And this one, again, a nice move today of 1.9%. Yeah, Newmont Mining, NEM is a top holding in this ETF. Obviously, gold stocks have been, were big winners in 2025. The gold group was one of the best performing groups again today. So you could look at a name like Newmont, NEM. Freeport FCX is another top holding of XLB. That's, yeah, Freeport, McMoran, FCX. So you just see a lot of stocks that are moving. Again, these are some of the metals stocks. Freeport is a big copper producer. So XLB hitting new highs here.

11:31Breadth expanding in the market. Things are looking pretty good here. Legal teams face more data and more scrutiny than ever. They need AI built for both. Relativity is the AI platform for legal work, delivering defensible AI that handles the tedious tasks so judgment stays where it belongs, with you. Learn more at relativity.com forward slash WSJ. All right, well, let's dive into some individual stocks, starting with Garden Health, Ken. This one, a big move today, jumping 10.3%, basically right at this 112.42 flat base buy point. But I guess we could also say probably breaking a downtrend within the base here, Ken.

12:16Yeah, we started looking at this, well, we have been looking at it on IBD Live for a few days now and just kind of watching it trend above its 50-day moving average. It started moving earlier today. We looked at it on IBD Live earlier this morning, right around when the market was opening. This is a company that does blood tests for the early detection for cancer. not profitable yet, but you can see along the bottom here that revenue growth in recent quarters has started to accelerate 39 % top-line growth in the most recent quarter. That was accelerating growth from 31 % in the prior quarter. So the fact that it's not profitable yet is not a big concern.

13:05What's more important is that they are generating meaningful revenue and that this this accelerating revenue is eventually, you know, going to make its way to the, to the bottom line. So technically this is a very strong stock. You can see it gapped up powerfully over the 80 level the last time they reported earnings. And then it just came in and found support at its 50 day moving average near the 100 level. I don't think there was any news that, that moved the stock today uh but you know growth stocks are just getting a uh getting a bid here and uh i think fund managers are just coming in and acquiring some of these top rated stocks with uh you know with pretty good revenue growth like like garden so we can take a look at the weekly chart here and just get a longer term perspective for for garden you can see it's been a very very strong uh price performer big big move uh so far this this week we're still early in the week and it closed right at the top of the base here.

14:07So garden is going to, you know, it's going to do one of two things. It's either going to bide some time here right at its high, or it could just follow through and keep going. So, you know, if it holds at highs here, it could give you an opportunity to enter here. I think it closed, if we go back to the daily chart, I think it closed right at the buy point here. So the pivot was$112.42, so it closed just about a dime underneath the actual buy point. So even though it was up 10 % today, it hasn't fully broken out of this pattern. So maybe one to keep an eye on this morning, but it is a very innovative cancer diagnostic company, great technical setup.

14:55And you can see the way this stock pulled back, just especially over the past four or five weeks. Some very tight closes in the base. This is a stock that is just very well supported. It's got great fund sponsorship. So it has a lot of qualities that we really like to see in a stock. $14.5 billion market cap. Like I said, good fund sponsorship. A lot of characteristics that we like to see, even though it's not profitable yet. Yeah, we've got the RS hitting a new high here, at least on the weekly chart. And again, And that medical services sector industry group performing really well here lately, Ken.

15:33Let's go ahead and jump over to ISRG. That is Intuitive Surgical. I'll switch back to the daily. Another big winner today, Ken, up 4.7%. Again, looking like it's getting above some of these short-term highs here around the 580 level. Yeah, this is very well known for their DaVinci robotic surgical system. That's been their bread and butter for many years. They did surgery on a grape. That's how I know them. Yes, yes. They do a lot of prostate cancer surgery. They do surgery for valve repair surgery. But it's a big, big company, too. Let's go to the weekly chart and just take a look at the market cap here because it's It's a company that's still growing at like 20 % annually with a$210 billion market cap.

16:29So these DaVinci surgical systems are quite, quite expensive. But they're still selling a lot of them and they're still expanding market share. They don't sell a lot of them every year, but they come at such a high price tag that they're still managing to sell a fair amount of them every year. Again, another stock that gapped up powerfully on earnings similar to Garden did last time they reported. And it was a very orderly pullback to the 50-day moving average. And this is another stock that broke out. And again, you look at that 583, 582 pivot area. And at 592, it's kind of still in that 5 % buy zone.

17:13So another stock that's actionable. You look at the volume bars down at the bottom and you look at the blue up days and the red down days. And this is a stock that is just clearly under accumulation here. There's really just not much in the way of selling pressure. You see the blue bars. Those are blue up days. Look at the accumulation distribution rating of A. That is on an A to E scale. A signifies heavy institutional buying. E would be heavy institutional selling. So when you see a lot of blue up bars like this, this is just a sign that is being accumulated by big investors, institutional investors.

17:55And that's what really fuels the stock's meaningful price gain. So another stock that's actionable here, again, just go to the weekly chart. It's a different look than Gardened, but again, a stock that's kind of coming out of a big, big, long base here. scroll down and take a look at the fundamentals here, the weekly earnings and sales in a company that just has a really good long-term track record of execution in terms of earnings and sales. Just a great track record of performance, a much bigger company than Gardent, but good strong return on equity and strong numbers throughout. So in a nice trending market that we're in, this one possibly could still be in the early stages of a move here.

18:47So keep an eye on ISRG and the healthcare space as well. All right, we'll be keeping an eye on that. Let's go ahead and move over to Insight. That's ticker INCY. This one jumping at 4.8 % today. And again, kind of the same look, Ken, moving above maybe a trend line here within the base, but a 109.28 flat base by point here. Yeah, this is a good example of a trend line breakout and yet a stock that is still inside a base, like you said. So you see the pivot on the left side looks like 109.28. So still has a little more work to get up the right side. And so you could have bought today or see what it does as it starts to get closer to that 109.28.

19:37Sometimes as a stock gets closer to that prior high, it'll drift lower. It'll bump up against some resistance. So we'll see. But in this type of market where we're seeing so many breakouts, a day like today for Insight is sometimes what's called a setup day. And sometimes you just get follow through the very next day. So wouldn't be surprised to see Insight just try to take out that high of 109.28 tomorrow and you get a breakout. But you have two days in a row of volume increasing in the stock. I mentioned earlier that Insight has been profitable for several years now. And this is a company that has very involved in cancer.

20:19It also does some work in dermatology as well. On the cancer front, it does some work in blood, various types of blood cancer. But again, the top line growth is there. It's got the earnings growth as well. Good fund sponsorship. Came out of a big, long base. Found supported its 10-week moving average. Now forming another base and having a good week so far. So we track a lot of biotech stocks in our biotech group. It's a large group in our database, and there's a lot of unprofitable, highly speculative biotech stocks. But there's also a lot of biotechs, Alexis, that have high composite ratings like Insight of 98.

21:12This is a very highly rated biotech stock in our database, and it's highly rated because it is profitable. They've been making money for a while, and they're very innovative. And, you know, it's got that combination of good fundamentals and good technicals. And it's another stock, you know, under accumulation here and a good technical setup. And it's got a good weekly chart. It's got a good relative strength line as well up near new highs. So we know it's outperforming the S &P 500. So good-looking stock here as well. All right, Ken. Well, thank you so much for your insights today. We really appreciate it.

21:52And that wraps it up for us. We'll be back with more market analysis tomorrow morning, starting with IBD Live. Get head on over to investors.com slash IBD Live for all the details there. Ken and Ed will be back tomorrow for Stock Market Today. So we'll see you right back here after the close.

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