The hottest stocks of 2025 are also the hottest stocks of 2026, with hard drive makers emerging as the newest winners of the AI trade.

Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology jumped 388%, 219%, and 189% last year, respectively, as investors piled into data storage names tied to the AI buildout. All three have already posted double-digit gains in 2026—Sandisk in particular has been red-hot, soaring 74.24% while the S&P 500 has climbed just 1.38%.

Memory mayhem

Those massive gains reflect a sharp imbalance between supply and demand: Memory is a critical input for training and running AI models built on chips from Nvidia and AMD, yet production has struggled to keep pace with the surge in AI infrastructure spending. “Your performance is limited by the amount of memory and the speed of the memory that you have, and if you keep adding more GPUs, it’s not a win,” Sha Rabii, co-founder of Majestic Labs, told CNBC.

Not every company in the tech industry is enjoying the party, though. For consumer electronics makers such as Apple and Dell Technologies, rising memory prices are becoming a meaningful cost headwind: Memory now accounts for about 20% of a laptop’s hardware costs, up from roughly 10% to 18% earlier in 2025, leaving companies with a familiar choice: Eat the cost and watch margins shrink, or raise prices and hope consumers don’t notice (they usually notice).

Beyond the boom

The data storage industry has a history of sharp cycles, yet some investors believe the rally will continue through 2026. In fact, one well-known figure in the AI industry just bet millions on it.

Mark Liu, who previously held a senior role at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and now sits on Micron Technology’s board, just purchased 23,200 shares of Micron worth $7.8 million.

Micron has emerged as one of the biggest names in flash memory chip manufacturing, sparking a 218% return in 2025, and a 27.1% gain year to date. The fact that Liu is willing to buy so many shares of the company after they’ve run so high lately indicates just how confident he is that Micron has more room to rally.—SY

🟢 What’s up

• Novo Nordisk rose 9.12% after UK regulators approved a higher Wegovy dose for obesity patients, plus early demand for its weight-loss pill has soared.
• AST SpaceMobile rallied 14.34% after being named an eligible vendor for the Pentagon’s SHIELD program.
• ImmunityBio surged 39.75% thanks to upbeat guidance for its bladder cancer drug Anktiva.
• Worthington Steel rose 3.38% on a $2.4 billion deal to buy Germany’s Kloeckner & Co.
• PNC Financial Services added 3.79% after posting a strong fourth quarter with record revenue.
• Dominion Energy popped 1.29% after a judge ruled that it can restart construction of a wind energy project off the coast of Virginia.
• Energy stocks GE Vernova rose 6.12%, Bloom Energy climbed 7.42%, and Quanta Services advanced 4.27% as President Trump signaled Big Tech may help pay for new power plants.

What’s down

• Not everyone in energy was cheering: Constellation Energy fell 9.8% and Vistra dropped 7.54% as the Trump administration’s push to lower electricity prices raised concerns about rising supply and tougher competition.
• Regions Financial slipped 2.63% after missing fourth-quarter revenue expectations.
• Amcor declined 7.29% after the packaging company completed a one-for-five reverse stock split.
• Roofing product distributor QXO fell 4.84% following the announcement of a $750 million common stock offering.
• Sports gambling stocks slipped on reports that prediction markets are taking a bigger bite out of the NFL betting market than anticipated. DraftKings dropped 8.01%, and Flutter Entertainment lost 6.28%.
• Mosaic slid 4.46% after preliminary fourth-quarter sales volumes missed expectations amid weaker fertilizer demand.

The Russell 2000, home of small-cap stocks, doesn’t grab investors’ attention the way the S&P 500 does. But that’s all changing now that the Russell 2000 has outperformed the S&P 500 for 11 consecutive trading sessions, its longest winning streak in 36 years. So, what’s the big deal with small caps?

Tiny stocks are getting a boost from a number of tailwinds these days. Small stocks tend to outperform when the economy is growing and the Fed is cutting interest rates—two trends investors expect to continue through the new year. And while bigger companies have only seen their market caps climb over the last few years, small caps look far cheaper in comparison.

“We now see one of the biggest variations between small caps and large caps on a valuation basis going back 50 years,” analysts at Janus Henderson noted earlier this week. “When we look at the forward price-to-earnings ratio of large caps versus small caps – focusing only on profitable companies – small caps are trading at about a 20% discount to parity. Excluding the COVID 2020 recession, this represents the cheapest small caps have traded in the 50-year period dating back to 1975.”

The Russell 2000 has climbed 7.1% in 2026, far outpacing the S&P 500, and Wall Street expects this to continue to be a big year for small caps.—MR

Latchkey kids raised on The Brady Bunch now have a bigger problem on their hands than Mr. Dittmeyer: Saving up enough to retire.

Gen X is approaching retirement age, and their financial safety net is looking more like a basketball hoop. This generation, which includes people born between about 1965 and 1980, were the guinea pigs of DIY retirement. Born after pension plans were dominant but before auto-enrollment made it easy to invest in 401(k)s, they were largely on their own—and the results are alarming.

Now, 8 out of 10 Gen Xers say they worry they don’t have enough for retirement, according to the latest Schroders 2025 US Retirement Survey. Gen X workers have saved a median $107,000 in total household retirement income. Sure, that’s not nothing, but it falls way short of the $1.26 million Americans say they need to retire comfortably.

The problem, according to Nationwide Financial, is that roughly 61% of Gen X didn’t view retirement as a serious priority until age 50 or older. It doesn’t help that they have the highest student loan and credit card debt of any generation.

If that all wasn’t brutal enough, those trying to catch up by making higher contributions to 401ks are about to get hit with a steep tax bill. Under a new law, higher-income people making catch-up contributions will lose some of the tax benefits that come with the 401(k) structure.

How to get ahead

Retirement planning is a marathon, not a sprint—but experts have some ideas for how Gen X can pick up the pace.

“The oldest Gen Xers are roughly 10 years from full retirement age, and that provides a window for them to cut this savings gap and explore solutions that can improve their transition from asset accumulation to asset decumulation,” explained Head of US Defined Contribution for Schroders Deb Boyden.

Workers can save up to $24,500 in their 401(k)s next year, and can add an additional $8,000 if they are 50 or older, while “super catch up” contributions for those age 60 to 63 allow workers to deposit up to $11,250 extra.

While it can feel tempting to make a big financial move to make up for lost time, it’s more crucial than ever to maintain a diversified portfolio, and not lose money trying to time the market or by picking risky stocks.

That means no more r/WallStreetBets for you, Gen X.—LB

• The White House is proposing letting Americans use 401(k) savings for down payments on a home.
• JPMorgan Chase created a new team to focus on the booming private credit market.
• Dos Equis is bringing back its “Most Interesting Man” ad as sales lag.
• Trump threatened to put tariffs on countries that don’t support the US taking over Greenland.
• China is removing high-speed servers from local exchanges’ data centers, handicapping high-frequency traders.

Investors get a three-day weekend here in the US, with markets closed next Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Coincidentally, we’ll be taking the day off, too!

Here’s a look at all the economic reports and quarterly earnings announcements you should be watching for next week:

Tuesday: No economic readings, but plenty of earnings reports, including Netflix, Interactive Brokers, US Bancorp, DR Horton, and United Airlines.

Wednesday: Delayed October construction spending report, as well as December pending home sales. As for earnings, we’ll hear from Johnson & Johnson, Charles Schwab, Disco, Halliburton, Kinder Morgan, and The Travelers Companies.

Thursday: Delayed October and November PCE reading, as well as a first revision of Q3 GDP. Plus, reports from Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Intel, Abbott, Intuitive Surgical, Capital One, Freeport-McMoRan, CSX, Alcoa, and McCormick & Co.

Friday: The final reading of consumer sentiment for January, as well as the S&P flash US services and manufacturing PMI readings. Earnings include SLB, Hyundai Motor, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Other highlights worth watching include the US Supreme Court hearing arguments in the Lisa Cook case on Wednesday. And a “spirit of dialogue” will infuse Davos, Switzerland next week when the World Economic Forum begins its annual meeting on Monday. Keep an ear open for President Trump’s special address on Wednesday, which is sure to be must-watch television.