In the AI race of three years ago, Google $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.04% ) looked flat-footed. Today, it looks like the front-runner. With a top-tier model in Gemini, its own in-house chips, Apple’s $AAPL ( ▼ 0.42% ) Siri funneling usage, and access to more user data than anyone else on Earth, Google seems to have OpenAI on the back foot.

(Oh yeah, and the company has proven it can turn a profit. That can’t hurt.)

— Brooks & Cas

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Biogen $BIIB ( ▼ 5.04% ) fell after warning of a $222M pretax charge that will hit Q4 earnings.

Rivian $RIVN ( ▼ 7.16% ) slid after UBS downgraded the stock to Sell.

Intuitive Surgical $ISRG ( ▼ 2.68% ) fell after forecasting fewer da Vinci procedures in 2026 despite a preliminary revenue beat.

AppLovin $APP ( ▼ 7.61% ) dropped even after Evercore ISI initiated coverage at Outperform.

Wells Fargo $WFC ( ▼ 4.61% ) fell after reporting Q4 revenue and net interest income below expectations.

To monitor hot stocks in real time, check out The Street Feed.

KLA Corporation $KLAC ( ▼ 0.51% ) has been one of the standout winners in semiconductor equipment. Shares have surged more than 100% over the past year, raising a familiar question for investors: Is the easy money already made?

Bernstein doesn’t think so. The firm initiated coverage with an Outperform rating, arguing that KLA’s position in a critical corner of chip manufacturing remains underappreciated even after the rally.

The call rests less on near-term cycles and more on structure. KLA dominates a niche that becomes more important as chips grow smaller, denser, and harder to manufacture.

KLA is the clear leader in process control, the tools that inspect, measure, and monitor chips during fabrication. Bernstein pegs this segment at about $14 billion inside a $112 billion global wafer fabrication equipment market.

Process control has already grown at an 18% compound rate from 2019 to 2024. Bernstein expects that strength to persist, driven by advanced nodes, tighter tolerances, and rising complexity across fabs.

KLA controls roughly 57% of this market, more than 6x the scale of its nearest competitor. Bernstein believes that share can keep climbing, thanks to KLA’s technology lead and favorable mix within process control subsegments.

In short, as chips get harder to make, customers need more of what KLA sells.

Bernstein also sees insulation from competitive threats. Process control tools are more complex than many other equipment categories, making them harder to replicate, even as China pushes to localize its semiconductor supply chain.

Importantly, KLA has already baked China normalization into its 2026 outlook, reducing downside risk from export controls. That leaves room for upside if conditions prove less restrictive than feared.

Bernstein sees implied upside of 18.5% from current levels. For a market leader with scale, margins, and staying power, incremental gains can still compound nicely.

The headline pretty much says it all. Wall Street Zen is offering free and immediate access to a new special report: 5 Top Stocks To Buy In January >

The sad fact is that most Wall Street analysts are very bad stock pickers. On average their recommendations do a whopping 26% worse than the S&P 500.

Gladly, with access to the right data we can measure the performance of all analysts. This led us to discovering an elite group whose Buy rated picks actually beat the market by 98.4% last year.

If you want to know what they are recommending now, just click the link below...

CNBC: Netflix $NFLX ( ▼ 1.96% ) plans to shift its Warner Bros Discovery $WBD ( ▼ 0.8% ) deal to all cash.

The Verge: Google $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.04% ) said Gemini would connect to Gmail Photos, Search, and YouTube history to deliver more personalized answers.

NBC News: California’s AG launched an investigation into xAI after Grok generated sexualized nonconsensual images.

Reuters: Oracle $ORCL ( ▼ 4.29% ) was sued by bondholders alleging undisclosed debt needs tied to $300B OpenAI infrastructure deal.

ABC News: Verizon $VZ ( ▲ 2.1% ) experienced a wireless outage affecting up to 175K customers.

Are you bullish or bearish on Reddit $RDDT ( ▼ 2.53% ) over the next 12 months?

▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐂 Bullish

▇▇▇▇▇▇ 🐻 Bearish

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