New York, Jan 10, 2026, 14:19 EST — Market closed.
- IBM shares ended Friday up 0.5% at $304.22.
- A Datavault AI-IBM collaboration is pitching a New York-Philadelphia “edge” AI network running IBM’s watsonx.
- Investors look next to U.S. CPI on Jan. 13 and IBM’s Jan. 28 results.
International Business Machines Corp shares closed Friday up 0.5% at $304.22, after trading between $301.14 and $306.90. U.S. markets are shut for the weekend and reopen on Monday.
IBM heads into its Jan. 28 quarterly report with investors pressing for clean proof that AI work is turning into steady software revenue and cash. The company has flagged Jan. 28 as the preliminary date for its fourth-quarter earnings announcement.
The macro backdrop has turned jumpy again, and that bleeds into tech spending and valuations. A weaker U.S. jobs report on Friday showed payrolls rose 50,000 in December while the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4%, and economists in the report said the Fed was still expected to hold rates at its Jan. 27-28 meeting.
On Thursday, Datavault AI Inc said it would expand its collaboration with IBM to deploy a multi-city “edge” AI network in New York and Philadelphia using Available Infrastructure’s SanQtum AI platform. Edge computing means doing more processing close to where data is created, rather than shipping it back to a central cloud; Datavault said the system would run IBM’s watsonx on a “zero-trust” network — security that treats every request as untrusted — with an operational rollout targeted for the first quarter. Datavault CEO Nathaniel Bradley said watsonx “gives us the added intelligence,” while IBM’s Biz Dziarmaga pointed to “scalable AI.” IBM Newsroom
IBM has also been using dealmaking to thicken the plumbing around data and AI. In December, it said it would buy data-streaming firm Confluent for $31 a share, valuing the deal at $11 billion, with the transaction expected to close by the middle of 2026.
IBM’s move on Friday came as Wall Street pushed higher. The S&P 500 ended at a record 6,966.28, while the Dow rose 0.48%, Reuters reported.
IBM’s 52-week range sits at $214.50 to $324.90, meaning Friday’s close left the stock about 6% below that high — and still well above the lows that marked last year’s pullbacks. The $300 area is the near-term line traders tend to lean on, simply because it is there.
Next up, markets get the U.S. consumer price index for December on Jan. 13 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, the Labor Department’s schedule shows. The Fed’s next policy meeting runs Jan. 27-28.
But the edge-network announcement is coming from a smaller partner and reads, for now, like early build-out talk. If earnings season stirs fresh doubts about corporate IT budgets — or if IBM’s consulting pipeline looks soft — the stock can give up ground fast.
For IBM, the calendar still circles Jan. 28. Investors will be watching for updates on demand, margins and the 2026 outlook when the company reports fourth-quarter results.
