New York, Feb 2, 2026, 13:27 (EST) — Regular session underway.
Shares of Ciena Corp (CIEN.N) bounced back, climbing about 6% on Monday following an early dip of roughly 3%. The networking equipment maker traded as high as $270.99 before settling around $267.26 by early afternoon, up $15.45 from the previous close, after fluctuating between $243.75 and $270.99.
Wall Street bounced back, driven by gains in tech stocks following a steep fall in precious metals that shook markets earlier. “We’re heading into a new week with plenty of catalysts in front of us,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth, highlighting a packed earnings schedule. (Reuters)
The story for Ciena is straightforward: investors are favoring firms linked to the infrastructure supporting cloud and AI expansion, despite uneven telecom budgets. According to Zacks Equity Research, Ciena holds a Zacks Rank #1, with analysts boosting their current-year earnings forecast by 21.6% in the past 60 days. (Nasdaq)
Shares of other optical and networking companies followed suit. Corning climbed roughly 6.6%, and Nokia gained around 3.2% in U.S. trading.
Ciena highlighted customer projects in a Jan. 29 statement, noting that Telekom Srbija Group and its subsidiary Mtel are installing Ciena gear on a new fiber link connecting Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Katarina Subotić called the project “a significant upgrade,” while Ciena executive Anders Grand added that “hyperscalers are increasingly relying on the network as a critical enabler of their operations.” (Ciena)
Hyperscalers, the largest cloud operators, lead in data center spending, fueling demand for high-capacity optical links.
The company pointed to March’s Mobile World Congress as the stage for demos of autonomous networking and data center interconnect technology—the crucial links that shuttle traffic between data centers. (Ciena)
Monday’s rally seemed driven more by positioning than a single, clear catalyst. The stock’s been volatile lately, so even small moves can trigger big swings.
But it’s a double-edged sword. A mistimed order or a sudden halt in cloud and carrier spending can quickly derail results and force a rapid shift in forecasts.
Traders are turning their attention to early March, when Barcelona hosts Mobile World Congress from March 2-5. Investors will be tuned in for any signals on demand and product timing. (Ciena)
