New York, February 9, 2026, 08:48 EST — Premarket
- MARA slips 3.3% to $7.97 before the bell, after finishing at $8.24 yesterday.
- Morgan Stanley initiated coverage at Underweight, setting a price target of $8.
- Bitcoin swings and U.S. payrolls sit in focus for traders this Wednesday; attention turns to CPI on Friday for fresh rate clues.
MARA Holdings Inc (MARA.O) slipped 3.3% to $7.97 ahead of the bell Monday, a move coming after Morgan Stanley kicked off coverage with an Underweight rating and set an $8 target. 1
The call carries weight—bitcoin miners often move as if they’re a juiced-up play on the token itself, so broker ratings can sting when volatility is high. MARA’s been lurching along with crypto moves and shifting views on U.S. rates.
Bitcoin slipped roughly 3% to trade around $69,000, weighing on crypto-related stocks as U.S. equity futures signaled a quiet start following last week’s tech-fueled swings. “The size of the rebound … didn’t feel like the beginning of a sustainable reversal,” Swissquote Bank’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya said. 2
Morgan Stanley isn’t budging from its cautious view, pointing out that mining economics still call the shots for the stock. In its note, as picked up by Investing.com, the bank flagged a so-called “hybrid” strategy — shifting bitcoin mining infrastructure to handle other computing loads, AI included. Even so, Morgan Stanley argued the “historical ROIC of the Bitcoin mining business has been unattractive,” measuring by return on invested capital. 3
MARA mines bitcoin but lately has been promoting its push into digital infrastructure, offering up not just crypto but also data-center tech—think immersion cooling—selling those systems to outside clients. 4
Monday’s tape puts the focus on whether the market has already baked in all that analyst caution. The stock’s hovering right near Morgan Stanley’s target ahead of the open, but with premarket moves, that can flip fast when normal trading volume comes in.
The risk hasn’t changed: a deeper bitcoin drop, or fresh pressure from increased mining competition or energy bills, and miner margins can get squeezed quickly. That’s when funding concerns resurface—think dilution if miners tap equity markets.
Looking ahead, traders are watching two big macro prints: January’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls hits Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET, then January CPI lands Friday, Feb. 13 at the same time. Both have the potential to shake up rate-cut bets, with ripple effects for crypto-related stocks. 5
