New York, Feb 6, 2026, 2:34 PM EST — Regular session
- Carvana shares climbed roughly 7% in afternoon trading, pulling ahead of other auto retail stocks.
- BofA shaved its Carvana price target but stuck with a Buy rating going into results.
- January wholesale used-vehicle prices ticked higher, fresh data show, signaling demand is holding up.
Carvana Co shares surged close to 7% Friday, pushing the volatile online used-car stock higher as U.S. equities moved up and traders adjusted positions before the company posts quarterly earnings later this month. Shares rose 6.9% to $410.18, bouncing between $383.69 and $412.04 through the session.
Carvana stands out as one of the market’s more volatile consumer stocks, so this shift carries some weight. With the next earnings around the corner, unit growth, pricing, and profit per car are all in play for a possible reset. Late last month’s wild swings in the stock have traders zeroing in on used-car price trends, too.
January saw wholesale used-vehicle prices tick higher, with Cox Automotive’s Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index climbing to 210.5. That’s a 2.4% gain on both the year and the month, Cox reported. Strip away adjustments, and wholesale prices jumped 2.7% from December. “Wholesale values moved even faster than we expected on the back of strong retail demand,” said Jeremy Robb, Cox Automotive’s chief economist. Cox Automotive Inc.
Bank of America lowered its Carvana price target to $460 from $515 on Friday, holding steady with a Buy rating, TheFly reported. The firm bumped up its forecast for fourth-quarter unit growth, now expecting a 42% increase year-over-year. Still, analysts pointed to trade-in retention and pricing competition as possible headwinds for gross profit per unit, the key profit metric for each vehicle sold.
Breadth was on bulls’ side. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF added 1.7%. Invesco’s QQQ ETF, loaded with Nasdaq names, jumped 1.9%. Small caps took the lead—iShares’ Russell 2000 ETF climbed 3.4%.
Consumers are feeling a little better lately. Early February’s U.S. consumer sentiment ticked up to 57.3, reaching a level not seen since last August, according to the University of Michigan’s latest survey. Still, worries over jobs and day-to-day costs haven’t gone away. “We may have seen the trough in consumer sentiment,” Nationwide financial markets economist Oren Klachkin told Reuters. Reuters
Auto retail stocks also moved higher. CarMax picked up roughly 4%, while AutoNation jumped over 7% during the afternoon session.
Carvana now faces the issue of whether rising wholesale prices will actually give it more leverage on retail pricing, or if they’ll simply push up inventory costs and squeeze margins further. Financing remains in focus, too; with so many used-car buyers reliant on loans, investor attention is sticking to credit access and what buyers can afford.
But there’s a risk, too. Carvana shares are still under a cloud after Gotham City Research’s short-seller report alleged the company artificially boosted profits—an accusation that slashed the stock by roughly 15% back on Jan. 28, Investopedia reports.
No new headlines, but the run-up to earnings already feels tight. Any stumble—fewer retail units, thinner profit per vehicle, or hints of steeper discounts—could rattle a stock that’s shown how fast it can move.
Carvana’s next key event comes on Feb. 18. That’s when it’s set to release fourth-quarter 2025 results, with a conference call scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET, per the company’s investor relations page.
