New York, Jan 25, 2026, 13:02 EST — Market closed.
- Cloud-computing shares head into the new week after a choppy stretch for U.S. equities.
- Investors have a Fed decision and a cluster of Big Tech earnings ahead.
- The key question: whether heavy AI spending starts to show up in profit and guidance.
The ISE CTA Cloud Computing Index (CPQ) ended Friday at 1,373.63, down 2.53 points, or 0.18%, according to Nasdaq data. The index, made up of 64 components, is designed to track companies tied to cloud computing.
Attention is shifting from this month’s policy and geopolitical swings to earnings and the Fed, with investors looking for signs that artificial intelligence-related spending is turning into profit. “It’s been a little bit of a short but steep roller-coaster ride,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial Services Group, while Franklin Templeton strategist Chris Galipeau warned that with valuations stretched, “the earnings bar had better be met.” Reuters
Cloud computing stocks tend to trade like “long-duration” assets — investors pay up for growth that shows up later. That makes the group unusually sensitive to rate expectations, and to any hint that corporate IT budgets are tightening.
The broader tape was mixed on Friday, with the Dow down 0.58%, the S&P 500 flat and the Nasdaq up 0.28% after Intel slid 17% on a weak outlook, a Reuters report showed. “We feel pretty good about where we are today,” said Jason Blackwell, chief investment strategist at Focus Partners Wealth, though he flagged the risk of more twists. Reuters
The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) closed at $123.35 on Friday, down 24 cents from Thursday, and it aims to track the ISE CTA Cloud Computing Index, First Trust’s website showed. Its top holdings include CoreWeave, Arista Networks, Amazon, Alphabet, MongoDB and Microsoft. The index groups companies by infrastructure-, platform- and software-as-a-service — cloud servers, the building blocks for apps, and software delivered over the internet — and caps individual weights at 4.5%, according to the fund description.
WisdomTree’s Cloud Computing Fund (WCLD) closed at $32.372, down 0.18%, while its net asset value — the per-share value of the underlying holdings — stood at $32.376, WisdomTree data showed.
The Global X Cloud Computing ETF (CLOU) ended Friday at $21.42, up 0.04, or 0.19%, according to Stock Analysis data.
The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting runs Jan. 27-28, with the policy decision due at 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday and Chair Jerome Powell scheduled to speak at 2:30 p.m., the central bank’s calendar shows.
Microsoft is also due to report on Wednesday, saying it will release fiscal second-quarter results after the market close on Jan. 28, followed by an earnings call webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
But cloud computing stocks have little room for stumbles. If the Fed leans more hawkish than markets expect, or if earnings show slower cloud growth and stubborn spending on data centers, the sector could reprice quickly.
For now, investors will take their cues from Wednesday’s Fed statement and Powell press conference, then Microsoft’s results after the bell — early checkpoints in a week that could set the tone for cloud shares into February.
