New York, February 2, 2026, 14:47 EST — Regular session underway.
- IBM shares climbed roughly 3% during afternoon trading, outperforming the wider market.
- Traders balanced last week’s fallout against Washington’s efforts to end the ongoing partial U.S. shutdown.
- Attention shifts to whether government disruptions will once again impact IBM’s bookings tied to Red Hat.
Shares of International Business Machines Corp climbed 3.0% to $316.01 in afternoon trade Monday, after briefly hitting $316.63, as investors held onto the stock following its earnings boost.
The gain unfolded while Wall Street eyed Capitol Hill ahead of a Tuesday vote on a deal to revive federal funding following a partial shutdown that started over the weekend. This risk hits IBM particularly hard, given how much of its cloud and software business depends on government contracts. Reuters
Stocks climbed across the board, lifting the S&P 500 to fresh record highs while the Dow gained roughly 1%, driven by solid earnings reports and improving factory output. “The fundamentals are good and earnings are strong,” noted Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. Reuters
IBM’s action seemed like a follow-up to last week’s response to its quarterly results, with investors still favoring firms linked to enterprise spending over those driven by consumer demand.
IBM topped Wall Street expectations in its latest earnings, driven by strong demand for AI-related software. CFO Jim Kavanaugh noted a previous shutdown trimmed Red Hat’s growth by “a couple points” and said federal government clients account for roughly 15% of hybrid cloud bookings. On the post-earnings call, he added, “We’re going to have to deal with that as we move forward.” Reuters
IBM is betting on steady growth in 2026, not a fresh start. “We enter 2026 with momentum,” CEO Arvind Krishna said, while forecasting over 5% revenue growth in constant currency—removing exchange-rate noise. The company’s board also signed off on a quarterly dividend of $1.68 a share for shareholders of record on Feb. 10. IBM Newsroom
Traders are now focused on whether IBM can maintain its gains amid delays in Washington, and if client spending remains strong as major tech firms report earnings later this week.
The downside is clear. If the shutdown drags on past a quick resolution, procurement will slow and project approvals could stall, potentially dragging down IBM’s Red Hat business again. On a different note, any hold-up in corporate AI deployments would probably hit consulting signings and software renewals first.
IBM has pegged April 22 for its first-quarter earnings report, though it’s currently marked as preliminary. ibm.com
