New York, Feb 8, 2026, 12:47 PM ET — The market is closed.
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) finished Friday’s session up around 4.5% at $135.90, volume hitting about 63 million shares. Software stocks moved higher into the close, helping lift the name.
Investors are still shuffling their portfolios after last week’s wild swings in AI favorites and other popular trades, but the rebound is taking a different shape. “We’re instead seeing a wave of aggressive buying of altogether different stocks,” said Tim Murray, capital markets strategist at T. Rowe Price, as cash flowed into undervalued shares and out of high-volatility names. (Reuters)
Friday saw a surge across the board. The Dow barreled past 50,000 while investors parsed new hints that Big Tech is ready to ramp up AI infrastructure spending—capex dollars earmarked for long-term investments like data centers and hardware. “There’s real demand for AI products,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird. Software and data-services stocks, which had recently taken a beating, rebounded hard. (Reuters)
Palantir shares are still feeling the aftershocks of the recent earnings and guidance. The data-analysis software maker reported a 66% jump in U.S. government revenue for the fourth quarter, hitting $570 million, and projected 2026 revenue between $7.18 billion and $7.20 billion. Even so, eToro analyst Zavier Wong flagged ongoing doubts around the stock’s valuation: “Valuation question marks won’t disappear.” (Reuters)
Fresh scrutiny over British politics, after Defence Secretary John Healey insisted Peter Mandelson had no influence in Palantir’s £240.6 million data-analytics contract. Questions cropped up over how the deal was handled and Mandelson’s connections to a lobbying firm with Palantir on its client roster, according to Bloomberg. (Bloomberg.com)
That kind of headline risk hits traders hard, since Palantir’s whole value proposition relies so much on government contracts—vulnerable to shifting procurement rules, oversight, and public attention. And it doesn’t always come with warning; sometimes, developments land out of the blue on a weekend, leaving no window to hedge before markets open.
PLTR’s next swing may hinge more on rates than anything internal. A strong inflation or jobs number? Treasury yields could shoot higher, slamming high-multiple software names. A softer figure, though, might give these stocks some breathing room—particularly after a rough week.
Monday’s open will show if Friday’s bounce sticks or slips into another round of rotation away from AI-linked stocks. Palantir, for better or worse, is right in the thick of it—often standing in as the poster child for that particular trade.
Traders are eyeing two big U.S. data drops that could shake up rate bets: the January Employment Situation report hits at 8:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 11, with the January Consumer Price Index set for Friday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. ET. (bls.gov)
