What Happened?

A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after the major indices rebounded from a week of heavy selling. 

This rally was fueled by a recovery in technology stocks and a significant bounce in Bitcoin, which stabilized after losing over half its value from its October peak. Investor sentiment was also lifted by a surprising improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment and the realization that massive AI-related capital expenditure, such as Amazon's planned $200 billion, directly benefits chipmakers like Nvidia and Broadcom. These "pick-and-shovel" winners jumped as much as 7%, helping the S&P 500 edge back into positive territory for 2026. The highlight of the day was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which surged and crossed the historic 50,000 threshold for the first time.

The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.

Among others, the following stocks were impacted:

• Advertising & Marketing Services company Ibotta (NYSE: IBTA) jumped 7.3%. Is now the time to buy Ibotta? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• IT Distribution & Solutions company Insight Enterprises (NASDAQ: NSIT) jumped 7.4%. Is now the time to buy Insight Enterprises? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• IT Distribution & Solutions company ScanSource (NASDAQ: SCSC) jumped 6.8%. Is now the time to buy ScanSource? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Hardware & Infrastructure company Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) jumped 10.8%. Is now the time to buy Pure Storage? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
• Hardware & Infrastructure company Xerox (NASDAQ: XRX) jumped 9.9%. Is now the time to buy Xerox? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.

Zooming In On Pure Storage (PSTG)

Pure Storage’s shares are very volatile and have had 26 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Pure Storage and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 11 days ago when the stock gained 1.8% on the news that the company emphasized its shareholder return strategy, backed by a new $400 million share repurchase authorization. 

The move to buy back shares, the largest in the company's history, suggested management's growing confidence in its business momentum and financial strength. In the last reported quarter, Pure Storage delivered 16% revenue growth from the previous year to $964 million and an operating margin of 20.3%. The company ended the fiscal third quarter with $1.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. This latest authorization was in addition to the $20 million remaining under its previous $250 million buyback plan, reinforcing the company's commitment to returning value to its shareholders.

Pure Storage is up 2.9% since the beginning of the year, but at $71.01 per share, it is still trading 28.1% below its 52-week high of $98.70 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Pure Storage’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,572.

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