U.S. stock markets opened higher after strong results from Palantir Technologies helped lift sentiment, though early gains faded as investors digested fresh economic and policy signals. The session highlighted how quickly optimism can give way to caution amid lingering uncertainty.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, about Palantir’s impact on market momentum, the fragility of current conditions and what investors should watch as earnings season continues.
Key Takeaways
- Strong results from Palantir provided an initial boost to U.S. equities, reinforcing the outsized role of major technology names in shaping market sentiment.
- Market conditions remain fragile, with single headlines capable of quickly reversing direction regardless of underlying earnings strength.
- Consumer-facing companies are facing uneven demand, with pricing pressure emerging as shoppers grow more selective.
- Drugmakers are navigating slowing legacy product sales while investing heavily in newer growth areas such as obesity treatments.
- Big tech earnings are expected to remain solid, but companies are likely to temper optimism by highlighting economic, policy and geopolitical risks.
Read the full transcript below:
ANDREW: North American markets opened higher today, but then we saw weakness in stocks. Let’s focus first on Palantir, the software vendor. In an interview with CNBC, Palantir called its latest results “indisputably the best results I’m aware of in tech in the last decade.” So no hyperbole there.
Our guest says this headline should lift the markets, but cautions that we all know how quickly things can change. Joining us now is Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners. Thanks very much for joining us.
Jonathan, I’m not sure — I mean, it’s a moving target — but what caused the market, do you think, to weaken after a higher open?
JONATHAN: Yeah, you know, I wrote that note last night, and how true it seems now. We came into today off the momentum here from earnings reports and the trading activity that we saw yesterday — clearly an up market yesterday — and thinking Palantir was going to continue to help our markets overnight, which it did. S&P futures were up this morning.
As soon as the market opened today, we had some Fed comments coming out about the uncertainty of the economy and the data — unemployment numbers and what they’re going to look like moving forward. Very quickly, you could see that the market changed direction.
That doesn’t change the earnings reports that we got last night, the sentiment from yesterday or the reports from today. It just proves my point about how quickly this market can change off one headline. To me, that tells me one thing: we’re probably getting very toppy at this point.
The market is soft. It’s fragile. One headline can shift this market in either direction, whether it’s magnified to the upside or the downside. Obviously, we like to see it to the upside, but sometimes those movements aren’t really warranted based on those headlines.
So again today, a couple of comments coming out of Washington put a bit of pressure on markets in the early session. We’ll see how the day plays out.
ANDREW: Palantir — such an interesting story, isn’t it? It was down as of today this year, still up about 75 per cent in the past year, and was up almost 90 per cent back in November.
The Wall Street Journal said no company in the S&P 500 had hit a US$490-billion valuation as quickly and with as little in sales. So it’s got a famous multiple.
JONATHAN: Yeah, I mean, it’s a great story. We’ve clearly seen a lot of volatility in that stock. There have been a lot of naysayers on the Street about Palantir, so I think Karp’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder to prove everybody wrong.
Coming off the highs in the third and fourth quarters of last year, trading around 200, it’s come down and bounced off the 150 level. We see where it’s trading today. It still has some room in front of it, but overall, the story and the earnings reports have some wind behind them.
Now it’s a question of whether there’s enough wind to get back to the levels we saw at the end of 2025 as this story continues to unfold. This is a hot area of investing, and when we see an earnings report like we did last night from Palantir, it should help build momentum.
ANDREW: You’re looking ahead to some classic consumer stocks — earnings from PepsiCo and Pfizer. What should we keep an eye out for?
JONATHAN: Yeah, we saw those this morning. There were clearly some wins from both names, but uncertainty about the future is still going to be one of the big forecasting themes.
With Pepsi, they’re trying to invest in different areas. They announced this morning how well some of their soda sales are doing, but snacks aren’t doing as well, so they’re lowering prices there. I think investors are taking that as a negative sign.
With Pfizer, we’re seeing a slowdown in some COVID-related product sales, as well as in some older drugs. But they’re continuing to move into the obesity business and investing heavily there, which is a positive takeaway from the results.
ANDREW: And they are cutting prices on Doritos and Lay’s chips. Of course, when I look at bags of chips in the supermarket, I’m not necessarily talking about those brands — they seem to get smaller and smaller.
In any case, what should we look out for with forthcoming big tech earnings? Massive spending on AI capabilities seems to be a theme.
JONATHAN: Yeah, we’re still going to look for that headline. It’s a unique area right now because of the amount of cash these companies have on hand. The push to invest internally and to acquire other companies is clearly there.
At the same time, we’re still going to hear about uncertainty in the economic outlook. We’ll keep talking about interest rates, tariffs and the implications of that, along with geopolitical risks.
So I think the headlines from these earnings reports will be net positive, but companies will use some of those uncertainties to manage expectations a quarter or two ahead. That’s part of their job — deliver a good story while managing expectations.
ANDREW: Jonathan, as ever, thank you very much indeed.
JONATHAN: Have a great day. Thank you.
ANDREW: Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Feb. 3, 2026 interview with Jonathan Corpina are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
