Premarket trading was mixed as investors digested a slate of corporate updates tied to AI infrastructure, earnings signals and shifting commodity prices. Datadog rose 2.3% after Guggenheim upgraded the software company to Buy from Neutral, arguing that Datadog is a primary beneficiary of AI-driven growth in data volumes and information technology complexity. CoreWeave, the AI-focused cloud provider, advanced more than 5% on news of a $21 billion expanded infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms. CoreWeave said the capacity will be deployed across multiple locations and will include some of the initial deployments of NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform, with the goal of improving performance, resilience and scalability for Meta’s AI operations.
Constellation Brands slipped less than 1% after it withdrew its 2028 guidance amid uncertainty and said demand remained subdued. The company’s full-year earnings guidance came in short of expectations, even as fourth-quarter results beat the Street’s estimates. On the energy side, oil equities rose as prices reversed an earlier slide, with a broad rebound in U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude after its biggest one-day decline since 2020. Occidental Petroleum and APA both rose nearly 2%, while ConocoPhillips, Chevron and BP each gained about 1%.
In the travel complex, airlines bucked the broader risk-on tone as higher oil costs weighed on margins, with Alaska Air down roughly 2% and United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines each retreating about 1%. Cruise operators followed oil higher, with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line giving back around 2% while Carnival ticked down about 1%.
Within the tech/enterprise space, Applied Digital moved little, slipping less than 1% despite reporting third-quarter results that exceeded expectations: adjusted EBITDA of $44.1 million versus a FactSet consensus of $19.3 million. The stock had climbed earlier this month, rising about 17% on a month-to-date basis and more than 13% for the year.
Texas Instruments rose nearly 2% after Stifel upgraded the chipmaker to Buy from Hold, citing an end to its capital-expenditure cycle and growth in its data-center business as supportive tailwinds for TI’s outlook. In healthcare tech, Staar Surgical jumped 27% after guiding for first-quarter revenue above $90 million, well above the roughly $67.6 million expected by FactSet-polled analysts.
On the downside, Zscaler was downgraded by BTIG to Neutral from Buy and was removed from BTIG’s first-half 2026 top picks list, reflecting a more cautious forward outlook. Shares fell roughly 3% in response.
Key takeaways
- Datadog up 2.3% on upgrade — Guggenheim raised the software firm to Buy from Neutral, arguing AI-driven growth in data volumes and IT complexity should lift Datadog’s growth trajectory. Implication: a positive sentiment shift around software analytics plays amid AI infrastructure demand.
- CoreWeave jumps >5% on Meta deal — The AI cloud provider announced a $21 billion expanded infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms, including early deployments of NVIDIA Vera Rubin. Implication: reinforcement of AI infrastructure megadeals supporting cloud and AI ecosystems.
- Constellation Brands under pressure — Withdrawing 2028 guidance and softer demand weighed on sentiment, even as Q4 results beat estimates. Implication: consumer-packaged goods names face macro uncertainty and demand volatility into 2028 planning.
- Energy names higher as oil rebounds — Occidental Petroleum and APA led gains near 2%, with other majors edging up about 1%. Implication: energy equities benefited from a rebound in oil after a volatile period, supporting earnings visibility for integrated players.
- Travel and tech mixed — Airlines fell on higher oil costs; cruise lines declined as well. Meanwhile, Applied Digital beat earnings but trimmed most of its preannouncement volatility. TI and Staar Surgical moved on firm upgrades and strong guidance. Zscaler’s downgrade weighed on the cloud-security group. Implication: sector-specific catalysts continue to drive stock-by-stock sentiment while macro driver risk remains ongoing.
What drove the move
Analysts and traders cited several catalysts behind the shifts in premarket action. The Datadog upgrade from Guggenheim is the clearest positive impulse, anchored in expectations that AI-enabled data growth and IT complexity will sustain demand for monitoring and observability platforms. The CoreWeave deal with Meta Platforms is another dominant driver, signaling that large-scale AI infrastructure commitments remain a central theme for 2026 and beyond. The collaboration is framed as an effort to expand capacity while leveraging NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform to bolster AI workloads, potentially supporting faster compute cycles and improved resilience for Meta’s AI initiatives.
On the corporate result side, Constellation Brands’ withdrawal of its 2028 guidance adds a layer of uncertainty around future demand for beverages, even as fourth-quarter performance beat expectations. The disconnect between near-term quarterly strength and longer-term guidance highlights the ongoing tension between macro demand trends and company-specific strategy in consumer staples. Separately, Texas Instruments’ upgrade reflects investor appetite for semiconductors that stand to benefit from an improving data center and industrial end-market mix, a narrative that has been a staple of chip equities in the current cycle. Staar Surgical’s stronger-than-expected first-quarter revenue guidance likewise underscores continued demand for ophthalmic solutions, a subsector with notable growth potential in elective healthcare services.
The energy complex has been a persistent swing factor for equities this period. The rebound in oil prices helped lift energy equities, a technical backdrop that also influenced airline and cruise-line shares, where higher fuel outlays threaten profit margins. The market’s broader tone remains sensitive to macro data on inflation and rates, as investors parse the pace of monetary tightening and the trajectory of demand in a post-pandemic world.
Market reaction
Overall, the premarket session reflected a bifurcated tape linked to sector fundamentals. Software and AI infrastructure plays were among the sources of strength, while consumer staples with uncertain long-run guidance and travel-related stocks faced mixed to negative read-throughs depending on company-specific dynamics. Energy names traded higher on improved commodity sentiment, while more cyclical names in travel were pressured by fuel cost concerns and broader demand questions.
What analysts are saying
Market commentary around Datadog’s upgrade centers on AI-driven demand for data- and cloud-native operations, a trend that has been cited by multiple technology analysts as a structural tailwind for observability and security platforms. The CoreWeave–Meta collaboration is interpreted as part of a broader push by hyperscalers to secure scalable AI compute capacity, with NVIDIA’s platform deployments viewed as a key enabling technology for large-language models and related AI workloads. The downgrade on Zscaler reflects a cautious stance on the cloud-security space, with a focus on forward-looking profitability and valuation multiple compression in a sector that has benefited from excess demand in past cycles.
Bigger picture
The session underscores how AI technology cycles continue to shape equity markets. Investors are weighing near-term earnings and guidance against longer-term demand for AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and data analytics tools. The energy rotation seen in premarket trading also highlights the ongoing sensitivity of equities to oil prices, a dynamic that has persisted through the past several quarters as supply and demand signals shift. In this context, the market remains attentive to central-bank communications, inflation data and the trajectory of rate expectations, all of which could recalibrate how aggressively investors rotate into AI-related growth versus value and cyclicals.
What to watch next: earnings reports and guidance from tech and AI infrastructure names, ongoing developments in the AI hardware ecosystem (including NVIDIA-related deployments), and macro data releases that could influence rate expectations. Investors will also be monitoring energy price movements for further read-through into airline and cruise-line profitability.
