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Wake Up and Grab a Shovel
RIP: Taxpayer-Funded Insurance Companies?
Kevin Travers
January 26, 2026 • Reading Time: 12 minutes
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CLOSING BELL
Wake Up and Grab a Shovel
The market climbed Monday, millions waking up to fresh powder after a major blizzard hit the United States. Fresh pow pow is great when skiing, but when trying to drive a Honda Civic 2012 to work, not so much.
Despite the still-present state of emergencies in the North East, and horrific preventable violence in Minneapolis, markets climbed, with a combination of earnings angst, de-dollarization metal buying small-cap thrills, and government buyouts to keep things interesting.
Gold and silver hit record highs. Gold broke $5k an oz, and silver broke through $117. Investors the world over have had enough with stocks and the U.S. dollar, the debasement trade is back, at least in comment sections and stock floor gossip. Some would say it hasn’t ever left, looking at the 12-month chart of metals and seeing silver nearly triple and gold DOUBLE in price.
Coreweave made headlines with a fresh inflow of cash from Nvidia, Michael Burry’s big mouth sent retail traders to pile into GameStop, another Uncle Sam payout for a miner sent rare earths higher, while a White House recalculation of Medicare increases sent insurers tumbling after hours.
Apple $AAPL was climbing, JPM giving it an upgrade to start its earnings week, expect it with $MSFT $TSLA and $META this week, along with a ton of other reports.
Sector | Change |
|---|---|
⚡ Utilities | 🟢 +0.73% |
📱 Comm. Services | 🟢 +0.69% |
💻 Technology | 🟢 +0.68% |
🏦 Financials | 🟢 +0.64% |
💊 Health Care | 🟢 +0.39% |
🧱 Materials | 🟢 +0.12% |
🏭 Industrials | 🟢 +0.10% |
⛽ Energy | 🟢 +0.06% |
🏠 Real Estate | 🔴 -0.07% |
🛒 Consumer Staples | 🔴 -0.16% |
🛍️ Consumer Disc. | 🔴 -0.66% |
AFTER HOURS
The Great Health Insurance Payola Is Shrinking Next Year 💊
Shares of the largest insurance providers and recipients in the U.S. were falling after hours Monday, after the White House said it was going to ask for effectively flat rates for Medicare insurers next year. United Health CVS MOH sink on Medicare rates report.
CVS was down 10%, Humana was falling nearly 14%, and United Health Group fell 10%. Humana has about 70% of its business tied to government payouts, according to Bloomberg. If the fall continues Tuesday, it’s on track for the worst one day drop for that stock if this fall continues for four years.
The WSJ said analysts were looking for increases of 4-6%. The Trump admin effectively said that 30 million Americans are apart ofthese plans, and insurers can’t charge more if they can’t justify it.
Billing Reform: The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate certain "lucrative billing practices" to simplify the system and increase competition.
Enrollment Numbers: Roughly 30 million to 34 million Americans are currently enrolled in these private Medicare Advantage plans.
Financial Stakes: The federal government pays roughly $500 billion annually to private insurers for these plans. The 0.09% base increase represents only about $700 million in new money for 2027, compared to the ~$30 billion increase seen previously.
Basically, insures saw a 5% raise, nearly a $30B INCREASE to their expected revenue this year from Medicare payouts, and today the White House said next year it’ll be less than $1B. Not a great day for insurance stocks, but a massive win for spending cuts if the admin sticks to its guns. 🧨
STOCKS
USA Rare Earth shares jump 20% as Commerce Department takes equity stake
The macro word today was another Uncle Sam becomes a bagholder story, after the U.S. Government took a 10% stake in USA Rare Earth, $USAR ( ▲ 7.87% ) , valued at $1.6 billion.
Shares surged 20% after the U.S. Commerce Department announced the deal, called an investment to secure domestic mineral supplies in the Oklahoma based company.
The Deal: The package includes a $1.3 billion CHIPS Act loan and a $277 million grant in exchange for a 10% equity stake.
The Goal: Funding will fast-track the Round Top mine in Texas and a magnet facility in Oklahoma to reduce reliance on Chinese exports.
Market Impact: The move signals a "nationalization" trend for critical minerals, sparking sympathy rallies in peers like MP Materials $MP and Lithium Americas$LAC .
The government’s investment sent the ticker to the top of the charts as the race for critical minerals heats up. This move follows a chaotic trade talk weekend where the President threatened a 100% tariff on all Canadian imports, specifically warning China to stay away from Canada’s social fabric and ice hockey. 🏒
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This “Total Conviction Buy Alert” has previously identified stocks that went on to average gains of over 1,000%, dramatically outperforming the S&P 500. Today, that same signal is pointing to an under-the-radar California tech company operating at the center of the fast-growing advanced aeronautics and space economy.
The stock is just 1/100th the size of Nvidia, has been recommended nine times by Motley Fool services since 2023, and one early recommendation is already up 10x. Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner calls it his “highest conviction” rec—and the company’s CEO has invested $2.6 billion of his own fortune.
*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.
DEAL NEWS
🔌 CoreWeave $CRWV Soars on $2B Nvidia Stake
CoreWeave shares jumped nearly 6% Monday after Nvidia doubled down on the "AI Factory" pioneer with a massive equity injection.
The Deal: Nvidia purchased $2 billion in stock at $87.20 per share to accelerate global AI infrastructure. The move adds to the computing pile Nvidia has booked with CoreWeave, after a September deal for $6B in compute.
The Goal: The partnership targets 5 gigawatts of AI capacity by 2030, utilizing Nvidia’s next-gen Rubin platform and Vera CPUs.
Future tech: the deal nets CoreWeave a pass to be one of the first providers to use new Nvidia tech, including the brand new, super cool supercooled data center chips in the Vera line. 😎
TRENDING STOCKS
Most Watched Stocks: Retail Sentiment 👀
$BNAI ( ▲ 276.7% ) : This AI-driven brand engagement stock is the day's speculative leader, the company announced a strategic AI licensing partnership targeting government and commercial markets in Africa. Retail investors are chasing the "penny stock explosion" narrative, making it the top-trending individual equity on the board.
$GME ( ▲ 4.44% ) : GameStop is rocketing after Michael Burry disclosed a long-term value position in the retailer. This "Big Short" validation follows back-to-back insider purchases by CEO Ryan Cohen, who recently spent $21.4 million to increase his stake to 9.3%.
$VAVX ( 0.0% ) VanEck launched the first U.S. Avalanche Spot ETF on the Nasdaq, offering institutional-grade exposure to the AVAX token.
Pops and Drops
$ANET ( ▲ 5.41% ) : Arista Networks is climbing as it continues to dominate the high-performance AI networking space.
$DDOG ( ▲ 5.0% ) : Datadog surged as cloud observability becomes a critical focus for scaling AI infrastructure.
$INTC ( ▼ 5.72% ) : Intel is sliding despite a Q4 beat, as a weak Q1 2026 outlook and internal execution failures weigh on sentiment.
$TSLA ( ▼ 3.09% ) : Tesla is under pressure as broader concerns regarding auto-loan credit quality and "sell the news" sentiment impact the sector.
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WHAT’S ON DECK
Tomorrow’s Top Things 📋
Economic data: New Home Sales (10:00 AM). 📊
Pre-Market Earnings: $BA, $UNH, $GM, $UPS, $RTX, $NEE, $NOC, $UNP, $HCA. ☀️After-Market Earnings: $TXN, $STX, $GD. 🌙📊
P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls on Stocktwits.
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