Stocks in Play - January 26th 2026

Stocks in Play: CRWV, Rare Earths, IONQ

Welcome to today's Stocks in Play report. Below are the key stocks to watch, along with brief x-ray and analysis.

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Market Awareness

There has been months of choppiness now. I’ve repeated multiple times in this newsletter that I had been conditioning myself for this to last until earnings season at least. It seems that is at least correct. Range expansion on the QQQ is likely to occur soon. The direction is unknown but it’s better to assume bullish than be too cynical. Lot’s of important earnings this week. Let that be the guide.

Select catalysts and themes are working but have been difficult for me to get into. That and I’ve had a busy January with a two week vacation and life events which has led to me missing trades I’d normally expect to catch like CRVS. A trade like this makes your month. We turn up every day so that we catch trades like that.

Today I like several themes and feel like we might see some sustained moves.

Today’s Picks

CRWV:  NVIDIA and CoreWeave announced a major expansion of their infrastructure partnership centered on accelerating the buildout of 5+ gigawatts of AI data centers ("AI factories") by 2030. The headline component is NVIDIA's $2 billion equity investment in CoreWeave at $87.20/share. Chart has been in several months of consolidation and we are right at the top of that multimonth trendline. Psych level of $100. I like this for a sustained move if it can get going today.

X-Ray CRWV: Industry Group: Software - Infrastructure, Market Cap: 46.33B, Float: 320.04M Short Interest 16.51%, Days to Cover: 1.85, Exchange: NASDAQ

Rare Earths:  USAR Investment by the US Government was announced over the weekend. This was heavily front run by the usual insider trading that has become common place in this administration. USAR isn’t tradeable for me today but AREC and MP are good proxies in my opinion.

X-Ray MP: Industry Group: Other Industrial Metals & Mining, Market Cap: 12.33B, Float: 143.01M Short Interest 16.27%, Days to Cover: 2.44, Exchange: NYSE

X-Ray AREC: Industry Group: Coking Coal, Market Cap: 443.09M, Float: 80.04M Short Interest 9.14%, Days to Cover: 1.15, Exchange: NASDAQ

Other names I’m monitoring today: IONQ acquired semiconductor company SKYT which has been a big winner YTD. This seems like a major pivot to me. Market isn’t responding pre market but I am watching it closely as IONQ could easily make another big move. They’ve essentially bought a real business vs their own vaporware. SRPT released positive Data. This stock has had major moves previously. Again it’s not responding pre market but worth setting alerts. Finally YYAI which has had heavy insider buying up to Friday. No other catalyst but these microcaps can make huge moves on these sorts of buys. Chart looks good though it has already gapped on Friday.

Delayed Reaction Watchlist (click here Tradingview)

Sources & Services I Use in my Trading:

• Finviz - Short Interest, Float, Articles, Fundamentals (Free)

• Benzinga Pro - News Source + News Squawk + Earnings Data (Paid)

• Tradingview - Charting & Scanning (Paid)

• BiopharmaIQ - FDA Calendars & Upcoming Catalysts (Paid)

• Koyfin - Fundamental Data (Paid)

• EarningsWhispers - Earnings Calendar (Free)

• Tradersync - Trade Journal (Paid)

_{PS: There are many ways to trade stocks in play. It does not have to be the one that keeps going straight up and sometimes it doesn’t even have to be day one of the catalyst. Everyone must find a setup, timeframe and method that works for them. This list is supposed to educate on the criteria I use and the methods in which I find Stocks in Play. Yours may differ and that is completely okay.}