Palantir develops and provides software that enables customers from government agencies to commercial enterprises to integrate data for decision-making and operations at scale. The company initially provided its software to the U.S. intelligence services before broadening its customer base. In 2023, 55% of its revenue was generated by its government segment and 45% from its commercial segment; 38% of revenue was generated outside the U.S. Palantir's class A shares trade publicly under the symbol PLTR. Palantir's super-voting class B and class F shares, held by insiders and founders, do not trade publicly. The company is effectively controlled by founders Alexander Karp, Stephen Cohen, and Peter Thiel through the super-voting class F shares that represent a 49.99% voting interest. Palantir was founded in 2003 and went public at $10 per share on September 30, 2020.

Much of the U.S. political uncertainty is over and, yes, many stocks soared on the news. But it was still an odd day, as many stocks were smacked. At the end of the day, a new administration can't be good for all industries. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 tacked on 2.5%, the S&P 100 rose 2.6%, the Nasdaq jumped almost 3%, and the Nasdaq 100 popped 2.7%. All four indices gapped to all-time highs; in most cases, that is bullish as there is no overhead supply with which to contend. Only the "last" all-time high in each cycle is bad. But the real action on Wednesday was in the smaller stocks, with the S&P MidCap 400 (MDY) spiking a bit over 4% and the S&P SmallCap 600 (SML) and the Russell 2000 (IWM) both surging about 6%. Those are all-time highs for the MDY and SML, while the IWM is getting close. NYSE breadth was only +800, which stinks compared to the index returns. The NYSE advances/total issues and up volume/total volume were low- to mid-60%, also poor. Financial stocks soared over 6%, with big banks and investment services going ballistic (JPM +11.5%, BAC +8.4%, WFC +13%, MS +11.6%, GS +13%). Those are the largest one-day gains for these stocks since the end of the pandemic and, before that, since the end of the financial crisis. Industrials and Energy were next, up almost 4%; Discretionary and Technology rose about 4%; and Communication Services. added 2.5%; Real Estate fell 2.7%; Consumer Staples dropped 1.6%, and Utilities fell 1% as rates rose again. (Mark Arbeter, CMT)

Palantir is an analytical software company that focuses on leveraging data to create efficiencies in its clients’ organizations. The firm serves commercial and government clients via its Foundry and Gotham platforms, respectively. The Denver-based company was founded in 2003 and went public in 2020.

Meta is the largest social media company in the world, boasting close to 4 billion monthly active users worldwide. The firm’s “Family of Apps,” its core business, consists of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. End users can leverage these applications for a variety of different purposes, from keeping in touch with friends to following celebrities and running digital businesses for free. Meta packages customer data, gleaned from its application ecosystem and sells ads to digital advertisers. While the firm has been investing heavily in its Reality Labs business, it remains a very small part of Meta’s overall sales.