Afternoon Pulse - January 21, 2026

[ALEX] Good afternoon, and welcome to Afternoon Pulse for Tuesday, January 21st. I'm Alex Morgan.

[KATE] And I'm Kate Chen. Let's wrap up the trading day.

[ALEX] A mixed session on Wall Street, with tech continuing to outperform. The Nasdaq gained 0.4%, the S&P added a modest 12 basis points, while the Dow slipped slightly, down 8 basis points.

[KATE] The big story after the bell is Netflix. The streaming giant crushed estimates with EPS of $4.27 versus the $4.05 expected. Subscriber growth came in well above consensus, and the stock is up 8% in after-hours trading.

[ALEX] This sets up an interesting dynamic for the rest of earnings season. Expectations were already elevated, but Netflix clearing that bar suggests there may be room for other mega-caps to surprise.

[KATE] On the Fed front, Governor Waller struck a hawkish tone in remarks this afternoon. He emphasized patience on rate cuts, pointing to sticky services inflation as a key concern. Markets are now pricing just a 15% chance of a March cut.

[ALEX] The housing market continues to struggle under the weight of 7% mortgage rates. Existing home sales fell 2.1% month-over-month, missing expectations.

[KATE] Looking ahead to tomorrow, we have Initial Jobless Claims at 8:30 AM. The consensus is 215,000. After the close, Meta reports, and that's going to be a major catalyst for the tech sector.

[ALEX] That's your Afternoon Pulse. The signal, not the noise. See you tomorrow morning.