By Angela Palumbo

The first month of trading in 2025 is about to come to an end, and it will be one for the history books.

January was filled with twist and turns for Wall Street. Investors had to digest the ordinary flow of news, including a jobs report that turned out to be much stronger than expected, a decision from the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady, and data showing inflation remains persistent.

On top of that, a new president was inaugurated, TikTok was banned and reinstated, the Chinese start-up DeepSeek shook the markets, and tech companies including several Magnificent Several members reported their earnings.

While the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index was up 2.7% so far this year before the close on Friday afternoon, some tech stocks have taken a beating.

According to Dow Jones Market Data, the videogame maker Electronic Arts was the worst performer in the index in January, with a loss of 16%. That marks the stock's worst month since October 2018.

Shares fell 24% on Jan. 23 after EA said it expects bookings to fall following weakness in its Global Football Division, which includes the EA Sports FC soccer videogames. Disappointing sales of Dragon Age: The Veilguard were also a problem.

Several Wall Street analysts remained bullish. Wedbush's Michael Pachter rates the stock as Outperform with a $173 price target. He said in a note on Jan. 22 that EA shares "may be 'dead money' for another quarter or so, but we remain confident in a rebound once the company provides visibility into its release schedule for FY:26 and FY:27."

The stock also got upgraded to Buy from Neutral by MoffettNathanson analyst Clay Griffin on Friday. Griffin, who increased his price target to $145 from $139, said that the stock decline is "overdone," and that now is a good time to "step in and buy the stock."

Griffon's optimism helped push shares up 3.8% to $123.20 on Friday.

EA isn't the only tech company to have a rough January. Nvidia was the fourth-worst performer with a loss of 7.3%, its biggest monthly decline since October 2023.

Nvidia stock tumbled 17% on Jan. 27 after viral social-media posts over the weekend said that DeepSeek had developed an AI model similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT for much less money than the big U.S. tech companies have had to spend. While experts have since decided the cost likely was much higher than what has been reported, Nvidia investors have concerns that big tech companies won't need to keep spending big on AI hardware.

Not helping to reinvigorate investor sentiment was a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday that said the Trump administration was weighing additional limits on the sale of Nvidia's chips to China. Barron's reported on Friday that Chief Executive Jensen Huang is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at the White House in the afternoon, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Despite all the hoopla, Wall Street stands firm on its bullish outlook for Nvidia. Of the 67 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 61 say the stock is a Buy, and six rate it at Hold.

"Big Tech views AI as a 4th Industrial Revolution and there is only one company with the chips to fuel these massive AI endeavors...Nvidia," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote on Wednesday.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 31, 2025 14:59 ET (19:59 GMT)

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