Nokia stock climbed 2.6% in pre-market trading today after tumbling more than 13% in the prior session amid a sector-wide selloff of optical and AI infrastructure-related equities. The rebound is closely tied to a fresh analyst initiation by Rosenblatt Securities, which on Monday started coverage of Nokia with a Buy rating and set a price target of $15, arguing the company’s optical networking business is being valued more like traditional telecom-equipment even as it stands to benefit directly from AI infrastructure spending.
Rosenblatt’s initiation highlighted several concrete financial datapoints. The firm pointed to 20% year-over-year growth for Nokia’s Optical Networks division in the second quarter of 2026 and noted that the company’s AI and Cloud revenue more than doubled over the same period. Rosenblatt also cited AI and Cloud orders of 2.8 billion for the quarter, and estimated that about half of those orders should convert into revenue within the next twelve months.
Adding a structural element to the supportive narrative, Nokia is scheduled to rejoin the Euro STOXX 50 index on September 21, taking Volkswagen's place after a one-year absence. That reentry is expected to prompt automatic purchases by passive funds that track the benchmark, creating an additional potential source of demand for Nokia shares ahead of the effective date.
Market-wide conditions offered little lift. Major U.S. indexes - including the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq - were trading slightly lower in pre-market action, underscoring that Nokia’s recovery appears driven by company-specific developments rather than a broad equity rally. The steep selloff in the prior session had swept Nokia up with peers in the optical communications space amid investor concerns over the tempo of AI infrastructure investment, making Rosenblatt’s initiation a timely countervailing view for some investors.
In sum, three factors combined to set the stage for today’s pre-market bounce: an oversold technical backdrop after Monday’s sharp drop, a high-conviction analyst initiation with a price target implying material upside, and the pending Euro STOXX 50 re-entry that typically triggers passive buying. Those elements appear to have outweighed the modest negative pressure from the wider tape heading into the trading day.