Markets
The Nasdaq Rose 1.05% and the Dow Closed at a One-Month High as Super Micro Jumped 10% and AT&T Fell 6%. Then Meta Rose and Lam Research Fell After the Bell
The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.05% to 26,702.86 on October 21, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 360.21 points, or 0.69%, to 52,856.09, its highest close in a month, and the S&P 500 rose 0.58% to 7,757.17, within 0.8% of its record. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.97% as Super Micro Computer gained 9.55% and Dell 5.27%, while AT&T lost 6.45% on a beat. The VIX fell to 16.68. After the close Meta rose about 3%, Lam Research fell about 6% and IBM gave back a 3.94% gain.
The third straight gain for the S&P 500 was the first one led by technology. The Nasdaq Composite rose 278.04 points, or 1.05%, to 26,702.86 on Wednesday, October 21, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 360.21 points, or 0.69%, to 52,856.09, its highest close in a month, and the S&P 500 added 44.60 points, or 0.58%, to 7,757.17, which leaves it within 0.8% of the record it set earlier in October. The Russell 2000 rose 0.27% to 2,781.02 and the CBOE Volatility Index fell 3.64% to 16.68. The gains were narrow: advancers led decliners by only 1.37 to one on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Nasdaq recorded 216 new 52-week lows against 53 new highs, which is not what a 1% rally usually looks like underneath.
The leadership came from the companies that sell AI hardware, a day after SpaceX and Super Micro Computer had shown the money coming in. Super Micro rose 9.55% to $35.57 after raising its quarterly revenue outlook to $18.5 to $19.5 billion, Dell gained 5.27% to $485.88, Hewlett Packard Enterprise 3.71%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.97% to 11,505.56; the leveraged SOXL ETF, which took in $7 billion in the week to October 20 according to CappNotes' closing note, gained 5.83%. SpaceX itself rose 7.79% to $159.31 on its first quarterly profit, and Tesla 3.41% to $386.47 after Elon Musk said both boards had formed special committees to study a combination. Zscaler rose 7.84% and Okta 7.54% after Nvidia published a reference architecture for securing AI agents that both companies are integrating. The technology sector ETF rose 1.67% and industrials 0.91%.
The losers were the old-economy companies that reported. AT&T fell 6.45% to $21.91 despite beating estimates and raising its profit outlook, because postpaid phone additions of 379,000 missed and because the Starlink Mobile threat has not gone away; Verizon lost 2.20% and T-Mobile 2.54%, and the communication-services ETF fell 1.11%, the worst sector. Netflix fell a further 5.31% to $65.04, a 52-week low, after Needham downgraded it to Hold. Lithia Motors lost 10.15% on a beat, Wingstop 7.95% and Chipotle 5.16% after a TD Cowen downgrade; Abbott fell 1.89% after trimming its 2026 sales growth outlook to about 6%. Consumer staples lost 0.73% and real estate 0.76%. On the other side, Danaher rose 4.29% and Capital One 2.53% on their results, and IBM gained 3.94% to $251.46 into its report.
Rates and commodities did little. The 10-year Treasury yield rose one basis point to 5.13% and the 30-year was unchanged at 5.42% after the Treasury sold $13 billion of 20-year bonds at 5.469% with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.73, in line with recent auctions. WTI crude fell 0.69% to $97.15 even though the EIA reported a 3.06 million-barrel draw in crude inventories against 0.1 million expected; Brent closed flat at $108.82 after topping $110 in the morning, when Iran's foreign minister wrote that there was little reason to expect progress with Washington. Natural gas fell 6.3% to about $2.78. Gold rose 0.18% to $4,150, the dollar index was unchanged at 101.69, and the Mexican peso fell 1.2%, the weakest major currency of the day. The MBA said mortgage applications fell 5.3% last week, with purchase demand 18% below a year earlier. Kalshi priced an 88% chance the Fed holds at next week's meeting.
After the bell the sorting continued. Meta rose about 3% in extended trading on third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, a fourth-quarter outlook of $73 to $76 billion and a two-for-one split through a new non-voting share class; Lam Research fell about 6% on a record quarter and guidance above consensus; IBM gave back its gain, falling about 3% after a beat; Tesla was little changed after a surprise $1.53 billion of free cash flow; CSX rose 4% and Las Vegas Sands fell 3%. Thursday brings Procter & Gamble, Union Pacific, Blackstone, Comcast, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin before the open, weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET, with consensus near 200,000, and Western Digital and Newmont after the close. By the Asian close Seoul had already answered Lam's guidance, with the Kospi down 3.67%.