All three major benchmarks notched record highs this week
The last week of October brought tailwinds to Wall Street. Investor sentiment soared on Monday, with both the Dow and S&P 500 notching record closes, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq nabbed a triple-digit win on the heels of an upbeat earnings report from electric vehicle giant, Tesla (TSLA). Optimism continued to build into Tuesday, helping the S&P 500 to a third-straight record, amid a strong earnings season. Facebook's (FB) post-earnings bear gap weighed on the tech sector, however, though strong reports from United Parcel Service (UPS) and General Electric (GE) counteracted the FAANG name's woes.
The major benchmarks took a breather on Wednesday, giving back gains by the end of the session as investor sentiment wavered. The tech sector did get some support from Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOGL), though, which surged after reporting upbeat quarterly results. That pullback didn't last, with the Dow and Nasdaq scoring triple-digit pops on Thursday, while the latter joined the S&P 500 in notching fresh record highs. Earnings continued to steal the show on Friday, but this time for the worse, as traders digested revenue misses from both Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN). Still, all three major indexes remained on track for solid weekly and monthly wins.
Blue-Chip Stocks Flood Into Earnings Confessional
The earnings docket was packed full of blue-chip names this week. Among them was 3M (MMM), which pared gains after it lowered its full-year forecast due to supply chain and inflation issues. Visa (V) plummeted after doing just the same, despite reporting top- and bottom-line wins, as analysts blasted it with price-target cuts. Conversely, McDonald's (MCD) raised its full-year outlook, following better-than-expected third-quarter results.
Meanwhile, MSFT notched an all-time high in addition to nine price-target hikes, after substantial growth in its cloud computing unit powered a quarterly win. Coca-Cola (KO) also attracted analyst attention after earnings, with Credit Suisse naming the beverage concern its top pick. Pharma giant Merck (MRK) posted an earnings and revenue beat as well, citing strong results from its cancer drugs.
What's New in Tech
The tech sector was also front and center. United Microelectronics (UMC) looked primed for another rebound after flashing a historically bullish signal. Another semiconductor name in the spotlight was Nvidia (NVDA), which surged to a record high on the heels of a bull note. ServiceNow (NOW) notched an all-time high, too, after the cloud concern's upbeat earnings results. Elsewhere, options bulls were eyeing Spotify Technologies (SPOT) ahead of the music stramer's quarterly report.
Plus, Match (MTCH) looked like a safe bet for November, after it pulled back to a key trendline. Meanwhile, AMZN got blasted with bear notes due to its revenue miss, while AAPL also plummeted post-earnings.
November Brings More Earnings, Fed Update
A new month kicks off next week, and it will be plenty busy. Some names set to step into the confessional include
Carvana (CVNA), Clorox (CLX), Datadog (DDOG),
DraftKings (DKNG),
Etsy (ETSY),
Match Group (MTCH),
Uber (UBER), and Zillow (ZG), to name just a few. The final Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), the Markit services PMI, the ADP employment report, durable and core capital goods orders, and factory orders are also
due out. Plus, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will release a statement. Before then, dive into why the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 pullbacks may be good
buying opportunities, as well as what to expect from the latter over the
next six moths.