Stocks Close Higher to Conclude Volatile Week; Gold Pulls Back After Hitting Fresh Record

Noteworthy S&P 500 Movers on Friday

3 hr 10 min ago

Advancers

• Kenvue (KVUE) stock bounced back on Friday, clawing back some of the heavy losses posted in the prior session after a lawsuit in the U.K. claimed that baby powder made by the consumer health products company was linked to cancer. Shares of the Band-Aid, Listerine, and Neutrogena parent company ended 8.4% higher, logging the top daily performance in the S&P 500.
• American Express (AXP) shares surged 7.3% to close at an all-time high after the company beat quarterly earnings estimates, with revenue climbing 11% year-over-year to a record $18.43 billion. Amex benefitted from the launch of updated high-end credit cards and strong spending trends among its affluent client base. Shares of fellow card issuer Capital One Financial (COF) gained 4% Friday, partly recovering from a downtick the prior day amid pressure on the financial sector.
• Gilead Sciences (GILD) shares added 4.2% following a price target boost by analysts at Goldman Sachs. Earlier this week, the biotechnology company presented positive results from a Phase 3 study of its cancer treatment Trodelvy.
• Truist Financial (TFC) also reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter, and shares of the financial services firm rose 3.7%. An uptick in fee income, boosted by strength in the wealth management and mortgage banking businesses, helped drive Truist’s strong performance.

Decliners

• Gold prices retreated from record levels, and shares of Newmont (NEM), the world’s largest gold producer, dropped 7.6% Friday. The stock had reached an all-time high Thursday following a rally in parallel with the precious metal’s push higher.
• Shares of Oracle (ORCL) sank 6.9%. Although the enterprise software giant provided targets for robust sales and profit growth through fiscal 2030, some Wall Street analysts raised concerns about a lack of details on Oracle’s capital expenditure plans, as well as the company’s heavy reliance on revenue from OpenAI and other major customers.

• Moderna (MRNA) shares lost 4.2%. Some analysts have voiced worries about declining revenue from the company’s COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the company’s limited headway on diversifying into other products.

–Michael Bromberg

Was Thursday’s Panic Over Bad Loans Overdone?

3 hr 25 min ago

Regional bank stocks rebounded on Friday after slumping Thursday when two lenders said they were suing borrowers, adding to concerns about unseen risks in the banking system.

Jefferies analysts called Thursday’s sell-off “overdone” and judged the fraud claims that precipitated the slump “idiosyncratic issues.”

Several bank executives said on earnings calls Friday that they were confident in the integrity of their non-bank lending portfolios.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq Post Winning Weeks

4 hr 27 min ago

Major stock indexes had a turbulent week. They still ended it solidly in the green.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all ended the week up roughly 2% despite oft-volatile trading.

The Nasdaq was the biggest gainer of the three indexes this week, rising 2.1%, while the S&P and Dow advanced about 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively.

For the year, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has risen about 18%, while the S&P and Dow have gained a respective 14% and 9%.

Bitcoin Is Sinking Back Toward $100,000. Where Does It Go From Here?

5 hr 23 min ago

So much for “Uptober.”

Bitcoin is close to giving up all of this year’s gains, dragged lower since renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China sparked a reversal in the digital assets market. The world’s largest cryptocurrency (BTCUSD) has declined about 7% since Monday, according to research platform Messari.

The drag in bitcoin prices is reflected in the shares of stocks linked to it. Bitcoin treasury Strategy (MSTR), crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) are all down at least 5% in the past five days. At around $107,000, bitcoin’s 14% year-to-date return is now roughly in line with the S&P 500’s.

Trade worries last week sparked a historic purge in the crypto market, upending the bitcoin-as-safe-haven narrative and severing the link between it and gold, whose recent climb to record highs is driving American consumers to cash in. Gold, Yardeni Research President Ed Yardeni wrote earlier this week, “is the new bitcoin.”

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Oracle’s Stock Was a Big September Winner. Why Has It Turned South?

5 hr 42 min ago

Oracle gave the AI trade a big shot in the arm last month. That shot is a little bit of a sore spot these days.

Shares of the cloud computing and software giant were recently off about 7%, making them one of the day’s biggest S&P 500 decliners. That still has Oracle (ORCL) up some 75% this year, but at around $292 they’re about 11% off the September highs logged after the company reported big quarterly results and an impressive outlook—along with a stock pop that marked its biggest jump since the 1990s, briefly making Larry Ellison the world’s richest person.

Today’s slide suggests that investors heard things they didn’t like during a presentation yesterday at which executives shared revenue and earnings per share targets for fiscal 2030 of $225 billion and $21, respectively, both pointing toward substantial growth through the rest of the decade.

So what was it? Wall Street analysts—even the bullish ones, which according to Visible Alpha is most of them—offered a few suggestions.

Deutsche Bank analysts said some investors may have hoped for more information about the company’s capital expenditure plans. Jefferies noted worries about a reliance on revenue from OpenAI. UBS made similar comments about the importance of big Oracle customers while observing that the profit outlook “likely landed short of some investor expectations.”

Read the full article here.

–David Marino-Nachison

Gold Prices Continue to Break Records. How Much Higher Can They Climb?

5 hr 56 min ago

In late March, Goldman Sachs predicted the price of gold would hit $3,300 per troy ounce at the end of the year.

It took less than a month to reach that level. Since then, gold has continued climbing previously unscalable heights—and forecasters have had trouble keeping pace.

The precious metal’s price now reaches new all-time highs almost daily. Early last week, Goldman raised its end-of-year forecast to $4,900 per ounce from $4,300 previously. The increase occurred just in time: Gold eclipsed $4,300 Thursday for the first time, pushing its year-to-date gain to roughly 65%.

Gold’s biggest rally in a half-century begs the obvious question: Just how high can its price go?

Read the full article here.

–Lyle Niedens

The Fed Is Cutting Rates Again—But How Low Is Low Enough?

6 hr 24 min ago

The Federal Reserve is cutting rates again, but how will officials know when enough is enough?

It’s a question that central bankers are debating—and the answer could make it more expensive to borrow on anything from cars to houses for years to come. At its core, the question is whether the era of low interest rates following the 2008 financial crisis has come to an end.

Fed officials are partly guided by the idea that there’s an interest rate at which Fed policy has a neutral effect—not overly stimulating the economy with cheap borrowing but also not holding it back by making loans too costly. Pinning down that number is much harder, however.

“It’s the Goldilocks rate. It’s not too hot, not too cold, it’s just right,” said Beth Ann Bovino, the chief economist at U.S. Bank. “The problem is no one knows what it is. It’s all estimates.”

Read the full article here.

–Polo Rocha

American Express Stock Is Surging—Here’s Why

6 hr 47 min ago

Strong spending by America’s affluent consumers helped American Express post record quarterly revenue.

The card issuer reported third-quarter earnings per share of $4.14 on revenue that climbed 11% year-over-year to a record $18.43 billion. Both figures topped analysts’ forecasts compiled by Visible Alpha, as the company benefited from refreshed high-end credit cards and spending by wealthy shoppers.

The company also boosted the lower end of its outlook, now projecting full-year EPS of $15.20 to $15.50, up from $15 to $15.50. It said it sees revenue growth of 9% to 10%, compared to 8% to 10% previously.

Shares of American Express jumped more than 6% to around $343 in recent trading following the news, leaving them on track to close at a record high.

Read the full article here.

–Bill McColl

Micron Stock Slips From Record High Amid China Business Concerns—Watch These Key Price Levels

7 hr 19 min ago

Micron Technology (MU) shares lost ground Friday following a report that the company will suspend some of its business in China.

Reuters reported Friday that Micron will no longer supply server chips for data centers in China, after the business struggled following a ban imposed by Chinese authorities on use of the company’s products in critical infrastructure. Micron will continue to sell chips to automotive and mobile phone sector customers in China, the report said.

Micron shares were down 2% at around $198 in recent trading, after gaining more than 5% yesterday as Wall Street analysts offered bullish commentary on the stock. Analysts at UBS raised their price target on the stock to $245, noting that Micron should benefit from “intensifying” memory and storage hardware shortages. Citi lifted its target to $240 and said the company sits well positioned to team up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which has recently stuck deals with Nvidia (NVDA), Advance Micro Devices (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO).

Through midday Friday, Micron shares had gained 135% since the start of the year and were up 19% in October, as investors bet that surging AI date-center demand will fuel a memory chip boom.

After climbing above $200 for the first time earlier this month, Micron shares consolidated in a pennant before breaking out from the pattern on Thursday. Importantly, the move occurred on the highest trading volume in more than three weeks, potentially laying the groundwork for a continuation move higher.

While the relative strength index sits near its overbought threshold, the indicator still remains significantly below its June and September peaks that preceded consolidation periods, indicating the stock has ample room for the recent uptrend to continue.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

What to Expect in Wednesday’s Inflation Report

7 hr 46 min ago

Inflation likely rose to a 17-month high in September as tariffs pushed up prices, forecasters say. 

The Consumer Price Index report scheduled for release on Wednesday is likely to show that prices rose 3.1% over the year in December, according to the Bloomberg Financial consensus forecast, as quoted by Wells Fargo Securities. If the report aligns with expectations, it would be an increase from 2.9% in August and the highest 12-month inflation rate since May 2024.

Higher inflation would underscore the impact of President Donald Trump’s import taxes, which have steadily pushed prices up in recent months. The index’s year-over-year inflation measure has risen every month since April, when Trump announced double-digit tariffs on products from nearly every country in the world. Before that, inflation had been largely decelerating from its post-pandemic peak in 2022. By many measures, it was nearly back down to the Federal Reserve’s goal of a 2% annual rate.

Still, the expected uptick would not likely be steep enough to deter officials at the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates later in October as widely expected. The Fed cut its benchmark fed funds rate by a quarter-point in September to prop up the ailing job market, as the Fed has grown more concerned with preventing unemployment than fighting inflation.

Despite higher prices, lower rent increases may keep the overall inflation rate from rising too much. “Core” inflation, which excludes volatile prices for food and energy, is expected to have risen 3.1% in September, unchanged from August.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Oracle Stock Sinks Despite Rosy Long-Term Profit, Revenue Projections

8 hours ago

Oracle (ORCL) issued rosy long-term revenue and profit projections yesterday. What they didn’t mention appears to be sinking the stock today.

Shares of the database software giant fell more than 6% Friday, a day after the firm said it expects revenue to reach $225 billion and earnings per share of $21 by fiscal 2030. However, the company did not mention its plans for capital expenditures.

In a note to clients Friday, Bank of America analysts wrote, “Oracle has gained meaningful ground operating large scale GPU datacenters, with reasonable cost of debt. What is less clear is how Oracle can stand up datacenters fast enough to achieve the topline growth (i.e. the capex ramp), given supply constraints across land, buildings, energy and GPUs.” 

Despite today’s declines, shares of Oracle are up about 75% this year.

Apple’s Formula 1 Deal Has the Tech Giant Accelerating Its Sports Offerings

8 hr 46 min ago

Apple is driving further into sports broadcasts.

The tech giant said it scored an agreement with Formula 1 to broadcast races and other content exclusively on Apple TV in the U.S. The deal, which begins next year, will include “comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, with all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix,” as well as select races and all practice sessions for free on Apple TV. Financial terms were not released.

Apple (AAPL) is adding sports programming as streaming continues to shake up the live sports media business. The company known for iPhones and iPads has also shown Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball games.

The company is seeking to expand its services business, which made up about a quarter of its sales for the first nine months of its latest fiscal year, while also refreshing its product lineup. Apple earlier this week announced a deal to bundle AppleTV+ with Comcast-owned (CMCSA) Peacock, part of its NBCUniversal branch.

Apple’s shares were recently up about 0.4% in Friday trading. The stock was down about 1% this year through yesterday’s close. 

Read the full article here.

–Bill McColl

Here’s What Trump Said That’s Pressuring Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly Stocks

9 hr 7 min ago

Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY) shares slumped in early trading Friday after President Trump promised to lower the prices of popular weight-loss drugs, such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.

In comments to reporters during a White House event Thursday, Trump said prices could drop to $150 a month from $1,300. When asked which treatment he meant, Trump pointed to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, saying prices for weight-loss drugs like it will be “much lower.”

Ozempic’s current list price is $1,000 a month, but Novo Nordisk offers it to consumers buying in cash without insurance for less. Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said the CMS has not yet finished negotiating costs with pharmaceutical firms. 

Shares of Novo Nordisk were down about 4% in recent trading, while shares of Eli Lilly dropped 3%.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson told Investopedia the company has engaged with the Trump administration, and “will continue to work to find solutions that help people access the medication they need.”

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk have lost more than a third of their value this year as the company faces growing competition in the weight-loss drug market. Shares of Eli Lilly have added about 3%.

–Bill McColl

Kenvue Stock Rebounds After Sharp Decline Yesterday

9 hr 55 min ago

One day after leading S&P 500 decliners, Kenvue is pacing gainers in the benchmark index.

Kenvue (KVUE) shares sank 13% to a record low Thursday following the filing of a UK lawsuit that claimed the consumer health company’s baby powder caused cancer and other diseases. Two years ago, Kenvue completed its spin-off from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and is responsible for talc-related claims outside the U.S.

Shares rebounded Friday morning, rising more than 8% an hour after the bell to pace the S&P 500, but remain nearly 30% lower this year.

E-commerce Prices Rose in September. That Could Mean Tougher Times for Deal Hunters.

10 hr 51 min ago

If scouring the internet for deals is part of your budgeting routine, you might want to rethink that strategy.

Online prices ticked higher in September, according to fraud-prevention specialist Signifyd, which recorded a year-over-year increase for the first time since 2023. Overall, the firm said, prices rose 0.8%; the company monitors how the price of some 60,000 products changes, year-over-year, at e-commerce shops operated by some 1,000 merchants.

The ease with which shoppers can compare prices online has long fostered competition between online merchants and contributed to price declines, said Signifyd senior data analyst Phelim Killough. Prices were tracking about 2% lower year-over-year as recently as July, and as much as 3.7% lower last October, the company said. But declines have been shrinking over the past eight months across nearly all product segments, Killough said.

“It does seem to be an e-commerce-wide trend,” Killough said. “Merchants, I think, are feeling the pinch and having to increase prices.”

Read the full article here.

–Sarina Trangle

Economic Data Blackout Could Become Data Dark Age As Shutdown Drags On

12 hr 49 min ago

Missed economic reports by government statistical agencies have economists wondering what will happen if the data simply never arrives. 

Experts have assumed that the government’s statistical agencies will play catch-up once the government reopens and publish belated reports for October, as they have done in past shutdowns. But with the current shutdown looking like it could be the longest in history, economists are starting to consider what will happen if agencies skip reporting October entirely and it becomes just a blank spot on future historical charts.

“As the shutdown drags on with no end in sight, risks are mounting for October’s report,” Sarah House and Nicole Cervi, economists at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in a commentary. “At a minimum, collection rates stand to be lower with data gathering still suspended, and the risk is rising that the publication of the October CPI report could be skipped entirely.”

The problem is that the data, including for inflation and job creation, is based on massive surveys. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics closed, those surveys aren’t being carried out. (With the important exception of the Consumer Price Index report for September, which will be published Oct. 24.)

“If the shutdown continues, it’s possible that, for the first time in at least six decades, there will be a full month gap in data about jobs and unemployment in the U.S. economy,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute think tank, and Joe Fast, a research assistant, wrote in a commentary.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Stock Futures Fall as Regional Bank Worries Continue

13 hr 20 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.8%.

Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.1%.