Stocks Churn as Qualcomm Revives Tech Concerns: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Stocks struggled for direction as buy-the-dip optimism faded, with stellar earnings doing little to lift sentiment as lofty tech valuations kept investors cautious.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed. The subdued sentiment followed after Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of smartphone chips, became the latest semiconductor firm to deliver an upbeat forecast that still failed to impress investors, sending its shares 3% lower in premarket trading.

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Shares in the Magnificent Seven tech giants were mixed, with Tesla Inc. inching higher ahead of the outcome of its campaign to grant Elon Musk a potential $1 trillion pay package.

Meanwhile, Treasuries rebounded after data showed US companies announced the most job cuts for any October in more than two decades, prompting traders to boost bets on an interest-rate cut next month. The dollar headed for its biggest drop in three weeks.

Trading this week has been marked by a pullback in the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial-intelligence race, which have powered much of this year’s rally, before dip-buyers stepped in to offer support. Corporate America has continued to deliver robust results, with 81% of the S&P 500 companies reporting this quarter beating earnings expectations.

“While 2026 upgrades are supporting valuations, any disappointment in earnings delivery, especially in the high-multiple tech and AI-exposed names, could see a rapid de-rating,” said UBS Group AG strategist Sutanya Chedda.

Following days of mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials and scant economic data during the longest US government shutdown in history, investors will closely watch a slate of policymaker speeches Thursday for clues on the interest-rate outlook.

Traders have gradually trimmed bets on a quarter-point rate cut next month to around 50% over the past week, before the job-cuts report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. bumped those odds back up to 60%.

“The overall nudge pressure is up for yields,” wrote Padhraic Garvey and Michiel Tukker at ING. “This, of course, partly reflects the ‘driving in the fog’ metaphor for the government shutdown, but also with a dose of inflation concern and a pinch of risk-on ebullience.”

What Bloomberg Strategists Say…

“The dollar just got a fresh reason to drop as a surge in US layoffs reinforced bets on Federal Reserve easing. With the US government shutdown now the longest on record, alternative data such as the Challenger report are taking on added weight.”

— Nour Al Ali, Macro Markets & Squawk. Click here for the full analysis.

Corporate Highlights:

Arm Holdings Plc rose more than 5% in premarket trading after publishing a bullish revenue forecast, helped by increasing interest in designing chips to run AI data centers. Snap Inc. shares surged after the company announced a $400 million partnership with Perplexity AI Inc. to incorporate its AI-powered search engine into Snapchat. Duolingo Inc. shares are sinking after the language-learning software company reported third-quarter results and updates its outlook. Commerzbank AG raised its outlook for full-year lending income, even after third-quarter results fell short of analysts’ estimates amid a higher tax rate. Worldline SA’s stock hit a fresh low as a planned share sale worth €500 million ($576 million) failed to convince investors that the embattled payments firm can be turned around. Air France-KLM plunged the most in three years in Paris trading after the Franco-Dutch airline group reported earnings that missed expectations, hurt by strikes and higher taxes. A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S shares fell with investor disappointment over a smaller-than-expected improvement in the container-shipping giant’s full-year profit guidance. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

The Stoxx Europe 600 was little changed as of 10:43 a.m. London time S&P 500 futures were little changed Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.2% The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.8% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1% The euro rose 0.2% to $1.1515 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 153.77 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1257 per dollar The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.3084 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $103,182.01 Ether fell 1.1% to $3,403.29 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined two basis points to 4.14% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.66% Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.47% Commodities

Brent crude rose 0.6% to $63.87 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.7% to $4,008.48 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Subrat Patnaik, James Hirai and Neil Campling.

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