S&P 500 Wavers as Earnings Bets Offset Chip Rout: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks fluctuated near their all-time highs as traders looked ahead to the start of the earnings season and inflation data that will be key in shaping the Federal Reserve outlook.
Most companies in the S&P 500 advanced despite renewed losses in chipmakers. With Corporate America navigating one of the strongest profit cycles in recent history, equities have also defied concerns about elevated energy costs and bond yields. Brent crude climbed to around $107 a barrel on Monday. Treasury cash trading is closed for Columbus Day.
The equity market is set for a high-stakes reporting season that will be crucial to sustaining the rally through to year-end. Earnings resilience helps explain why stocks have remained so strong as the macro backdrop grows more challenging, according to Bret Kenwell at eToro.
“Growth has been powerful enough to keep valuations in check and allow investors to look past higher yields, interest rates, and inflation,” he said. “Another strong quarter could reinforce the bull narrative intact into year-end, while a disappointment could catalyze a broader pullback.”
The market may still be susceptible to negative surprises, but the fact that it has continued to grind to new highs in the face of these challenges highlights the resilience of its longer-term artificial-intelligence tailwinds, according to Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
“While this week’s inflation data could be a near-term volatility trigger, the new earnings season may play a bigger role in shaping the market’s momentum into year-end, since it may signal how strong those tailwinds really are,” he said.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists led by Christian Mueller-Glissmann are turning positive on global stocks for the short term, raising their three-month view to overweight from neutral.
“Earnings growth remains supportive for equities and the recent valuation de-rating has improved asymmetry into the third-quarter earnings season,” they said.
The earnings season gets underway Tuesday, when Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. report results. Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley’s figures are due on the following day.
Meantime, the key consumer price index is seen rising 0.6% in September after a 0.4% increase a month earlier, based on the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists ahead of Wednesday’s release. That would mark the largest advance in five months. Excluding fuel and food, the so-called core measure probably rose 0.2%, a step down from August.
Corporate Highlights:
Microsoft Corp. is gearing up to install the latest version of its own chips in data centers, with the aim of powering its AI software using mostly homegrown hardware. Adobe Inc. fell after Wells Fargo Securities downgraded the maker of software for creative professionals by two notches, to underweight from overweight. Salesforce Inc. rose after Bank of America Corp. raised the recommendation on the software company to buy from underperform, pointing to tailwinds from AI adoption. Starbucks Corp. said it’s not buying Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., seeking to tamp down speculation about what could have been one of the restaurant sector’s largest-ever deals. Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s experimental drugs for treating a rare endocrine cancer and a deadly form of lung disease showed promise in late-stage studies, a potential boon for the pharmaceutical company’s new product pipeline. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 was little changed as of 10:10 a.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6% The MSCI World Index was little changed Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1176 The British pound was little changed at $1.3232 The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 158.64 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $82,942.87 Ether was little changed at $2,536.82 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 5.24% Germany’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 3.47% Britain’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 5.43% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.9% to $93.61 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.5% to $4,173.77 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
