Green October

By Jeffrey Cane |  Friday, October 29

Meta Week. Big Tech earnings are now in the rear-view mirror, and investors seemed to exhale in relief.  Unimpressive results from Apple and Amazon.com -- both pointing to supply-chain problems -- depressed sentiment this morning,  particularly as they followed an earlier weak showing from Facebook,  which has metamorphosed, if you will, into Meta Platforms, and a better but still uninspiring performance from Alphabet. Barron's Eric J. Savitz gives a smart rundown of Big Tech's big week in Tech Trader here. 

Stocks, nonetheless, strengthened through the afternoon, boosted by earnings from Exxon Mobil and Chevron, a promising outlook for Merck's Covid antiviral pill, and some feel-good follow-on from Microsoft's better-than-expected results earlier in the week. Microsoft has now taken the crown of most valuable company away from Apple, with a market cap of $2.49 trillion. 

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both ended the day up 0.2%, to new record closes (the 59th and 39th record closes for the year, respectively). The Nasdaq Composite finished up 0.3%, its 38th record close for 2021. After a September setback, the S&P 500 was up 6.9% for October -- its best monthly performance since last November. The Dow ended up 5.8% for the month, with the Nasdaq up 7.3%. 

More earnings are coming next week, but investors will also go back to worrying about inflation and what the Federal Reserve does next. On that front, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures index, showed an 4.4% annual increase for September, its fastest clip since 1991. The core PCE, excluding food and energy costs, rose 3.6% from a year ago, the fourth consecutive month it has done so. 

And Fed policy makers meet next Wednesday, when they are universally expected to announce a winding down of the central bank's emergency stimulus program, its monthly purchases of $120 billion in Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities. 

Treasury yields rose after the inflation data, but settled lower on the day: the two-year was at 0.491%, while the 10-year was 1.555%. 

Crude oil prices advanced 0.9%, to $83.57 a barrel. For the month, oil was up 11.4%. Gold was 1% lower today, to $1,783 an ounce. It rose 1.6% in October. The U.S. dollar was stronger today against other major currencies, but down for October after two months of gains. Bitcoin was trading this afternoon around $62,420.

Watch our TV show on Fox Business Fridays at 9 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. ET; Saturdays at 11 a.m.; or Sundays at 10 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. ET. This week, an interview with J.P. Morgan strategist David Kelly and a check-up on the health of corporate profits.