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postUS stock futures slumped on Thursday as Wall Street eyed the US-China trade truce struck by Presidents Trump and Xi, cooling odds of another interest-rate cut, and the next tranche of Big Tech earnings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) futures slipped 0.3%. Contracts on the broad benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F) also fell 0.3%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) lost 0.5%.
Stocks have lost steam after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that a December rate cut is “not a foregone conclusion — far from it.” His comments, which came after the central bank lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point, highlight division among policymakers.
The Trump-Xi meeting overnight failed to provide a boost, even as it delivered effectively a one-year trade truce. The US will halve fentanyl-related tariffs on China in return for a 12-month pause in Beijing’s curbs on rare earth supplies, while China has pledged to start buying American soybeans again.
Meanwhile, investors braced for quarterly results from tech megacaps Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) after the bell, following mixed earnings reports from their “Magnificent Seven” counterparts Alphabet (GOOG), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) late Wednesday.
Alphabet shares jumped over 7% after the Google parent reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results. But Meta sank almost 8% and Microsoft slipped nearly 3% as investors parsed the companies’ outlooks.
LIVE 11 updates
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Meta stock drops 10% after company reports tax charge, increased capex plans
Meta (META) stock dropped 10% ahead of the market open on Thursday after a tax hit and higher operating expenses and AI investments spooked investors.
Meta reported revenue that beat estimates, but its third quarter earnings per share fell short of expectations due to a one-time, tax-related charge, the company reported on Wednesday afternoon.
Notably, Meta said it isn’t planning to slow down capital expenditures. The company is targeting $70 billion to $72 billion in investments in 2025, compared to its prior outlook of $66 billion to $72 billion.
“Our current expectation is that capital expenditures dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than 2025,” Meta CFO Susan Li said in her commentary.
Read more here about Meta’s earnings report.
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Powell challenges the market’s idea of a Fed on autopilot
Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban reports:
Read more here.
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Novo Nordisk gatecrashes Pfizer deal for Metsera with $6.5 billion bid
Metsera (MTSR) stock surged over 20% in premarket after Novo Nordisk (NVO, NOVO-B.CO) offered to buy the obesity-focused biotech for at least $6.5 billion.
Novo’s unsolicited offer of $56.50 a share aims to trump Pfizer’s (PFE) agreed takeover of Metsera, aimed at cementing its place in the weight-loss market.
The Danish maker of Wegovy and Ozempic said it could hike the buying price by another $21.25 a share, if Metsera meets certain milestones.
Shares of Novo fell about 3% in New York before the bell, while Pfizer stock was little changed.
Bloomberg reported:
Read more here.
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
Economic data: Initial jobless claims (week ended October 25); Continuing claims (week ended October 18); Personal consumption (third quarter); GDP annualized (third quarter)
Earnings calendar: Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), Merck & Co. (MRK), Shell (SHEL), Gilead Sciences (GILD), S&P Global (SPGI), Stryker Corporation (SYK), TotalEnergies (TTE), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Comcast (CMCSA), Southern Company (SO), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Roblox (RBLX), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Coinbase Global (COIN), Strategy (MSTR), The Cigna Group (CI), Cloudflare (NET), Motorola (MSI), Cheniere Energy (LNG), Reddit (RDDT), The Hershey Company (HSY), Estée Lauder (EL), Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Blue Owl Capital (OWL), Fox Corporation (FOX), The Carlyle Group (CG), Zillow (Z), GoDaddy (GDDY)
Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:
What the Trump-Xi deal means for stability and markets
US and China declare 1-year trade truce after Trump-Xi talks
Trump: Nvidia chip talks with Xi didn’t cover Blackwell
Powell challenges the market’s idea of a Fed on autopilot
Earnings: Meta, Microsoft slide as Alphabet rises
OpenAI preps for juggernaut IPO at up to $1 trillion valuation
Novo bids $6.5B for Metsera, gatecrashing Pfizer’s deal
Trump orders nuclear weapons trials after Russia tests
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Eli Lilly jumps as weight-loss drugs drives Q3 beat
Eli Lilly (LLY) stock rose 5% on Thursday before the bell after raising its full-year profit and revenue forecast as strong appetite for its widely popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro helped it beat third-quarter earnings estimates.
Reuters reports:
Read more here.
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Premarket movers: Google, Estee Lauder, and Hanwha
Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) stock rose 7% in premarket trading on Thursday after reporting third quarter revenue and earnings on Wednesday that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations following a slew of AI deals involving its cloud segment.
Estee Lauder (EL) stock rose 5% before the bell on Thursday after beating Wall Street estimates for first-quarter sales in a sign that CEO Stephane de La Faverie’s turnaround push was beginning to take hold, sending its shares up about 5% in premarket trading.
Hanwha Ocean Co. (042660.KS) stock rose 6% on Thursday after the US and China agreed to end its tit-for-tat port fees on on vessels linked to the other for one year.
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Chipotle stock craters nearly 20% on downbeat sales outlook
The slide in Chipotle (CMG) shares is accelerating in premarket, after the burrito chain on Wednesday cut its guidance on full-year sales once again. Traffic to its outlets is falling as customers grapple with the cost of living.
Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:
Read more here.
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Microsoft earnings: Some derivative trades
Microsoft (MSFT) stock is getting hit premarket after it reported slightly lower than expected Azure sales.
The results for its Azure cloud platform were still strong. Analysts at Citi made a good point in a note this morning, calling out Datadog (DDOG), JFrog (FROG), MongoDB (MDB), and Elastic (ESTC):
“We believe the solid Azure results bode well for other consumption-based companies set to report in coming weeks/months (DDOG, FROG, SNOW, MDB, ESTC).”
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Trump lays out the largest takeaways from Xi meeting
President Donald Trump addressed reporters, discussing the main points of interest from the long-awaited 90-minute trade talk between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Reuters reports:
Read more here.
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Stellantis posts higher revenue, trims estimate of tariff impact
Stellantis (STLA, STLAM.MI) reported a 13% year-on-year increase in revenue in its third quarter earnings on Thursday. The automaker’s US-listed shares fell over 4% before the bell.
Reuters reports:
Read more here.
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OpenAI hints at potentially record-setting IPO
Reuters reports
Read more here.
