Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq eye fresh records Nvidia provides lift ahead of earnings, Fed tests

Stocks were on pace for a third consecutive record close on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 hitting an intraday high north of 6,900 for the first time ever.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.4%, while the Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.7%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up around 0.79% as chipmaker heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) hit intraday record highs.

Wayfair (W) stock is up more than 20% at market open after the online furniture retailer posted third quarter results that beat estimates. Year to date, Wayfair stock has soared more than 130%.

Adjusted earnings came in at $0.70, higher than Wall Street’s forecast of $0.44. Revenue grew 8.1% year over year to $3.12 billion, more than the $3.02 billion expected, per Bloomberg consensus data. Without the exit from Germany, revenue jumped 9%.

“Revenue growth was driven by order momentum,” Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah told investors on the company’s earnings call. “We saw orders grow by over 5% year over year in the quarter, including new orders growing mid-single digits for two quarters in a row.”

Listen to Wayfair’s earnings call or read the transcript here.

One of the key questions heading into the report was whether Wayfair saw pull-forward trends by consumers ahead of President Trump’s latest tariffs on furniture, including new 25% tariffs on kitchen cabinets, upholstered furniture, and lumber after the third quarter.

Shah said, “The only instances of pull forward we’ve identified came from a very short-lived increase in large appliances demand back in the early spring and a similarly short-lived increase in vanities late in the third quarter.”

He said “neither” was exceptionally meaningful, adding that consumer behavior didn’t shift “based on tariffs.”

Despite a projection that Americans will spend less this holiday season, with PwC expecting a 5% decline in the average holiday spend, Shah believes holiday shopping “is probably going to be similar to past years.”

For the fourth quarter, the company expects net revenue to be up mid-single digits year over year.

Qualcomm (QCOM) stock on Tuesday shed some of its gains from the previous trading session.

Shares fell more than 3% Tuesday morning after rising 11% Monday following the release of AI chips and data center servers to rival products from Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD). The company also announced a partnership to supply the new AI server racks to Saudia Arabia’s HUMAIN.

Despite the stock forfeiting some of its earlier gains, Wall Street analysts shared positive takes on the news in notes to investors.

Reiterating their Buy rating on the stock, Bank of America analysts wrote Tuesday, “This announcement is a needed diversification away from the low growth smartphone market, which accounts for roughly 75% of QCT revenues.” QCT stands for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies — the company’s largest segment including its chip and software offerings.

Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland reports:

Read the full story here.

Microsoft (MSFT) stock climbed nearly 3% Tuesday morning, leading gains among the “Magnificent Seven” Big Tech stocks following the announcement of its deal with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT).

The deal allows OpenAI to restructure itself into a public benefit corporation, paving the way for the company to go public in the future, Reuters reported. Microsoft would hold a 27% stake in the company following the restructuring.

In addition to that deal, Microsoft said it reached an agreement for OpenAI to purchase $250 billion of its Azure cloud services, though Microsoft will no longer have the right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider.

Read more here.

US stocks rose at the market open on Tuesday and were poised to build on Monday’s record highs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) led the gains, adding 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up 0.6%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.3% after the benchmark ended above 6,800 for the first time during the previous trading session.

The upswing comes as investors sift through the latest rush of earnings and await the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, where the central bank is expected to cut interest rates and signal more red ahead.

Economic data: FHFA house price index (August); Richmond Federal Reserve manufacturing (October); Conference Board consumer confidence (October); Dallas Federal Reserve services activity (October)

Earnings calendar: Visa (V), UnitedHealth Group (UNH), HSBC Holdings (HSBC), NextEra Energy (NEE), Booking Holdings (BKNG), American Tower Corporation (AMT), Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Mondelez International (MDLZ), Corning (GLW), UPS (UPS), PayPal (PYPL), MSCI (MSCI), Sysco (SYY), Bloom Energy (BE)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

Big Tech superpower is now the market’s Achilles’ heel

Nvidia CEO set to speak as Wall Street listens for hints on China

Why soaring coffee prices have Trump’s attention

Trump offers Japan ‘anything you want’ after rare earths deal

PayPal rises after striking payments wallet deal with OpenAI

Amazon to cut about 14,000 jobs as AI spending balloons

US signs $80B pact for nuclear reactors in AI push

Foxconn to invest up to $1.37 billion in AI supercomputing

Trump’s new trade deals give US an edge over Southeast Asia

Japan names companies in line for $550 billion US investment

China takes aim at US with Asia free trade pact

Russia’s Lukoil to sell assets in response to Trump sanctions

UnitedHealth (UNH) raised its annual profit forecast after reporting better-than expected earnings on Tuesday, sending the health insurance company’s stock up by 4% in premarket trading.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

UPS (UPS) shares jumped 14% before the bell on Tuesday after the courier company forecast fourth-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

Qorvo (QRVO) jumped 10% before the bell on Tuesday following a report from the Information that Apple supplier Skyworks held talks in recent months to buy its rival.

Confluent (CFLT) stock rose by 11% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the tech group beat Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter earnings.

FedEx (FDX) shares were up 3% before the bell following rival UPS’s (UPS) positive third-quarter earnings results.

I am going to be talking about AI stock bubbles with Sailpoint (SAIL) CEO Mark McClain live today on Opening Bid, so I encourage you to tune in!

One chart I will be highlighting in the chat is this one from Barclays showing how big the top 10 stocks have gotten. Of course these are mostly the Mag 7 names like Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), etc.

I sure hope the earnings we get from these companies are grand this week!