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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading in New York City.
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Stock futures were little changed Monday as investors waited to assess whether the next batch of key corporate earnings could power the market to more records.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%. S&P 500 index futures rose 0.2%, while Nasdaq-100 futures gained 0.4%.
Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson report their latest results on Tuesday before the market opens, while Morgan Stanley and United Airlines are set to release results Wednesday. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Netflix and Procter & Gamble are also scheduled to post earnings this week.
Those reports will come after JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo kicked off the third-quarter earnings season on a high note. The early signs of a recovery in banking profits helped push the broader market to all-time highs at the end of last week. The S&P 500 closed above 5,800 for the first time, while the blue-chip Dow also reached an all-time high.
So far, 30 S&P 500 companies have posted results, beating the earnings consensus by about 5% on average, according to Bank of America. That's better than the 3% beat at this time last quarter. Still, Bernstein believes that this quarter's year-over-year earnings per share growth rate will still come in "much lower" than last quarter's.
Despite the market climbing to new heights, investors remain anxious against a backdrop of a closely-contested presidential election in three weeks, suddenly rising Treasury yields, uncertainty about the pace of Federal Reserve policy easing and escalating geopolitical risks in the Middle East.
Still, "the Big 4 macro tailwinds (stimulus, resilient growth, disinflation, and healthy corporate performance) are all still in place and they're powerful enough to overcome rich valuations and geopolitical risks, keeping the SPX on an upward trajectory," Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note Sunday.
The S&P 500 has gained nearly 22% this year, excluding reinvested dividends. The bull market recently turned two years old, and the benchmark has rallied nearly 63% in total since hitting a closing low in October 2022. Treasury yields have risen lately too, with the benchmark 10-year note yield, used to calculate everything from mortgages to auto loans, topping 4.1% last week.
On the data front, September retail sales and Sept. industrial production figures are out Thursday, followed by Sept. housing starts and building permits Friday.
Flutter Entertainment, Boeing among the stocks making moves premarket
Some stocks are making big moves in premarket trading:
- Crypto stocks – Stocks linked to cryptocurrencies rose as Bitcoin soared above $64,000 to start the week. Extending gains from the previous session, MicroStrategy and Mara Holdings — formerly Marathon Digital — each gained more than 5%, while Coinbase advanced more than 3%.
- Flutter Entertainment – The FanDuel parent company popped 4% after Wells Fargo upgraded shares to overweight, saying that investors should consider buying the stock following the recent sell-off.
- Boeing – Shares slumped 2.3% after the plane manufacturer announced Friday afternoon that it plans to cut about 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 people. Boeing also postponed the delivery of its still-uncertified 777X wide-body plane and forecasted a wider-than-expected loss for the third quarter. The company is facing mounting losses amid an ongoing machinist strike.
Read here for the full list.
— Sean Conlon
Bond market, Fed closed for Columbus Day
Monday is Columbus Day in the U.S., which impacts some of the country's financial and economic institutions.
Here's what to know about Monday:
- The stock market is open.
- The bond market is closed.
- The Federal Reserve is closed.
- There are no key economic releases on the docket because of the federal holiday.
— Alex Harring
Mizuho ups price target on Broadcom, cites OpenAI partnership
A likely chipmaking contract with OpenAI could boost shares of Broadcom more than 20% in the coming months, according to Mizuho.
Analyst Vijay Rakesh upped its price target to $220 from $190 a share, reflecting 21% upside from Friday's close. The stock is up more than 62% this year.
"New hardware platforms with OpenAI ChatGPT5+ - potentially a mammoth $16B/yr custom AI [application-specific integrated circuits] opportunity 2H25-2026E," he wrote.
— Samantha Subin
Goldman Sachs upgraded Ibotta, says shares could surge 30%
Goldman Sachs says it's time to buy shares of Ibotta.
"For IBTA, we see an attractive risk/reward as we view current valuation levels as under-appreciating IBTA's forward growth opportunity around scaling 3P redemptions partnerships (Walmart, Instacart, etc.)," wrote Eric Sheridan, upgrading shares to a buy rating.
The analyst expects the digital marketing company backed by Walmart to benefit from "increasing digital penetration" and growing market share opportunities within U.S. grocery and advertising segments.
Sheridan also forecasts that revenue can grow 19% at a compounded annual growth rate between through 2028, driven predominantly by its third-party partnership with Walmart, in addition to new partnerships with companies such as Instacart.
The firm maintained its $87 price target, reflecting 30% upside from Friday's close. Shares went public on the New York Stock Exchange in April.
— Samantha Subin
Bull market now 2 years old
It's been two years since the current bull market began, and the gains have been impressive. Since hitting a closing low in October 2022, the S&P 500 has rallied 62.6%. On Friday, the broad market index also closed above 5,800 for the first time.
SPX since October 2022 low
— Fred Imbert
Goldman Sachs downgrades AppLovin, cites balanced risk-reward
Goldman Sachs is moving to the sidelines on shares of AppLovin on the heels of a blowout 2024 run.
The mobile technology company slumped 4% after analyst Eric Sheridan downgraded shares to neutral, noting the stock's 269% year-to-date gain.
"Against a stock price of $143 (+113% vs the SPX +11% since the last earnings report), we now see a more balanced risk/reward skew to the shares from current levels," he wrote.
Despite the rating change, Sheridan expects the company's business to continue to yield "above average" advertising and marketing growth and a "strong margin profile" within mobile gaming.
Given the 2024 surge, he upped the firm's price target to $150 from $103 a share. The stock closed at $147 on Friday.
— Samantha Subin
Morgan Stanley downgrades Caterpillar, says shares could fall nearly 20%
It's time for investors to take a step back from shares of Caterpillar, according to Morgan Stanley.
Shares slumped more than 2% in the premarket after analyst Angel Castillo downgraded shares to underweight and lowered the firm's price target, citing troubles within the industrial giant's construction industries (CI) business.
"We see mounting risks of de-stocking in CI and limited offsets from mega projects, manufacturing costs or [energy and transportation]," he said. "Combined with YTD performance and a mid-cycle multiple on peak earnings, we see rising earnings revision risk."
Castillo trimmed the firm's price target to $332 from $349 a share, reflecting more than 17% downside from Friday's close. Shares are up 36% since the start of 2024.
— Samantha Subin
China's CSI 300 ends higher after choppy trading as investors digest stimulus plan
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Monday, as investors assessed China's weekend press briefing and awaited a slew of economic data this week from the region.
Mainland China's CSI 300 added 1.9% to close at 3,691.3, following a choppy trading session. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.9% as of its final hour of trade.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.47% to end at 8,252.8. Taiwan markets edged 0.32% higher to end at 22,975.29.
South Korea's blue-chip index Kospi gained over 1% to finish at 2,623.29, while the small-cap Kosdaq index ended nearly flat at 770.26.
— Anniek Bao
European markets flat at the open
European stocks were mixed as markets opened on Monday, with regional markets lacking direction after a choppy week last week.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was little changed as markets opened, last down 0.02% at 8:15 a.m. London time.
Amid range-bound trade, travel and leisure stocks were the outlier, down 1.7%.
— Sophie Kiderlin
English (US) ·