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That downward bias we spied during today’s pre-market came to pass during the regular trading day, with market indexes paring session lows but still down half a point or more. The Dow, following its all-time closing high Tuesday, slid -334 points, -0.71%, but an improvement from the -454 points at the day’s low. The S&P 500 lost -35 points, -0.53%, and the Nasdaq was -213 points, -0.93%. The small-cap Russell 2000 was down -1.41% on the day. 

Static in the trade talks between the U.S. and China have claimed a measure of today’s “risk-off” attitude. Another +100% tariff being slapped onto Chinese imports keeps returning as a talking point, and November 1st is a week from Saturday. Record surges in market indexes over the past several weeks have largely been predicated on some sort of mutual trade agreement between the tow powerhouse nations. But with questions newly arising, we can see how this can have something of an unraveling effect.

Q3 Earnings Roundup: Tesla, IBM & More
 

Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) posted mixed results in its Q3 report after today’s close, with earnings of 50 cents per share missing the Zacks consensus by 3 cents (and down from 72 cents per share reported a year ago) on $28.1 billion in revenues, which outperformed expectations of $26.5 billion for the quarter. EV credits, which expired September 30th, accounted for +40% of profits in the quarter. Shares are trading down slightly in the late session; +7% year to date.

IBM (IBM - Free Report) shares are down -4.8% this afternoon, even though the software giant handily beat earnings — $2.65 per share, well above the $2.44 expected — and outpaced on revenues, as well: $16.3 billion versus $16.1 billion anticipated. Infrastructure growth was +17% in the quarter, speaking to its involvement in the AI space, but revenue guidance of +5% for the full year was somewhat lackluster to late traders.

Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) also was mixed for its Q3 today, posting a big beat of 10 cents per share on the bottom line but a miss on the top: $6.95 billion versus $6.97 billion expected. The stock, which had been flat year to date, gained +2.5% in late trading on the news. The company expects all-time record-high operating revenues in Q4. 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Thursday
 

No Weekly Jobless Claims for another week. We will get Existing Home Sales from the private National Association of Realtors tomorrow. Expectations are for a slight uptick to 4.06 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units from 4.0 million the prior month. This would be in keeping with the sub-4.1 million we’ve seen over the last six months.

Also, earnings results from Intel (INTC - Free Report), Ford (F - Free Report), American Airlines (AAL - Free Report), and Newmont Mining (NEM - Free Report), among others, are scheduled to report on Thursday. So far, it’s been a good Q3 earnings season, although we’ll see if those companies more prone to tariff effects are able to post strong numbers and offer robust guidance into 2026.

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