December S&P 500 E-Mini futures (ESZ25) are up +0.01%, and December Nasdaq 100 E-Mini futures (NQZ25) are down -0.03% this morning, steadying after yesterday’s gains as investors shift their focus to the third-quarter earnings season.
Soda and snack maker PepsiCo (PEP) and carrier Delta Air Lines (DAL) are among the companies starting the U.S. third-quarter reporting period today, with major Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C) set to report next week. Tesla (TSLA) will be the first of the Magnificent Seven group to report on October 22nd, followed by Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta Platforms (META) on October 29th.
In yesterday’s trading session, Wall Street’s major indexes ended mostly higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 notching new record highs. Most members of the Magnificent Seven stocks advanced, with Nvidia (NVDA) rising over +2% and Amazon.com (AMZN) gaining more than +1%. Also, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged over +11% and was the top percentage gainer on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 after DZ Bank upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold with a $250 price target. In addition, Confluent (CFLT) climbed more than +7% after Reuters reported that the company was exploring a sale. On the bearish side, Fair Isaac (FICO) slumped over -9% and was the top percentage loser on the S&P 500 after rival Equifax announced it was “responding to FICO’s monopoly-like doubling of their mortgage credit score prices to $10 in 2026” by cutting VantageScore 4.0 mortgage credit scores by more than 50% from Fair Isaac’s 2026 prices to $4.50 through the end of 2027.
“With price-to-earnings ratios for today’s tech giants still well below those of the tech firms at the peak of the dotcom bubble, we think the bull market remains intact,” said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management.
The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s September 16-17 meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that policymakers were open to further interest rate cuts this year, though many voiced caution…
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