Stocks End Lower After S&P 500, Nasdaq Hit Fresh Records; Delta, Pepsi Pop on Strong Results; Gold Falls Below $4,000

Noteworthy S&P 500 Movers on Thursday

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Decliners

• Dell Technologies (DELL) stock dropped 5.2% to lead losses on the S&P 500, giving back a portion of the 9% gain posted in the prior session after Dell raised its forecasts for annual revenue and profit growth. The company said its broad portfolio of tech products makes it well-positioned to benefit from demand for artificial intelligence.
• Shares of homebuilders lost ground after Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, echoed criticism from President Trump accusing major residential construction firms of artificially inflating home prices. Shares of PulteGroup (PHM), the homebuilder founded by Pulte’s grandfather, fell close to 5%, while shares of D.R. Horton (DHI) and other industry players also declined.
• The record-setting rally for gold prices lost some of its luster Thursday, with futures prices falling below the $4,000-per-ounce milestone that the precious metal surpassed this week for the first time. Shares of Newmont (NEM), the world’s largest gold miner, fell 3.6%.

Advancers

• Shares of Albemarle (ALB), the world’s largest lithium producer, jumped 5.2%. Other mineral and rare earths stocks also surged after China announced additional restrictions on certain raw materials ahead of a meeting set for later this month between the country’s leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. TD Cowen analysts also boosted their price target on Albemarle stock, pointing to pricing improvements in the lithium market.
• Delta Air Lines (DAL) stock rosen 4.3% after the air carrier posted record third-quarter revenue. Higher premium and corporate travel sales contributed to Delta’s better-than-expected quarterly sales and profit results, and the airline lifted its full-year guidance. Shares of rivals United Airlines (UAL) and American Airlines (AAL) also moved higher.
• PepsiCo’s (PEP) third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit came in slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates, and shares of the snack and soft drink giant advanced 4.2%. CEO Ramon Laguarta attributed the better-than-expected results to strength in the international business, momentum in North American beverage operations, and progress on revamping PepsiCo’s portfolio. The Frito-Lay and Gatorade parent also named a new chief financial officer, with Walmart (WMT) executive Steve Schmitt set to assume the role next month.

–Michael Bromberg

Why Rare Earths and Miner Stocks Soared Thursday

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Rare earths and mineral miner stocks took off Thursday, adding to their recent gains after China moved to tighten restrictions on related exports from the country.

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Thursday expanded licensing requirements for foreign companies to export products containing rare earths critical to producing a wide range of technological products, citing national security reasons.1

Shares of USA Rare Earth (USAR) soared 15% and MP Materials (MP) advanced close to 3%. Albemarle (ALB), the world’s largest producer of lithium—which is used in electric vehicles—led gains on the S&P 500 Thursday, as shares jumped 5%, and Lithium Americas (LAC) added 2%.

The gains for companies in the mining sector marked a bright spot in an otherwise down day for U.S. stocks, with the major indexes losing ground amid widespread losses as a federal government shutdown continued.

Rare earths and mineral stocks have been on a tear recently, as the Trump administration has taken stakes in several strategically significant companies including Lithium Americas and MP Materials, as part of an effort to shore up America’s access and reduce reliance on China, which is a leading producer.

President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet for the first time in nearly a year at a summit in South Korea later this month, raising speculation China’s move Thursday could be setting the stage for later negotiations.2

With Thursday’s gains, Lithium Americas shares have gone up over 40% since the start of October alone, while MP Materials has added close to 10%. Albemarle has gained nearly 20% over the same period.

–Kara Greenberg

Consumer Staples Is Lone Positive S&P 500 Sector Thursday

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Of the 11 sectors tracked by the S&P 500, only one finished in the green Thursday.

Consumer Staples stocks gained 0.6%, while the other 10 sectors ranged from slightly down (Utilities and Information Technology, both down less than 0.1%) to a fairly substantial decline (Materials, down 1.5%).

Band-Aid parent Kenvue (KVUE) and PepsiCo (PEP) were among the top individual stocks in the sector, closing up 4.7% and 4.2%, respectively.

Nvidia Stock Hits Latest All-Time High

2 hr 35 min ago

Nvidia already was the world’s most valuable public company. Now it’s padding its lead.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Saudi Arabia and the White House “are making progress on an agreement to allow U.S. chip companies to export semiconductors to the Gulf nation and could finalize a deal soon.”

That news helped send shares of Nvidia (NVDA) up more than 2% to hit their latest all-time high. The stock had gained 2.2% yesterday when CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that “demand of computing has gone up substantially” in the past six months.

Nvidia shares have added 44% of their value in 2025, giving the company a market capitalization of about $4.70 trillion. Microsoft (MSFT) is in second place with a market cap of roughly $3.87 trillion, but its shares slipped about 0.8% in recent trading.

Medicare Open Enrollment Approaches: What Impact Could the Government Shutdown Have?

4 hr 25 min ago

Those looking to sign up for or change their Medicare health and drug plans will get a chance soon.

Medicare open enrollment begins Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 7. During this time, enrollees can switch their coverage plan that will start Jan. 1. Some beneficiaries are concerned that the government shutdown will affect their ability to change their coverage.

The government is shut down because Democrats and Republicans have yet to resolve a budget dispute. This has led to hundreds of thousands of federal workers being furloughed, and some federal operations halting until a government budget agreement can be reached.

While the government could reopen before the Medicare open enrollment period, the clock is ticking.

Read the full article here.

–Jordyn Bradley

Tesla Stock Slips on NHTSA Investigation Into Full Self-Driving Software

5 hr 29 min ago

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were down 1.2% in recent trading after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into the electric vehicle maker’s Full Self-Driving software.

NHTSA said its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) “is opening this Preliminary Evaluation (PE) to assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety consequences of FSD executing driving maneuvers that constitute traffic safety violations.”

Tesla shares had been in negative territory for 2025 for most of the year until mid-September. Including today’s declines, they are up about 7% this year.

What Delta Had to Say About the State of the Airline Business in Its Q3 Results

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Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported record third-quarter revenue and issued a rosy outlook, driven by higher premium and corporate travel sales.

The air carrier’s stock jumped over 6% following the news, making it one of the S&P 500’s best-performing stocks Thursday. Shares of rivals United Airlines (UAL) and American Airlines (AAL) also rose.

Delta posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.71 on revenue that rose 6% year-over-year to $16.67 billion, above analysts’ estimates compiled by Visible Alpha, as premium and business travel sales surged. Delta said its corporate sales rose 8% from a year earlier, while premium revenue gained 9%.

Looking ahead, Delta said it sees adjusted EPS of $1.60 to $1.90 for the fourth quarter, with the midpoint well above analysts’ consensus. Its projection for full-year EPS improved to approximately $6, compared to $5.25 to $6.25 previously.

The results are the first in the airline sector this earnings season and show how premium carriers that rely more on international and first-class tickets—such as Delta and United Airlines—are flourishing.

PepsiCo’s Earnings Top Projections; Walmart’s Schmitt to Take Over as CFO

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PepsiCo (PEP) posted quarterly earnings slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations and announced a new chief financial officer Thursday.

The maker of Pepsi soda and Doritos chips posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.29 on revenue that rose 2.7% year-over-year to $23.94 billion for the third quarter. Both figures topped analysts’ projections compiled by Visible Alpha, thanks in part to strength in the snack giant’s international business and improvements in its North American beverage operations.

PepsiCo also said that Steve Schmitt, chief financial officer for Walmart’s (WMT) U.S. unit, will take over as chief financial officer from Jamie Caulfield effective Nov. 10. Caulfield decided to retire next year after more than 30 years with the company, PepsiCo said. He became CFO in December 2023.

The management shift comes as activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which has taken a $4 billion stake in the company, called for changes to boost PepsiCo’s lagging stock price.

Read the full article here.

–Nisha Gopalan

Why Wall Street Analysts Say We’re Not in an AI Bubble … Yet

9 hr 19 min ago

A spate of unusual deals within the AI ecosystem has recently fueled concern that the AI boom is actually an AI bubble, but some professional market watchers say this isn’t 1999—at least not yet.

OpenAI has vowed to spend hundreds of billions on Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) chips; in exchange, Nvidia will invest in OpenAI, and OpenAI will invest in AMD. Nvidia has invested in cloud providers Nebius (NBIS) and CoreWeave (CRWV), both of which buy its chips, and agreed with the latter to buy all of its unused computing capacity through 2032. These deals are just a few threads in a growing web of entanglements connecting chipmakers, cloud providers and AI model makers. 

Skeptics warn these circular deals are evidence of an artificial intelligence bubble forming. They argue that Nvidia, through investments in the companies buying and renting its chips, is subsidizing the AI build-out, and artificially overstating the strength of AI demand in the process. 

But many on Wall Street disagree, including analysts at Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, who cast doubt on the bubble narrative in notes published Wednesday. 

“We believe the recent concerns re AI financing are highly overstated,” wrote BofA semiconductor equity analyst Vivek Arya, who doesn’t expect circular deals to account for more than 5% to 10% of the $5 trillion that is likely to be spent on AI by 2030.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Akero Therapeutics Stock Soars on Acquisition by Novo Nordisk

9 hr 39 min ago

Shares of Akero Therapeutics (AKRO) jumped nearly 20% in premarket trading after Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk (NVO) announced it was buying the firm for up to $5.2 billion.

Novo Nordisk, the maker of blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, said it was buying Akero for $54 per share, or $4.7 billion, in cash, with a contingent value right of $6 per share, or $500 million.

Akero is developing a treatment for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) called efruxifermin that Novo Nordisk calls “potentially best-in-class.”

“If approved, we believe it could become a cornerstone therapy, alone or together with Wegovy (semaglutide), to tackle one of the fastest-growing metabolic diseases of our time,” Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar said. 

Entering Thursday’s session, Akero shares had added two-thirds of their value in 2025, while U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk had dropped 30%.

Fed Officials Are Willing To Cut Rates, But Inflation Could Derail Plans

10 hr 8 min ago

Officials at the Federal Reserve cut the central bank’s influential interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point last month despite inflation remaining near the top of their list of worries, according to minutes released by the Federal Open Market Committee Wednesday.

The minutes detailed the discussions that led the Fed to cut interest rates for the first time this year. Central bankers face a dilemma as they strive to fulfill their dual mandate of maintaining low inflation and high employment. Inflation remains above the Fed’s target of a 2% annual rate, while job growth has slowed to a crawl.

Fed policymakers have been wrestling with their options: cut the federal funds rate to boost job creation, or keep it higher for longer to wrestle down inflation. The Fed’s key interest rate influences the economy because it dictates borrowing costs on all kinds of short-term loans.

While markets widely expect the Fed to make two more cuts at its remaining meetings this year, Fed officials are keeping a close eye on inflation, suggesting higher-than-expected price increases in the coming months could derail those expectations.

“Two more rate cuts aren’t a done deal because policymakers aren’t letting go of their inflation mandate,” David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, wrote in a commentary.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Stock Futures Little Changed After S&P 500, Nasdaq End at Records

10 hr 29 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%.

S&P 500 futures were near flat.

Nasdaq 100 futures also were little changed.