The Wall Street Wrap: October 28, 2026

Stocks edge higher as the Fed holds and Oracle jumps 10.7%, but Alphabet, ServiceNow, and Fortinet tumble after the bell

Welcome to Wall Street Wrap, your quick end-of-day rundown of what moved US markets today, plus what's shaping global sentiment overnight.

MARKETS TODAY

US stocks edged higher on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4% with two dissents in favor of a hike, while Oracle's surge and a rally in chipmakers offset steep falls in F5 and CoStar ahead of results from Alphabet and Microsoft after the close. The S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 7,743.98 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.27% to 26,549.851, while the Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.55% to 29,813.157, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.19% to 52,475.10, and the Russell 2000 rose 0.41% to 2,830.509. The VIX fell 3.48% to 16.91. Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose, led by information technology at 0.48% and energy at 0.41%, while utilities fell 0.88%. Vertiv rose 16.485%, Flex 11.614%, and Oracle 10.733%, while F5 fell 20.426% and CoStar 13.964%. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 2.5 basis points to 5.018%, crude oil rose 2.01% to 101.910, and gold edged up 0.02% to 4,061.03.

ANALYTICAL VIEW

The Fed gave the market what it expected and little more. Policymakers held rates, but Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack voted for a quarter-point hike, the statement said inflation "remains elevated," and Chair Kevin Warsh again declined to offer forward guidance, so the S&P 500 held its gains while the 10-year yield rose to 5.018% and the two-year fell to 4.695%. The CME FedWatch tool put the odds of a December 9 hike at 85.7%. Technology did the lifting. Oracle jumped 10.733% after forecasting $225 billion of revenue in fiscal 2030 and capping new fundraising at $20 billion, and a record quarterly profit at SK Hynix sent chipmakers higher, with SanDisk up 7.658%, Micron 5.865%, Lumentum 5.515%, Lam Research 5.385%, and Applied Materials 5.069%. The AI trade was then tested after the bell, as Alphabet fell 9.57% after reporting earnings of $2.12 a share against about $3.01 expected, while Microsoft rose 2.16% on a beat, and ServiceNow and Fortinet lost 14.81% and 22.06% even as Fortinet raised its outlook.

Oil and geopolitics added a second layer of risk. Brent settled at $115.32 and West Texas Intermediate at $102.78, up 1.3% and 2.9%, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US had told Gulf Arab states to prepare for a short but intense campaign against Iran after the November 3 midterm elections, and energy rose 0.41% as Phillips 66's adjusted earnings of $14.08 a share, against about $11.7 expected, helped refiners rebound from Tuesday's slide. Israel's election produced no clear majority, pushing the shekel down 2%, and in Asia the Kospi surged 6.63% as SK Hynix reported its profit. Warsh said economic growth has strengthened and the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tracker points to 3.4% annualized growth in the third quarter, so Thursday's GDP and inflation data will matter.

What could change the picture: Whether Thursday's third-quarter GDP and PCE inflation figures firm up a December rate hike, whether the after-hours selloff in Alphabet, ServiceNow, and Fortinet spreads to other software and AI names at the open, whether Amazon's results after the close on Thursday restore confidence in AI spending, and whether Brent holds above $115 as the US weighs renewed strikes on Iran.

SECTOR PERFORMANCE

WINNERS & LOSERS

Top 5 Gainers (across S&P, Nasdaq, Dow):

• Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT): +16.485%
• Flex Ltd (NASDAQ:FLEX): +11.614%
• Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL): +10.733%
• Labcorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LH): +8.781%
• SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK): +7.658%

Top 5 Decliners:

• F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV): -20.426%
• CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP): -13.964%
• C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:CHRW): -11.136%
• Lennox International Inc. (NYSE:LII): -10.593%
• Baker Hughes Company (NASDAQ:BKR): -7.356%

Note: Oracle jumped on a $225 billion fiscal 2030 revenue forecast and a plan to limit new funding to $20 billion, F5 fell on weak guidance, and CoStar extended its slide after Tuesday's results and its $730 million Vexcel acquisition. Vertiv was due to report before the open but no figures were provided, SanDisk rose with memory and chip stocks after SK Hynix's record profit, and no specific cause was provided for the moves in Flex, Labcorp, C.H. Robinson, Lennox, or Baker Hughes.

AFTER-HOURS MOVERS

Gainers:

• Porch Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRCH), +21.53% after hours: Shares rose to $19.81 after third-quarter earnings of $0.10 a share beat the $0.01 estimate and revenue of $143.9 million, up about 13% from a year earlier, topped the $133.44 million expected. The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $518 million to $523 million from $506 million to $517 million, above the roughly $512.7 million consensus, two weeks after announcing its Allied Trust carrier and managing-general-agent acquisition. The stock had closed 7.70% lower at $16.30.
• Glaukos Corporation (NYSE:GKOS), +13.22% after hours: Shares rose to $205.41 after third-quarter revenue of $211.0 million, up 58% from a year earlier, topped the $168.04 million estimate, with adjusted earnings of $0.47 a share against a loss of $0.10 expected. Management raised its full-year 2026 sales guidance to $775 million to $785 million from $680 million to $700 million, well above the roughly $692 million estimate. The stock had closed 0.14% higher at $181.43.
• Teladoc Health, Inc. (NYSE:TDOC), +9.01% after hours: Shares rose to $7.50 after third-quarter revenue of $605.1 million, down 3% from a year earlier, topped the roughly $588 million expected, adjusted EBITDA rose 14% to $79.4 million, and the net loss narrowed to $0.15 a share. Integrated Care revenue grew 2% while BetterHelp fell 13%, and the company narrowed its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $2.395 billion to $2.441 billion, against a $2.406 billion consensus, and guided fourth-quarter revenue to $569 million to $615 million. The stock had closed 6.67% higher at $6.88.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), +4.77% after hours: Shares rose to $30.10 even though third-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.27 a share missed the $0.29 estimate and revenue of $3.29 billion matched expectations. Same-store sales rose 2.1% for a third straight quarter, but restaurant-level operating margin fell to 23.3% from 24.5%, and the company reiterated its low-single-digit full-year same-store sales growth forecast and plans to open 340 to 360 company-owned restaurants in 2027. The stock had closed 2.68% higher at $28.73.
• Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), +2.16% after hours: Shares rose to $542.49 after fiscal first-quarter earnings of $4.89 a share beat the $4.72 estimate and revenue of $92.28 billion topped the $90.62 billion expected. The stock had closed 0.06% lower at $531.01.

Decliners:

• Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT), -22.06% after hours: Shares fell to $135.67 even though third-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.91 a share beat the $0.86 estimate and revenue of $2.08 billion topped the $2.06 billion expected. The company raised its full-year 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to $3.54 to $3.58 a share, against about $3.44 to $3.45 expected, and its revenue guidance to $8.125 billion to $8.215 billion, and guided fourth-quarter earnings to $0.93 to $0.95 against $0.87 and sales to $2.155 billion to $2.245 billion against $2.161 billion. The stock was up about 130% this year and trading near 47 times forward earnings, and had closed 5.90% lower at $174.08.
• ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW), -14.81% after hours: Shares fell to $127.89 after third-quarter revenue of $4.11 billion edged past the $4.09 billion estimate but adjusted earnings of $1.00 a share missed the $1.02 expected. Fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $4.24 billion to $4.25 billion kept the focus on whether growth is reaccelerating, and the stock has fallen after each of its last three reports despite beats. The stock had closed 3.00% lower at $150.13.
• Alphabet Inc. Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), -9.57% after hours: Shares fell to $293.81 after third-quarter earnings of $2.12 a share trailed the $3.01 estimate, though it was not clear the reported figure was comparable with analyst estimates, and revenue of $127.58 billion, up 25%, the fastest growth since 2021, fell just short of the $127.97 billion expected. Operating income of $40.58 billion missed the $43.19 billion forecast and an $8.66 billion loss on equity holdings weighed on results, while cloud revenue more than doubled to $30.7 billion, against $28.7 billion expected, and capital expenditures were $51.36 billion against $55.09 billion expected. The stock had closed 1.34% higher at $324.89.
• CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD), -6.24% after hours: Shares fell to $250.01 with no company news cited, as ServiceNow and Fortinet also dropped. The stock had run up roughly 15% to 18% over the past week on an AI-security narrative and trades near 50 times sales, with its next results expected in late November or early December, and had closed 0.51% lower at $266.66.
• Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), -2.26% after hours: Shares fell to $11.68 even though third-quarter adjusted earnings of $0.49 a share beat the $0.41 estimate and revenue of $49.53 billion topped the $49.08 billion expected. Automotive revenue of $46.08 billion fell short of the $46.24 billion expected, the company narrowed its 2026 adjusted EBIT guidance to $10.5 billion to $11 billion from $10 billion to $11 billion, and it said 2027 earnings will be roughly in line with 2026. The stock had closed 2.05% higher at $11.95.

COMMODITIES & RATES

US TREASURY YIELDS

TOP STORIES: US

The Fed holds rates at 3.75% to 4% but two policymakers vote to raise them. Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented in favor of a quarter-point hike, Cook's first dissent since joining the Fed in 2022. The statement said inflation "remains elevated" and described economic activity as "expanding at a strong pace," up from "solid" in September, while Chair Kevin Warsh again declined to offer forward guidance. He also said the Fed will keep eight meetings a year but devote one in 2027 solely to strategy, with no vote on rates and no policy statement, and two in 2028. The CME FedWatch tool put the odds of a December 9 hike at 85.7%, and a strategist at an asset manager said nothing from the decision rules out another quarter-point increase before year-end.

Alphabet sinks after hours on weaker earnings, while Microsoft rises on a beat. Alphabet reported third-quarter earnings of $2.12 a share and revenue of $127.58 billion, up 25% from a year ago and the fastest growth since 2021, as cloud revenue more than doubled to $30.7 billion, against $28.7 billion expected, and the Gemini app reached 1 billion users. Search revenue grew 12% to $63.35 billion, short of the $64.96 billion expected, and net income fell to $26.17 billion from $34.98 billion, with capital expenditures of $51.36 billion keeping attention on AI spending. Microsoft reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of $4.89 a share and revenue of $92.28 billion, both ahead of estimates, and its shares rose 2.16% after hours while Alphabet's fell 9.57%.

Oracle jumps 10.7% as its long-term revenue forecast and financing plan ease debt concerns. At its investor day, the company forecast $225 billion of revenue in fiscal 2030, implying average annual growth of 35%, against the $224.2 billion analysts had projected, and said it will limit additional fundraising from fiscal 2027 through 2030 to $20 billion, split equally between equity and debt. Oracle expects an operating margin above 40% in fiscal 2030 and positive free cash flow in the second half of fiscal 2028, after losing about one-third of its value this year on concern about its $117 billion of long-term debt and a BBB- credit rating. The shares closed at $144.54.

Chipmakers rally after SK Hynix posts a record quarterly profit. US-listed shares of the South Korean chipmaker rose 13%, and SanDisk gained 7.658%, Micron 5.865%, Lam Research 5.385%, Applied Materials 5.069%, Seagate 4.51%, Arm 4.104%, and Western Digital 4.08%, while neocloud names CoreWeave and Nebius rose 7.319% and 6.963%. Nvidia fell 1.175%, and after the close Reuters reported that the Justice Department is examining its $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face. Tech stocks tied to the AI buildout have struggled in recent weeks on questions over financing, and an investment director at a bank asset manager said the "near-term cycle remains incredibly healthy."

Ford and Chipotle report mixed third quarters. Ford beat on adjusted earnings, at $0.49 a share against $0.41 expected, but its automotive revenue of $46.08 billion fell short of the $46.24 billion expected, and it narrowed its 2026 adjusted EBIT guidance to $10.5 billion to $11 billion. The company said 2027 earnings will be roughly in line with this year citing offsetting factors including this year's production issues and rising commodity costs, and its shares fell 2.26% after hours. Chipotle's adjusted earnings of $0.27 a share missed the $0.29 estimate, though same-store sales rose 2.1% for a third straight quarter despite foodborne illness worries, and its shares rose 4.77% after hours.

Also today: Apple announced its first touchscreen laptop, a MacBook Pro starting at $2,899 for the 14-inch model and $3,399 for the 16-inch, on sale November 6, as global PC shipments fall and memory costs rise; Visa reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.48 a share, up 17%, with revenue up 13% to $12.1 billion and payments volume up 9%, and raised its quarterly dividend 16% to 78 cents; Stellantis shares closed 13% higher at $4.69 in New York after it reconfirmed its 2026 guidance and a target of positive free cash flow in 2027, as third-quarter adjusted operating income rose 184% to 256 million euros; Frontier Airlines rose more than 9% in afternoon trading after forecasting a possible adjusted profit in the fourth quarter, despite a third-quarter loss of $104 million; mortgage rates fell for a second week, with the average 30-year rate at 7.37%, down from 7.41%, and application volume up 3.4%.

TOP STORIES: GLOBAL

Oil rises as the US reportedly tells Gulf countries to prepare for strikes on Iran after the midterms. Brent futures rose 1.3% to settle at $115.32 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate gained 2.9% to $102.78, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Washington told several Gulf Arab states to be ready for a short but intense campaign following the November 3 elections. President Donald Trump said the war would end on his terms and that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons, and the Houthis said on Tuesday they had struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery with a ballistic missile, keeping a geopolitical risk premium in prices.

Israel's election leaves no bloc with a majority, and Israeli assets sell off. With more than 80% of the vote counted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc led narrowly with about 54 seats against 49 for the bloc of challenger Gadi Eisenkot, well short of the 61 needed, while Arab-led parties won about 18 seats. Turnout was 77.7%, the highest in a Knesset election in 27 years, and official results are due November 4, with a prolonged round of coalition talks expected. The shekel fell 2% against the dollar, the Tel Aviv 35 index traded 2.3% lower, and the yield on the 10-year government bond rose 8 basis points.

The UK's autumn budget raises the bank surcharge and brings forward defense spending. Chancellor John Healey raised the surcharge on banks by 3 percentage points to 6% for 15 months from January, set 2030 as the target for defense spending to reach 3% of GDP, and announced an additional £10 billion in economic and military support for Ukraine. Households get a £2.6 billion package of measures, including removing standing charges on gas heating bills, and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast £15 billion of fiscal headroom by 2029 to 2030. The yield on the 10-year gilt fell 2 basis points to 5.323%, Barclays rose 3.3%, Lloyds Banking Group 2.6%, and NatWest 2.5%, and JPMorgan said singling out banks for more taxes "lacks principle."

South Korea's Kospi surges 6.6% as Asian markets rise. The Kospi rose 6.63% to 6,012.44 and the tech-focused Kosdaq gained 3.69% to 771.28, on a day SK Hynix posted a record quarterly profit. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 1.08% higher at 63,954.19 while the Topix slipped 0.14% to 3,991.71, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended flat at 8,847.30, and mainland China's CSI 300 closed 0.85% higher at 4,083.87.

MANAGEMENT & FED SPEAK

Kevin Warsh, Chair, Federal Reserve, on forward guidance and the AI buildout:

Warsh told reporters, "I don't believe in forward guidance, absent exigent circumstances, absent a crisis," saying it was useful in the darkest days of 2008 but not in normal times. On AI investment he said, "Interest rates have had an effect," pointing to wider credit spreads for certain assets, though he called capital spending "not just strong, but it is broadening."

Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, United States, on further rate hikes:

Asked whether further Fed rate increases would amount to a monetary policy error, Bessent answered, "That's not necessarily so." He said he and President Donald Trump believe Warsh can balance full employment and stable prices, adding, "I think Chair Warsh is off to a great start."

John Ternus, Chief Executive Officer, Apple, on the first touchscreen Mac:

Ternus said in live remarks in Los Angeles, "Yes, for the very first time, we are bringing touch to the Mac." In 2021 he had argued that the Mac was optimized for indirect input, and the new laptop reverses a decades-old Apple stance on touchscreen laptops.

Antonio Filosa, Chief Executive Officer, Stellantis, on the turnaround plan:

Filosa told investors, "We are very confident in reaffirming our '26 guidance," including positive free cash flow in 2027. He said the company is ahead of schedule and expects to exceed its 6 billion euros of cost cuts by 2028.

Sherry House, Chief Financial Officer, Ford, on 2027 profitability:

House told reporters, "This quarter's results reflect deliberate actions to improve profitability and deliver consistent financial returns." She said 2027 profitability should be roughly in line with this year, as production issues and rising commodity costs offset savings, and that Super Duty output in Canada will make up for lost F-150 production during retooling.

CORPORATE ACTIONS & EARNINGS CALENDAR

Top Ex-Dividend Companies for Thursday, October 29:

Earnings Reported After the Close (Wednesday, October 28):

Upcoming Earnings (Thursday, October 29):

Economic Calendar (Thursday, October 29):

That's the wrap for today! Attention turns to Thursday's GDP and PCE inflation data, results from Amazon, Intel, Starbucks, and Eli Lilly, how Alphabet, ServiceNow, and Fortinet open after their after-hours drops, and whether Brent holds above $115.