Earnings Season Splits Wall Street: Dow Jumps 1% as Netflix Stumbles and SpaceX Soars

Wall Street got exactly the kind of session that separates a good earnings season from a great one. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.0% to close at 52,495.88, up 529.85 points, while the S&P 500 added 0.3% to 7,712.57 and the Russell 2000 jumped 1.7% to 2,773.42, according to Associated Press data. The Nasdaq was the odd one out, slipping 0.02% to 26,424.82 as weakness in big technology names kept the index in check. Eight of eleven S&P sectors ended lower; the market was saved by breadth elsewhere, with advancers outnumbering decliners more than two-to-one on the NYSE.

The day belonged to old-economy names reporting new-economy results. Equifax surged 11.3% on a bigger-than-expected summer-quarter profit, Hasbro jumped 11.2% after Magic: The Gathering brought in more than $600 million in a quarter for the first time — prompting the toymaker to raise its full-year revenue and digital-gaming forecasts — and 3M climbed 5.8% after lifting its full-year profit forecast and expanding its data-center partnership with Amazon, including a stock warrant worth over $521 million. Healthcare hit a sector record, up about 2.3%, with Eli Lilly the biggest points contributor. Not every beat was rewarded: General Motors fell 6.8% even though its profit topped expectations and it announced a buyback of up to $20 billion, because the midpoint of its full-year 2026 profit forecast came in below expectations.

Then came the split screen. After the close, Netflix fell about 6% on a weaker outlook, with its third-quarter results showing the slowest revenue growth in three years and projecting a fourth consecutive quarter of decelerating growth. Meanwhile SpaceX rose 3% to 4% after reporting third-quarter revenue up 161% year over year to $14.58 billion — and Elon Musk disclosed that SpaceX and Tesla have formed special committees to explore a potential merger. Add Salesforce’s agreement to buy Braze for $47.50 a share in cash, which sent Braze up 51.7% to $45.57, and the picture is clear: this is a stock-picker’s tape, where company-specific news dwarfs the index move. For everyday investors, it is a reminder that earnings reports move prices more than headlines — and why sizing matters more than predicting; our free forex tools include position-size calculators that work for any market.

The AI trade, which dragged markets last week, kept swinging both ways. Super Micro Computer jumped over 13% in pre-market trading on strong preliminary results, lifting Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and neocloud names CoreWeave and Nebius Group — though CoreWeave’s session itself swung from a 6% loss to a 5% gain before closing up 1.7%. In Asia, the mood was darker: South Korea’s Kospi dropped 3.7% to its lowest close since April, Japanese stocks fell about 1.5%, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.4% and London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3%. The dispersion is the story: money is rotating fast between AI winners and everything else, and the market can barely hold two opinions in the same session.

Underneath the earnings noise, the macro cross-currents are real. September housing starts fell 5.2% to a 1.221 million annual rate, well below the 1.305 million economists expected — a soft signal that may cool overheating bets on further Fed tightening. The 10-year Treasury yield eased 3 basis points to 5.12%, and traders are now pricing in an 83% chance the Fed holds rates at its October 27–28 meeting, with all 100 economists in Reuters’ poll expecting the next move — a hike — in December. Brent crude eased 0.7% to $108.79 after touching $111.99, as traders weighed a US sanctions waiver on Russia, Houthi attacks on Saudi targets and Iran mediation efforts. Today’s calendar is packed: the EIA petroleum report at 14:30 GMT, a $13 billion 20-year bond auction, and results from Meta and Tesla — which will decide whether the AI rotation has legs or runs out of breath. If you are still learning how macro headlines turn into price moves, the risk-management lessons in our free forex course apply far beyond currencies. (Not financial advice.)