Futures and options traders work on the floor of the NYSE American at the New York Stock Exchange on October 22, 2025 in New York City, USA.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Stock futures fell slightly on Wednesday night as investors digested the quarterly results.
Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average It fell 87 points (nearly 0.2%). S&P futures and Nasdaq 100 futures Both were near the flatline.
The following companies announced large profits after the market closed for the third quarter. tesla, IBM, moderna and ram research. Tesla, which began coverage of the Magnificent Seven, saw its stock fall 3% after mixed third-quarter results. IBM fell about 6% as the technology company reported inline software revenue, although it beat Wall Street expectations.
Investors continue to focus on earnings releases from America’s largest companies, which many believe could make or break the current bull market rally. More than three-quarters of S&P 500 companies that have reported have exceeded earnings expectations.
Trade is also attracting attention. President Donald Trump said Wednesday night that a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was “scheduled,” allaying concerns about U.S.-China relations that had weighed on markets Wednesday.
In the previous session, the S&P 500 was down about 0.5%. Dow Jones Industrial Average We lost about 334 points, or 0.7%. High-tech oriented Nasdaq Composite It fell 0.9% as investors retreated from riskier assets. The move came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the White House was considering a plan to curb exports of U.S. software to China. These plans build on President Trump’s remarks about two weeks ago that the United States would implement export controls on “all kinds of critical software” by November 1.
Chris Grisanti, chief market strategist at MAI Capital Management, advised traders to reallocate money from winners and instead prioritize cheaper markets such as health care to capitalize on this year’s market-wide rally.
“I think this is a particularly stressful point in the market…valuations are at the second highest level in 100 years,” he told CNBC on Wednesday. “The market seems strong and there’s momentum…but we still have this valuation.”
Grisanti added that he sees some similarities between the current situation and the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.
“They say history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. I mean, this one rhymes pretty close. … We’re getting meme stocks. We’re also starting to get companies that are setting their prices based on 2030 or 2035 projections,” he said. “These are things we saw in 1998 and ’99, and they’re just creepy.”
Inflation data released on Friday is expected to provide further clues about the health of the economy, especially ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting in late October. Markets widely expect the central bank to cut interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point.
“Even without supporting data on nonfarm payrolls, we do not believe the report will dissuade the FOMC from cutting rates, as many officials are concerned that the surprising weakness in the August jobs report indicates a sharp deterioration in employment,” Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, said in a note to clients.
