By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 2 (Radarr Africa) – US stock futures rose on Sunday evening as Wall Street prepared for a heavy week of earnings, midterm elections and jobs data, after artificial intelligence and chip stocks lost about US$5 trillion in market value since October 6, according to Yahoo Finance.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.44 per cent at 7,647.25, Dow futures up 0.35 per cent at 52,101 and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.86 per cent at 28,780, Yahoo Finance reported in an article by Jared Blikre, its global markets and data editor.
On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.82 per cent to 7,580.07, the Nasdaq dropped 2.86 per cent to 25,437.00, its largest one-day fall since June, and the Dow lost 1.09 per cent to 51,770.31, according to TechFlow. The information technology sector fell nearly 5 per cent, and the VIX volatility index closed at 19.42 after an intraday high of 23.93.
All three indices fell for a third straight week, their longest losing streak since March, TechFlow reported. For October, the S&P 500 fell 0.94 per cent and the Nasdaq 5.3 per cent, while the Dow rose 1.7 per cent. TechFlow said the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell more than 7.2 per cent on Friday and more than 15.3 per cent in October. Alphabet Class A shares fell 12.61 per cent after its earnings last week, it added.
Yahoo Finance calculated that the 47 AI and chip stocks it tracked lost about US$5 trillion in value since October 6, while the other 625 large US stocks in its tally gained about US$1.3 trillion. Nvidia and Alphabet each lost about US$834 billion, and TSMC about US$395 billion, according to the chart in its article.
Yahoo Finance wrote that “the selloff that closed out October was brutal but narrow”. Although the S&P 500 fell about 0.6 per cent last week, nine of its 11 sectors rose by about 1 per cent or more. No other down week since at least 1999 has seen more than seven sectors rise, per its calculations.
Apple closed Friday at a market value of about US$5.03 trillion, ahead of Nvidia at about US$4.93 trillion, Yahoo Finance said. Apple is up about 27 per cent this year, against about 11 per cent for the S&P 500.
Apple and Palantir report after the market closes on Monday, with iPhone 18 sales in focus for Apple, Yahoo Finance said. TechFlow put consensus earnings per share for Apple at about US$2.02 and said options pricing implies a move of about 13.3 per cent for Palantir. AMD reports on Tuesday after the close, followed by Qualcomm, Arm and Arista Networks on Wednesday and Thursday.
US midterm elections are on Tuesday. Yahoo Finance noted that, since 1950, the S&P 500 has risen every time from the end of October in a midterm year through the following June.
The October jobs report is due on Friday. TechFlow said September added just 29,000 jobs, with a three-month average of about 50,000. Manufacturing data from the Institute for Supply Management are due on Monday, with services data on Wednesday. The September manufacturing PMI was 54.5, with its prices-paid gauge at 77.9, TechFlow reported.
Oil is also in focus. West Texas Intermediate crude settled Friday above US$104 a barrel, its highest close since mid-September, according to Yahoo Finance, which said the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut in the ninth month of the Iran war. The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.929 per cent, and Yahoo Finance noted that Wall Street is debating whether the “Fed put” is back.
