By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 3 (Radarr Africa) – US stocks ended mixed on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher and the Nasdaq lower, as technology shares extended a weak run and oil prices fell on hopes of renewed talks between Washington and Tehran, ahead of the US midterm elections.
TheStreet reported that the Dow closed at 51,983.98, up 0.41 per cent, while the S&P 500 fell 0.51 per cent to 7,541.40 and the Nasdaq fell 1.07 per cent to 25,164.32. The Russell 2000 slipped 0.21 per cent to 2,805.88. Stocks opened higher after Friday’s sell-off, in which the Nasdaq had its worst single-day drop since June, but gave up the gains by the close, the report said.
Stock Titan said investors moved money out of technology stocks that had already had a losing week, and that Nvidia closed 1.26 per cent lower. It put the fall in the Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ at 1.36 per cent. TheStreet’s market snapshot showed the VIX volatility index at 21.15, up 8.91 per cent.
Oil was the other big mover. Stock Titan reported that Brent crude closed 7.63 per cent lower at $104.77 a barrel after hopes of renewed US-Iran peace talks. It said Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that Washington would prefer to resolve the conflict “peacefully”, and that later reports said Iran’s supreme leader had given the government some authority to hold talks. TheStreet, in an earlier update, put Brent down 4.49 per cent at $108.30 and WTI down 4.58 per cent at $99.35 on reports of Iran-Qatar talks. The sources did not explain the difference between the two sets of figures.
Economic data was mixed. Stock Titan said the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to 55.5 in October, above the 54.5 forecast, while construction spending fell 1.9 per cent in September against expectations of a 0.4 per cent rise.
Individual stocks moved sharply on deal and earnings news. Stock Titan reported that Marvell and Lumentum fell 12.72 per cent and 18.59 per cent after agreeing an all-stock merger, and that Oracle fell 8.76 per cent after announcing a $10 billion share sale alongside a bond sale. Kosmos Energy fell 13.33 per cent after reporting a $43 million third-quarter net loss and guiding to lower fourth-quarter output.
EVgo rose 46.83 per cent after its controlling shareholder, LS Power, which holds about 57 per cent of the votes, proposed buying the remaining class A shares for $2.00 each in cash, Stock Titan said. EVgo closed at $1.85 and its board formed a special committee to review the non-binding proposal. Perion rose 31.15 per cent after agreeing to be acquired by Affle for $11.70 a share in cash, a 34.5 per cent premium to Friday’s close, the report said.
IDEXX Laboratories rose 21.85 per cent after raising its 2026 revenue and earnings forecast following a 10 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue. Check Point fell 6.98 per cent after third-quarter revenue slipped 1 per cent, and chief executive Nadav Zafrir said “the recovery is taking longer than anticipated”, according to the report.
After the close, Apple shares fell about 2.8 per cent in extended trading and Palantir fell about 3.0 per cent, despite both reporting higher revenue, Stock Titan said. It reported Palantir’s revenue rose 96 per cent to $2.313 billion and that the company raised its 2026 revenue forecast.
The market’s attention is now on Tuesday’s US midterm elections. TheStreet reported that investors are watching how the balance of power in Congress could affect fiscal policy, borrowing and Treasury yields, and that polls favour Democrats to win both chambers. Daniela Hathorn of Capital.com said: “Global markets are starting November on a cautious note.” She added that investors remain willing to buy into weakness, though confidence in technology remains fragile, according to Yahoo Finance’s carriage of the TheStreet report.
