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Last Updated: 28-Oct-25 09:08 ET | Archive
Coming back for more record highs
Briefing.com Summary:
*Dow component UnitedHealth Group is up nicely following its earnings report.
*Skyworks Solutions has created an M&A buzz with a deal to acquire Qorvo.
*Amazon announced a plan to cut 14,000 corporate jobs.
Record highs yesterday for the major indices weren't enough. The market is coming back for more this morning, heartened by recent earnings reports, visions of a rate cut dancing in its head, M&A activity, positive sentiment surrounding President Trump's trip to Asia, and plain old momentum.
Currently, the S&P 500 futures are up 11 points and are trading 0.2% above fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are up 64 points and are trading 0.3% above fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 267 points and are trading 0.6% above fair value.
Those aren't robust readings, but they are improved from earlier when modest losses were in the opening forecast.
An M&A deal in the semiconductor industry gave things an extra nudge, yet there was a prevailing sense that the market would have gotten to where it is even if that deal, which features Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) acquiring Qorvo (QRVO) in a $22 billion cash-and-stock deal, didn't happen.
Dow component UnitedHealth Group (UNH) is up 4.2%, and UPS (UPS) is up 11.8% after their reports, leading a brigade of companies that have posted results since yesterday's close. The vast majority of reports were better than expected, although not every reporter has gotten the royal treatment.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) hasn't. It is down 9.8% following its below-consensus Q4 guidance; F5, Inc. (FFIV) is down 9.9% after issuing below-consensus fiscal Q1 and FY26 guidance; and Corning (GLW) is down 5.5% after coming up shy of consensus Q3 revenues.
The offset is that all "Magnificent 7" stocks are higher in pre-market trading, except Apple (AAPL), which is down a mere 0.1%. Amazon (AMZN), for its part, is up 0.7% after announcing a plan to cut approximately 14,000 corporate jobs.
Separately, PayPal (PYPL) is up 11.4% on a dose of double good news that included better-than-expected Q3 results and word that it is teaming up with OpenAI to power instant checkout and agentic commerce in ChatGPT.
There are a lot of tradable situations this morning. Sentiment has been helped by positive news surrounding President Trump's trip to Asia, which included an announcement of a framework agreement with Japan to secure the supply of critical minerals and rare earths. The president also reiterated the expectation that he expects a good and positive meeting with China's President Xi when they meet on Thursday.
That meeting will follow the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, where the Fed is widely expected to cut the target range for the fed funds rate by another 25 basis points to 3.75% to 4.00%.
The market has good things on its mind, then, so much so that it continues effectively to ignore the government shutdown, now in day 28.
