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Thursday was a banner day for Tesla (TSLA), which surged 21.9% on the back of the company's better than expected Q3 results and 2025 vehicle growth guidance. The rest of the market looked like a straggler fending for itself as capital flowed to Tesla.
There really wasn't much buying conviction outside of Tesla and a handful of other stocks as Treasury yields gyrated. The equal-weighted S&P 500 was flat while the market cap-weighted S&P 500 increased just 0.2%.
There is a modest bid in the equity futures market this morning.
Currently, the S&P 500 futures are up 22 points and are trading 0.4% above fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are up 108 points and are trading 0.5% above fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 119 points and are trading 0.3% above fair value.
Things could be a little better, but Apple (AAPL) is a drag, trading 0.4% lower in response to KeyBanc Capital Markets downgrading the stock to Underweight from Sector Weight. Tesla is also 1.5% lower, coming off the boil a bit from yesterday amid a Wall Street Journal report that Elon Musk has been speaking regularly to Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
Gains in other mega-cap stocks have acted as an offset along with favorable responses to earnings reports from the likes of Western Digital (WDC), Deckers Outdoor (DECK), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), Capital One Financial (COF), and Centene (CNC).
The September Durable Goods Orders Report was a mixed bag insomuch as the market's first impressions are concerned.
Durable goods orders declined 0.8% month-over-month in September (Briefing.com consensus -0.9%) following a downwardly revised 0.8% decline (from 0.0%) in August. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders increased 0.4% month-over-month (Briefing.com consensus -0.1%) following an upwardly revised 0.6% increase (from 0.5%) in August.
The key takeaway from the report is that it had a split growth personality. A 0.5% increase in nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft conveyed a pickup in business spending, yet the 0.3% decline in shipments of nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, which factors into GDP computations, declined 0.3% on the heels of a 0.1% decline in August and a 0.4% decline in July.
The Treasury market experienced some more gyrations on the report's release but, importantly for stocks, has kept it together. The 2-yr note yield is down three basis points to 4.04% and the 10-yr note yield is down two basis points to 4.18%.
This behavior has helped the equity futures market maintain a positive disposition that will result in higher levels for the major indices at today's open.
