Actualizado 2 min read
US stocks slumped on Tuesday after China upped the ante in its trade spat with the US, rattling investors’ nerves as big Wall Street’s banks kicked off earnings season.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 0.9%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank over 1.4% to lead the retreat.
The mood has soured after stocks’ strong rebound on Monday thanks to a fresh round of retaliation from Beijing to President Trump’s trade salvos. Its latest moves to target US shipping have undermined recently revived hopes that the US and China will avoid an all-out trade war.
China has placed sanctions on five US-linked units of South Korean shipbuilding firm Hanwha Ocean, effectively barring Chinese companies from doing business with them. Both countries also began charging special port fees on one another’s vessels on Tuesday in a bid for maritime dominance.
Also in focus is third quarter earnings season, which kicked off in earnest on Tuesday morning with results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Wells Fargo (WFC). Goldman and JPMorgan shares dipped even as their quarterly profits were boosted by a flurry of Wall Street dealmaking. Wells Fargo stock, meanwhile, jumped in early trading as the bank’s profit also surged.
With key data reports stalled by the government shutdown, investors and the Fed lack a clear view of the economy’s direction. The release of the September CPI consumer inflation report scheduled for Wednesday has been delayed to Oct. 24. Data on retail sales and producer prices are also expected to be pushed back.
The data blackout puts added weight on Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Tuesday at the NABE annual meeting, expected to provide insights into the Fed’s view of the economy and its thinking on monetary policy.
In the tech world, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it will provide Oracle’s (ORCL) cloud business with 50,000 AI chips. The move by Nvidia’s (NVDA) chipmaking rival is the latest is a recent slew of AI deals.
LIVE 17 updates
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Nvidia leads decline in Big Tech stocks
Nvidia (NVDA) stock fell 3.6% Tuesday, leading a downturn in Big Tech stocks after a strong but short-lived recovery Monday.
All of the chipmaker’s fellow “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks also dropped, with Tesla (TSLA) shares sinking 3.2%, Amazon (AMZN) declining 2.2%, and Meta (META) dipping 1.3%. Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Apple (AAPL) fell less than 1%.
Meanwhile, Broadcom (AVGO) — the custom AI chipmaker with a bigger market capitalization than Tesla that isn’t a part of the Mag 7 — also sank. Shares fell 3.5% after a big upswing Monday as the company announced a massive deal with OpenAI.
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Stocks slide at the open
Tech led a decline in stocks at the market open Tuesday, as trade tensions once again escalated between the US and China.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank over 1.4%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 0.9%.
In addition, investor attention turned to third quarter earnings season with multiple big US banks reporting results. But surging profits at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS) failed to be reflected in the banks’ stocks in early trading.
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Johnson & Johnson raises sales forecast, announces plans to spin off orthopedics unit
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced plans to spin off its orthopedics business on Tuesday as the company reported better-than-expected earnings and raised its 2025 revenue guidance.
Shares ticked lower in premarket trading.
J&J’s orthopedics unit, which makes hip, knee, and shoulder implants, among other products, is expected to become an independent company called DePuy Synthes within the next 18 to 24 months.
“We think this business will benefit from focused capital deployment and a focus in the competitive landscape. We think this positions both entities for success,” CFO Joe Wolk told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman.
For the quarter, J&J reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.80, compared to Wall Street estimates of $2.76.
Pharmaceutical sales rose 6.8% year over year to $15.56 billion, while medical device sales also rose 6.8% to $8.43 billion. Oncology treatment sales hit $3.67 billion.
Johnson & Johnson raised its 2025 sales forecast by about $300 million to a new range of $93.5 billion to $93.9 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $93.4 billion.
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AMD stock rises amid Oracle deal
Nvidia (NVDA) rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw its stock climb as much as 3% in premarket trading on Tuesday as the company announced a deal with Oracle (ORCL) to provide its cloud business with 50,000 AI chips.
The news comes amid a slew of deals in the AI space just a week after AMD announced a deal with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) to provide the AI chatbot maker with 6 gigawatts worth of its GPUs (graphics processing units). OpenAI is also a major customer of Oracle.
AMD shares are up more than 36% over the past month.
Meanwhile, Oracle stock was down more than 1% before the market open amid the broader market downtrend. The company recently soared after announcing a backlog of massive AI contracts with its cloud business, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with $300 billion of that contracted revenue reportedly coming from OpenAI.
But the stock pulled back some as Oracle unexpectedly raised $18 billion in debt, just as some analysts have cautioned that tech firms may begin turning to debt rather than relying on internal cash flows to fund their ambitious plans for AI infrastructure.
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AI stocks are in a bubble, most investors believe: BofA survey
Bloomberg reports:
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Nova Minerals stock doubles in premarket trading amid US interest
Nova Minerals (NVA) stock doubled in premarket trading, rising as much as 108%, after the Australian gold, antimony, and critical minerals miner said that it was engaged in Australia’s high-level talks with President Trump.
In a press release, the company said that it had been approached by the Australian ambassador to the US to provide an update on its Estelle gold and critical minerals project in Alaska. The briefing is in preparation for the upcoming meeting between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 20.
The Estelle project, northwest of Anchorage, was jump-started with a $43.4 million award from the US Department of War (DoW) and other government backing. It’s targeting military-grade antimony, a metal that was added to the critical minerals list, by 2026/27.
The briefing suggests potential interest in a US stake in the project. Trump has recently moved to create US stakes in critical materials companies, including Trilogy Metals (TMQ), Lithium Americas (LAC), and MP Materials (MP).
Resolution Minerals (NC3.F), another Australian mineral exploration company that was asked to brief the ambassador, saw its stock jump by over 45%.
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Jamie Dimon weighs in on asset prices
JP Morgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon to me on his thinking behind calling asset prices “elevated” for the second straight time on his earnings release. The comments are fresh off Dimon’s call with journalists to discuss earnings.
Explained Dimon:
“I would put it in the category of a risk factor at this point. And when asset prices are elevated, you have further to fall. Something goes wrong, and things look pretty good. You know, consumers are still spending companies are making money. Prices are up. So I just put it as a category of concern. We measure historically, they’re pretty high. Credit spreads are kind of low. You have a lot of assets out there which look like they’re entering bubble territory. That doesn’t mean you don’t have 20% to go. It’s just one more cause of concern.”
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Tariff tensions separate gold from crypto
Even as the White House calmed the rolling boil of China tensions down to a simmer on Monday, one asset remained scorching — gold (GC=F).
Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban digs into what fueled this week’s rally in the precious metal:
Read more here in today’s takeaway from Morning Brief.
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Wells Fargo boosts key profitability metric as asset cap removed
Wells Fargo (WFC) posted third quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations on Tuesday, lifting the stock over 2% in premarket trading.
Bloomberg reports:
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Wall Street bonanza boosts profits at JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) stock edged lower after the major US bank reported that its profits climbed in the third quarter.
Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports:
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BlackRock hauls in $205B as private assets accelerate
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.
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Critical mineral stocks soar in Australia as US hunts stakes
Australian miners with critical minerals projects made dizzying stock gains on Tuesday, amid signs of US interest in taking stakes. The moves come as an intensification in US-China trade tensions raises concern that Beijing will further curb access to its rare earths, key to production of US technology.
Bloomberg reports:
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From oil to the dollar: How US-China trade tensions are affecting markets
The latest trade tensions between the US and China has rattled markets. Here’s a list of all the assets affected by the latest tariff turmoil.
Currencies: The dollar (DX=F) fluctuated on Tuesday following China’s response to the US on tariffs. Risk sentiment fell as investors moved towards traditional safe havens such as the yen and Swiss franc.
Crypto: Cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) continued to fall on Tuesday. With the largest crypto asset, bitcoin dropping almost 3% to $111,950, while ether slumped 4% falling below $4,000 to $3,992. The crypto market shed $150 billion due to US-China trade tensions.
Oil: Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell 2% to $61.93 and US West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) also dropped 2% to $58.15 at 08:58 GMT, reversing earlier gains amid uncertainty around US-China trade relations.
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Ericsson shares rise as company shrugs off US tariffs
Ericsson’s (ERIC) shares surged by 14% on Tuesday after the Swedish telecommunications company beat forecasts for its quarterly earnings growth and also shrugged off US tariffs.
Reuters reports:
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Silver reaches all-time high after London liquidity concerns
Bloomberg reports: