The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major indexes turned moderate gains into steep losses Thursday as earnings news failed to sustain bullish investor sentiment. Nvidia chip producer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing was an early winner after a strong earnings report, but lost its early advance and dropped on the stock market today.
During late-afternoon action, it was clear that U.S.-China trade war tensions resurfaced in the market. The Dow ventured into negative territory and closed 0.7% lower, or 301 points. It was up nearly 0.6% earlier in the day. Like the Dow, the S&P 500 shaved some of its losses in the final 15 minutes trading, but still closed 0.6% lower. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite also flipped into the red, off 0.5%.
Small caps on the Russell 2000 also accelerated their decline during the half hour that remained in the regular session and ended the day 2.1% lower. Recently, the Russell 2000 has shown fourth-quarter leadership.
Volume diverged as it edged fractionally lower vs. Wednesday on the Nasdaq but rose nearly 10% on the New York Stock Exchange, preliminary data showed. So, the S&P 500 marked a fresh distribution day, or a session of intense professional selling.
Losers on the NYSE outmatched winners by nearly 3-to-1, partially due to blanket selling in the banking sector. The Nasdaq showed decliners outnumbering advancers by roughly 5-to-2.
3:50 p.m. ET
Banks Feel The Pain
Zions Bancorp got slammed, falling 13%, after the superregional bank disclosed a $50 million loss on two commercial loans.
An analyst at Truist reportedly termed the two problem loans a "step on the rake," MarketWatch reported. Zions cleaved its 200-day moving average, a sell signal for recent buyers.
JPMorgan Chase continued to lose momentum despite reporting solid third-quarter results on Tuesday. Shares of the former Leaderboard stock fell nearly 3% and traded below the 50-day moving average for the third time in five sessions.
A big break below the 10-week moving average would constitute a profit-taking sell signal.
JPMorgan initially entered IBD Leaderboard on June 16 at 270.74. But the stock has been taking a hit recently following Chief Executive Jamie Dimon's "cockroaches" comment, referring to the likelihood that the number of bum loans to businesses will increase.
Stocks Reverse Lower On Bank Woes; What To Do Now
2:50 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Gold Keeps Mining Gains
Outside stocks, gold continued to rock. Numerous gold miners dominated the upside in IBD's Stocks On The Move table as well as the IBD 50. Gold futures ran more than 2% higher, and hit $4,300 an ounce. Silver gained nearly 3% to around $52.80.
SPDR Gold Shares, a popular exchange traded fund, rose 2% and is aiming at a ninth straight weekly gain. The ETF joined Leaderboard on Sept. 2 as a half-size position – roughly a 5% weighting in the model stock and ETF portfolio – near 321.
The Big Picture: Why Performance Is Beginning To Look Like A Jar Of Jelly Bellys
Precious metals have risen due to concerns over slowing economic growth and persistent inflation, the ongoing U.S. government shutdown and rising total debt burden. Also at play is the accumulation of gold by central banks overseas, including China, and a weaker U.S. dollar.
Brett Friedman, veteran trader and contributor to OptionMetrics, notes that from the vantage point of options trading, enthusiasm over precious metals speculation has not yet reached boiling temperatures. Friedman analyzed option activity related to gold and found that implied volatility skew – a measure of buying options that are out of the money vs. those contracts that are in the money – is not at unusual levels.
"Apparently, gold investors are not rushing into out-of-the-money strikes, as one might expect if a bubble were forming or present," Friedman told Investor's Business Daily in an email.
Silver finished the session with its fifth straight gain and is up 83% from a 52-week low of $28.94, according to Dow Jones Data. Gold has spiked 67% from its own 52-week low of $2,565.70 an ounce.
Looking at IBD's 197 industry groups, truck transport firms led the upside with a 5% gain on a price-weighted basis. Hand tool, gold and silver mining, medical research systems and equipment, fiber-optic telecom, nonalcoholic beverage and contract electronics stocks also fared nicely with gains of 1.4% or more as a group.
12:52 p.m. ET
NuScale Whacked; Taiwan Semi Reverses
Meanwhile, nuclear power firm NuScale Power staged its latest breakout attempt. But shares got whacked by sellers at midday, and NuScale slid more than 9% in volume running well more than double its usual level.
Taiwan Semiconductor, also known as TSMC, surrendered early gains as well despite beating estimates and offering an outlook that was ahead of views. Shares reversed from a 2% gain to a near 2% drop in afternoon trades.
These Stocks Fall Hard In Heavy Volume
Big losers in the stock market today include United Airlines, down more than 8%. Marsh & McLennan, the insurance broker, was down more than 7% and hit low levels last seen in December 2023. Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which gapped down at the open, crashed more than 11% and split its 50-day moving average, triggering a key defense-type sell rule.
UAL also fell back below its 50-day line. A daily stock chart of the airline giant shows repeated upside resistance at 110.
Marsh, which is also a major player in human resources consulting, posted a 7-cent beat in earnings at $1.85 a share while sales of $6.35 billion, also up 11%, nipped views by $30 million. Evidently Wall Street expected stronger results. The company did not offer a fourth-quarter outlook in its news release.
Not all transport firms fell like United Airlines. J.B. Hunt Transport soared nearly 19% in its heaviest day of trading all year. The trucking giant posted an 18% jump in third-quarter earnings to $1.76 a share, trouncing estimates, despite flat revenue growth. The Dow Jones transportation index advanced as much as 2.2% Thursday morning before cooling off and rising 0.7% during lunchtime on Wall Street.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.98%. Oil prices slipped, and West Texas Intermediate futures traded around $58.10 a barrel.
11:43 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Nuclear Group Leader
Now the size of a large cap with a market value topping $15 billion, NuScale can leave traders whipsawed with big moves up and down. Nevertheless, after bottoming out at 30.62 during its latest correction, shares have moved higher, retaking all key moving averages in the start of October.
The 43% decline within the base is fairly deep, but in 2025, many leaders in the nuclear energy, Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence sectors have proved to burst out of very deep cup bases and succeed on their breakouts.
The stock reversed from early Thursday gains and fell more than 2% in recent action. But it remains close to the base's correct IBD-style entry point of 53.50. The 5% buy zone from 53.50 goes up to 56.18.
Notice that the cup-style base has many jagged edges, considered a flaw. Plus, the stock has a history of pulling back violently after rising out of a bullish chart pattern and striking new highs.
NuScale got plenty of airtime during Thursday's episode on IBD Live. The company has posted $56 million in sales over the past four quarters but lost $1.11 a share over that time frame.
10:50 a.m. ET
Snowflake Stock Analysis
In the enterprise software space, Snowflake has been showing one of its best moves in recent years. In a little over five months, the innovator in data management and analytics tools has more than doubled from a year-to-date low of 120.10. Now, the stock is challenging a 249.99 proper buy point in a narrow cuplike base.
Last week, Snowflake's breakout attempt melted in the face of President Donald Trump's renewed threat to impose triple-digit import duties on Chinese-made goods into the U.S. Shares were up more than 1% Thursday morning.
Snowflake has a market cap of $82 billion and 333.7 million shares. The company turned an annual profit of 25 cents a share in fiscal 2023, which ended in January that year.
Since then, earnings have escalated nicely, to 98 cents a share in fiscal 2024 and an estimated $1.20 in fiscal 2026, though profits dipped to 83 cents a share during 2025. On Thursday, Bozeman, Mont.-based Snowflake and Palantir Technologies announced a partnership to boost its enterprise-ready artificial intelligence and data analytics offerings.
The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020 at $120 a share. The stock's Relative Strength Rating is a strong 89 on a scale of 1 to 99.
9:47 a.m. ET
Nasdaq 100 Winners, Losers: Shopify, DoorDash, Verisk, AstraZeneca
Inside the Nasdaq 100, Shopify and DoorDash were among the best performers, up nearly 4% and more than 3%, respectively.
On the downside, Verisk Analytics and AstraZeneca tumbled nearly 4% and almost 2%, respectively, in morning trading.
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9:06 a.m. ET
AI Stocks Broadcom, Nvidia, Oracle Rally
Artificial intelligence stocks rallied Thursday morning amid TSMC's strong third-quarter earnings report.
Broadcom shares climbed more than 1%, looking to add to Wednesday's 2.1% gain. Shares are forming a flat base with a 374.23 buy point.
Nvidia stock rebounded more than 1%, on pace to snap a two-day skid. Shares are trying to find support around their 50-day moving average. The stock remains below a recent buy point at 184.48.
Oracle shares moved up nearly 2% premarket Thursday. Shares have been trying to decisively clear a trendline entry around 300.
8:34 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Salesforce Surges On New Revenue Forecast
Salesforce stock surged nearly 7% premarket Thursday after the company provided updated a financial outlook that calls for 10% organic subscription revenue growth through fiscal 2030 with a revenue target of $60 billion. The enterprise software maker updated its forecast at an investor day on Wednesday.
Salesforce shares closed Wednesday nearly 36% off their 52-week high.
8:07 a.m. ET
Nvidia Chipmaker Jumps On Earnings
Taiwan Semiconductor, better known as TSMC, beat analyst estimates for the third quarter and offered an outlook that was above views for the current period. Shares jumped 2%, set to hit a new high.
The world's largest contract chipmaker earned $2.92 per U.S. share on sales of $33.1 billion in the September quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of $2.63 a share on sales of $32.07 billion. In the year-earlier period, TSMC earned $1.95 a share on sales of $23.62 billion.
Stock Market Today: Earnings Movers
Other key earnings movers included Charles Schwab, J.B. Hunt Transport, Travelers and United Airlines.
Schwab stock moved up more than 3% in early trading, closer to a 99.59 buy point. J.B. Hunt shares soared more than 14% in premarket action, while Travelers shares plunged more than 5%. United Airlines stock was unchanged in recent trades.
Breakout Stocks Watch: What Looms For October?
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