The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major stock indexes lost moderate ground Thursday, with large caps pulling back from record highs. Gold stocks got thumped and led the downside, but blue chip Nvidia climbed on the stock market today with a 1.8% jump following sales numbers from its supplier, Taiwan Semiconductor.
Meanwhile, correct buy points are in focus for cybersecurity sector winners Zscaler and CrowdStrike, two tech stocks that outperformed the general market.
With major benchmarks wading in the red for much of the day, the Dow closed with a drop of 243 points, or 0.5%. It still holds a healthy cushion above its 10-week moving average, despite looking poised for a weekly decline. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks at one point caved nearly 1.1%, but got a late-hour boost to cut that loss t0 0.6%.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq declined 0.3% and 0.1% at the close, respectively. Both benchmarks finished at record highs Wednesday. The Nasdaq 100 ended 0.1% lower as well.
Within IBD's 197 industry groups, at least 19 dropped 2% or more on a price-weighted basis in late-afternoon trading. But by day's end, that number expanded to 31, according to preliminary data.
Stock Market Today: The Lesson From Ferrari
Among individual stocks, Ferrari plunged 15% as it laid out its electric vehicle plans that proved underwhelming for Wall Street. Shares gapped lower at the open and slumped at much as 16%, skidding to a session low of 402.86.
While the stock has engineered a strong run since it broke out to a 52-week high in January 2023, Ferrari shares have been mostly treading water since August 2024. As a result, notice on the daily, weekly and monthly charts that the stock's relative strength line has generally fallen into a rut, failing to rise to new highs.
A healthy RS line is paramount when a growth stock finishes a base and attempts a breakout to new highs and a money-making run.
Last week on Oct. 2, Ferrari rallied sharply and cleared a 498.70 buy point in a 10-week cup with handle. However, the breakout began to fizzle the next day. Three trading days later on Wednesday, the stock got hammered, and Ferarri stock closed below its 21-day exponential moving average.
Finishing that session at 479.21, the stock fell 4% beneath the pivot point, further breaking expectations. The stock needs more time to develop a sound base and show relative strength vs. the S&P 500 before staging a breakout attempt.
The Italian race and sports car manufacturer is now down more than 16% for the month of October alone after scaling back projections for its luxury electric vehicle business. During a Capital Markets Day event on Thursday, the company said it still expects 20% of its vehicle line-up to be all-electric by the year 2030.
"Luxury EVs are still a young and immature category," Brian Lum, an investment manager at Baillie Gifford, was quoted as saying in a Barron's article.
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3:03 p.m. ET
Precious Metals Drop, And Take A Chunk Out Of Miners
Investor's Business Daily's gold and silver mining industry group sank 3.8% Thursday amid a 2.3% thrashing of near-expiration gold contract futures. Gold gained uber-level attention after crossing $4,000 per ounce for the first time on Wednesday. On Thursday, futures hit a session high $4,077.90 before reversing to $3,973, down 2.4%.
Silver futures followed gold's lead, falling 3.3% to $47.39 per ounce in recent action. Earlier on Thursday, the precious and industrial metal hit a high of $49.97, just shy of the psychologically significant $50.
Wheaton Precious Metals, which entered IBD Leaderboard as a half-size position on the model stock portfolio on July 14, dropped 4.2% in thick turnover. Shares plumbed to a low of 102.50 and are close to a test of key support at the 50-day moving average.
Among other leaders in the gold and silver mining space, Barrick Mining slipped 3% but held above its short-term 21-day exponential moving average. Gains at one point from a breakout at 21.11 reached as high as 71%.
Alamos Gold slid 4.8% in above-average turnover and fell to a session low of 32.41. It also cleaved the 21-day line. Failure to hold this key technical level would warrant selling to lock in profits after the stock's breakout past a cup without handle and its buy point of 31.
1:29 p.m. ET
Dow Winners In Down Day
Despite the Dow's pullback, at least five of the Dow industrials' 30 components forged a gain of one point or more. Among these, at least three sport Relative Strength Ratings of 80 or higher: Nvidia, Goldman Sachs, and Johnson & Johnson.
J&J, up 0.8% and marking a session high of 192.10, has delivered a 12% profit since clearing a saucerlike consolidation with a 169.99 entry. Wall Street expects earnings at the medical and personal care products titan to grow 9% this year to $10.85 a share.
Merck and Salesforce were also among Dow advancers, rising more than 1% each.
Breadth in the stock market today was negative, particularly on the New York Stock Exchange as decliners outmatched gainers by more than a 5-to-2 margin. Outside the stock market today, the 10-year Treasury yield inched upward to 4.14%. Also, U.S. crude oil futures were little changed at around $62.50 a barrel.
Volume was mixed in the early going, up 6% vs. the same time on Wednesday on the Nasdaq but less than 2% lower on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Delta Rallies, But Off Highs
Among stock movers, Delta Air Lines surged initially after releasing third-quarter earnings. Shares rallied more than 4% at midday, but at one point in the session, they were up as much as 9%. The stock is still forming the right side of a new base after plunging more than 50% from its January peak of 69.98.
Other transport-related firms, from trucking companies to shippers, fell amid ongoing worries about how tariffs are impacting the economy. The Dow Jones transportation average lost 0.7%. In the third quarter, the Dow transports gained just 2%. For the year, the index is still down 1.5% compared with the Nasdaq's 19% rise and the S&P 500's 14.5% gain.
Meanwhile, among the Megacap Eight, Tesla faces a new regulatory probe into self-driving traffic violations. Tesla shares fell 2%. Netflix rose 1.5%.
MP Materials and other U.S.-based rare-earths plays jumped as China steps up rare-earths restrictions. MP rallied 6%.
12:01 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Zscaler Eyes Entry
Zscaler, the cloud-based network security innovator, was off merely 0.6% after springing 7.2% the prior session in accelerating volume. The stock is just a 2% move away from potentially breaking out of a symmetrical cup pattern with a 318.46 buy point.
According to the technical data panel on a MarketSurge chart, the three-month and six-month Relative Strength Rating of 80 is solid. The 12-month RS score is even better at 86, meaning Zscaler stock has outperformed 86% of all companies in the IBD database over the past year.
CrowdStrike, meanwhile, is toying with a 507.20 proper entry in a nearly four-month cup with handle. It holds a decent 83 12-month Relative Strength Rating.
10:54 a.m. ET
Nvidia Stock Update
The world's No. 1 designer of chipsets and supercomputers for AI workloads, Nvidia has now wiped away all of a decline caused by a three-day slide that began on Friday. Shares are up more than 3% for the week and headed for a third straight weekly advance.
Notice on a daily chart how during that pullback, the megacap tech tested the top of a six-week flat base. That's normal and natural action for a true stock market leader that had already gained 37%
The base's high of 184.48 serves as the prime buy point. Nvidia on Thursday hit a high of 195.30, slightly outside the 5% buy zone from that 184.48 entry. That buy zone stretches up to 193.70.
Analysts polled by FactSet see the Santa Clara, Calif., company posting earnings of $4.52 a share, up 51%. For the current fiscal third quarter that ends in October, the member of IBD's fabless semiconductor industry group expects to increase profit 53% to $1.24 a share on a 55% revenue rise to $54.5 billion.
During the prior eight quarters, Nvidia registered sales gains between 56% and 265% vs. year-ago levels.
10:02 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Price Updates
After the open, Taiwan Semiconductor gained 2%, but Nvidia also rose 2% and Advanced Micro Devices edged lower. Taiwan Semi reported sales results.
Delta Air Lines jumped nearly 7%, moving above the 50-day line and toward a buy point after reporting results. MP Materials rallied more than 8% while USA Rare Earth gained more than 6% amid curbs on rare earth materials by China.
Finally, DoorDash edged lower while its new partner, Serve Robotics, jumped 10%, breaking out.
9:09 a.m. ET
DoorDash, Serve Robotics Team Up
DoorDash and Serve Robotics announced a strategic partnership to roll out autonomous robot deliveries across the U.S., starting in Los Angeles.
Shares of DoorDash climbed 1.2%. Serve Robotics stock was up 10.5%, set to gap out of a base.
8:58 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Novo Nordisk to Buy Akero Therapeutics
Novo Nordisk will pay up to $5.2 billion cash for Akero Therapeutics. Akero shareholders will receive $54 per share in cash and a contingent value right of $6 per share based on how one of Akero's MASH drug does. The acronym stands for Metabolic-Associated Steatohepatitis, a liver disease characterized by fat accumulation, inflammation, and fibrosis.
Novo Nordisk stock fell 1.4%. Akero stock gapped up nearly 18%, near record highs.
8:43 a.m. ET
Ferrari Hits Reverse On 2030 Goals
Ferrari disclosed its long-term outlook on Thursday. The Italian luxury sports carmaker now sees 20% of 2030 sales to be fully battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, along with 40% hybrid cars and 40% traditional gas-burning vehicles. Previously, it targeted 40% BEV sales in 2030.
Ferrari did unveil the technology for its first electric vehicle, which is expected to start deliveries in late 2026.
But Ferrari stock plunged more than 12% before the open, signaling a gap below the 50-day and 200-day lines. Last week, Ferrari briefly broke out from an awkward base.
8:32 a.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Taiwan Semi Sales
Taiwan Semiconductor reported September sales swelled 31.4% vs. a year earlier in local currency to $10.84 billion in U.S. currency, amid strong demand for artificial intelligence chips. Third-quarter revenue appeared to total $32.44 billion, slightly above analyst projections.
TSMC, which makes chips for Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Broadcom and more, is due to report third-quarter earnings on Oct. 16.
Taiwan Semiconductor stock edged lower in premarket trade, after rising 3.6% on Wednesday to near record highs. Nvidia stock gained nearly 2% while AMD added 1%, with the former climbing within a buy zone, according to MarketSurge. Broadcom stock edged lower.
Delta Air Jumps On Earnings
Delta Air beat third-quarter earnings views and offered a brighter outlook for the fourth quarter.
Shares of Delta were up more than 6% before the open, signaling a clear move above the 50-day line and indicating an early entry into a flat base. The traditional buy point is 63.91.
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China Rare Earth Curbs Lift MP Materials, Peers
Beijing is tightening restrictions on rare earths exports to include items that are made outside the country, stepping up curbs that have been a big source of U.S.-China trade tensions. Rare earths, and the magnets derived from them, are key to many tech industries, including electric vehicles and chips, as well as military applications.
MP Materials stock jumped more than 4% early Thursday. USA Rare Earth gained 7%.
In July, the Pentagon announced a major investment in MP Materials, while also setting a price floor for a key material that's well above the market price. That sent MP stock skyrocketing.
Meanwhile, USA Rare Earth stock has run up recently as it confirmed White House talks for a stake in the company.
Stock Market Today: Tesla Self-Driving System Faces Probe
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it has launched a probe into 2.88 million Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving, examining 58 reports of FSD-related safety issues, including 14 crashes and 23 injuries.
NHTSA said the driver-assist system has "induced vehicle behavior that violated traffic safety laws." The agency also cites reports of Tesla vehicles using FSD driving through red lights and traveling in the wrong direction.
Tesla released FSD v14 early Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Tesla has filed for a new, longer-range Model Y variant in China. That's similar to the longer-range Model 3 released there two months ago. The Model Y variant would have a range of nearly 500 miles.
Tesla stock fell 1.5% in premarket trade. The EV giant now has a 470.75 handle buy point on a base going back to the end of 2024.
Broadcom is on Leaderboard, with Tesla on the Leaderboard watchlist. Further, Broadcom and Nvidia are on SwingTrader. Taiwan Semiconductor stock and Nvidia are on the IBD 50. Nvidia stock is also on the IBD Big Cap 20.
Remember that premarket action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
Please follow Ed Carson on X/Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more. Also, please follow Chung on X/Twitter: @saitochung and @IBD_DChung
