Monday, October 20, 2025
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Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq jump amid trade-war lull, with flurry of earnings on deck


US stocks stepped higher on Monday as Wall Street kicked off a packed week full of high-profile earnings and a delayed release of key inflation data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) climbed 0.8%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) gained 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the way higher, rising over 1.4%, as Apple (AAPL) stock surged to a record high on strong iPhone 17 demand.

Markets are setting aside a laundry list of worries to focus instead on earnings season, which shifts into high gear this week. Hopes are high, with reports from Tesla (TSLA), Intel (INTC), Netflix (NFLX), and Coca-Cola (KO) leading the highlights in a busy roster.

On Monday, eyes will be on Zions Bancorp’s (ZION) third quarter results due after the bell. The regional lender’s disclosure of bad loans linked to fraud last week spooked investors with concerns about US credit quality.

A lull on the trade war front also provided solace. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said relations with Beijing have “deescalated” and said US-China talks are set to resume this week in Malaysia.

On Sunday, President Trump listed the top issues for the US — rare earths, fentanyl, and soybeans — in a sign the White House is continuing to soften its stance. That raised optimism that Trump’s promised 100% additional tariff on Chinese imports set for Nov. 1 may not come to pass.

Meanwhile, the US government shutdown has entered its third week, with Democrats and Republicans still at odds over federal healthcare subsidies. Economists warn that a prolonged standoff could dent near-term GDP growth, though most see any slowdown as likely temporary.

The federal stoppage has slammed the brakes on inflation and jobs data key to the Federal Reserve’s decision making. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release September’s Consumer Price Index on Friday, delayed from last week. The data could prove pivotal to the Fed’s rate path, as policymakers enter a quiet period ahead of their two-day meeting next week.

Wall Street was also assessing the fallout from a major Amazon (AMZN) AWS outage Monday morning, the ripple effect of which took platforms such as Robinhood (HOOD) offline. The cloud giant underpins services for a swathe of top companies, and users reported disruption at websites ranging from United Airlines (UAL) to Reddit (RDDT). AWS operations are slowely returning to normal, the Amazon unit said.

LIVE 10 updates

  • Cleveland-Cliffs stock soars after CEO says steelmaker is looking into rare earths

    Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) CEO Lourenco Goncalves said on Monday that the miner and steelmaker was looking to produce rare earths, which sent shares of the company soaring 17%.

    “Beyond steelmaking, the renewed importance of rare earths has driven us to re-focus on this potential opportunity at our upstream mining assets,” Goncalves said in the company’s third quarter earnings release. “We have looked at all of our ore bodies and tailings basins, and two sites in particular, one in Michigan and one in Minnesota, show the most potential. At these two sites, geological surveys show key indicators of rare-earth mineralization.”

    Rare earths, which are critical materials used in EV motors and semiconductors, among other items, have come into sharp focus in recent weeks after China threatened to impose export controls.

    The comments overshadowed Cleveland-Cliffs’ quarterly results, which largely were in line with estimates. The company reported a $0.45 loss per share, matching Wall Street estimates, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, while revenue of $4.73 billion was a bit light of estimates for $4.89 billion.

  • Myles Udland

    Apple stock opens at record as strong iPhone 17 sales boost optimism

    Apple (AAPL) stock opened up more than 2.5% on Monday to trade at a record high after research firm Counterpoint Research said in a note Monday that the firm’s latest iPhone 17 was on track to outsell its predecessor model by some 14% in its first 10 days on the market.

    Apple has been a laggard among its Big Tech peers, rising less than 3% so far this year against a nearly 14% gain for the S&P 500.

    The company launched the newest version of its iPhone late last month, unveiling the iPhone 17 with a new camera and display, as well as the iPhone 17 Air, a new lightweight, ultra-thin version of its flagship device.

    Back in September, Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley said the new lineup was Apple’s most exciting iPhone rollout in almost a decade.

    According to Reuters, Counterpoint’s work also showed that sales of the iPhone 17 in China has nearly doubled sales of iPhone 16 over the same period.

    In a note to clients last week, Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan noted that lead times for the latest iPhone models remained elevated against prior years, indicating strong demand for the new devices.

  • Stocks rise at the open, oil falls

    Stocks marched higher at the open after a significant AWS outage created disruptions at numerous companies on Monday morning.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.4%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.5%.

    Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) hovered below 4% after falling 2 basis points. The 30-year yield (^TYX) also declined 2 basis points to 4.57%.

    Gold (GC=F) futures climbed 2% to $4,334 an ounce. Crude oil futures (CL=F) dropped 1.5% to $56 per barrel.

  • Tesla, Netflix to report earnings as US-China trade fight turns ‘unsustainable’: What to watch this week

    Here’s what lies ahead as markets grapple with the US federal shutdown, a looming oil glut, and “cockroach” fears about credit quality in the economy.

    Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley reports:

    Read more here.

  • Beyond Meat stock soars 60% amid possible short squeeze

    Beyond Meat (BYND) stock surged over 60% in premarket trading on Monday, recouping some of the heavy losses it suffered this year. Shares remain down over 82% year to date, however.

    The plant-based meat manufacturer is undergoing a debt restructuring, which last week led traders to dump shares. As of Friday’s close, shares were trading at just $0.64 apiece. With Monday’s move, shares are on track to open back above $1.

    The absence of a major catalyst on Monday and increased trading volume suggest the stock may be experiencing a short squeeze, as bearish investors are forced to buy back shares to limit losses.

    Beyond Meat has fallen on hard times since its IPO in 2019, a year when the stock traded as high as $240 a share. On Oct. 13, Beyond Meat announced a debt-swap deal that would issue as many as 326 million shares of stock in order to reduce its debt load by about $800 million.

  • ‘Top of my list of worries’: Why the stock market’s boom could become America’s biggest risk

    Yahoo Finance’s Allie Canal reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.

  • Jenny McCall

    Premarket trending tickers: Tesla, Robinhood and MP Materials

    Here’s a look at some of the top stocks trending in premarket trading:

    Tesla (TSLA) stock rose 1% before the bell on Monday. The EV maker is set to report its third quarter earnings on Wednesday. Barclays (BCS) also reiterated the stock as Equal Weight and raised its price target to $350 (from $275).

    Robinhood (HOOD) stock rose 3% in premarket trading. The trading platform recently had its price target raised from rom $130 to $170 and reiterated an “Outperform” rating by analysts at Citizen JMP.

    MP Materials (MP) stock was up 3% before the bell on Monday. The rare-earths materials company has seen a lot of action over the last few weeks after China restricted export of rare earths, forcing the US and other countries to diversify their supply chain. President Trump confirmed on Sunday that rare earth is a key talking point for the US-China trade talks, which will take place in Malaysia this week.

  • Huge Amazon Web Services outage takes major websites offline

    A major outage at Amazon Web Services on Monday morning had a huge knock-on effect, taking down platforms like Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) in widespread disruption that hit several big websites.

    Those hit ranged from United Airlines (UAL) to T-Mobile (TMUS) and Reddit (RDDT), according to Downdetector reports from users. It also degraded services for government agencies and AI companies. per Bloomberg.

    Amazon Web Services said at around 6 a.m. ET that its cloud service had recovered significantly after the disruption, which started having an impact about four hours earlier, going by customer complaints.

    The cloud provider, whose services underpin a big slice of the web, said a problem on the US East Coast were behind the issues.

  • Gold drops as US-China tensions ease

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.



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Tags :inflation dataNASDAQ CompositePresident Trump
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