Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Thursday as investors looked to higher-than-expected inflation and unemployment claims for indications on the health of the U.S. economy and the path for interest rates.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 57.88 points, or 0.14%, to 42,454.12, the S&P 500 lost 11.99 points, or 0.21%, to 5,780.05 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 9.57 points, or 0.05%, to 18,282.05.
Market Movers
Tesla - Tesla was down 1% ahead of its highly anticipated Robotaxi Day scheduled for Thursday evening. The electric-vehicle maker likely will discuss the state of its self-driving technology and provide a road map to the start of Tesla’s self-driving cab service within a couple of years. Analysts at Wedbush said they see Robotaxi Day as a “seminal and historical day for [CEO Elon} Musk and Tesla and marks a new chapter of growth around autonomous, FSD, and AI future.”
AMD - AMD was down 4% even after CEO Lisa Su said at the company’s Advancing AI event in San Francisco that demand for artificial-intelligence had exceeded the company’s expectations over the past year. Su said that the chip maker had the “best portfolio in the industry to address end-to-end AI.” The company also launched its latest data center AI chip.
Delta Air Lines - Delta Air Lines fell 1.1% after the carrier’s third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.50 a share missed analysts’ forecasts of $1.52. Delta said the CrowdStrike IT outage in July cut 45 cents a share from adjusted per-share profit. Delta also issued a fourth-quarter revenue forecast below expectations.
Super Micro Computer - Super Micro Computer declined 1.7% to $46.47. Analysts at Barclays reduced their estimates for the server maker’s fiscal 2025 earnings to $3.09 a share from $3.50, writing in a research note it expects gross margins at the company likely below expectations. Barclays maintained its Equal Weight rating on the stock and price target of $42.
PayPal - PayPal Holdings was down 3.3% after Berstein downgraded shares of the online payment company to Market Perform from Outperform. Bernstein said “given the wider-than-usual range of long-term outcomes for this company, we are stepping over to the sidelines until we get more visibility.”
First Solar, Enphase Energy - First Solar dropped 9.3% to $205.04. Analysts at Jefferies cut their target price on shares of the solar company to $266 from $271, but maintained a Buy rating. “Utility scale solar continues to be challenged by delays due to long interconnection queues, supply-chain, and labor shortages,” the analysts wrote in a research note. Peer Enphase Energy was down 5.8%.
10x Genomics - 10x Genomics fell 24.7% after the life-sciences technology company said it expects third-quarter revenue of about $151.7 million, down 1% from a year earlier, and below analysts’ estimates for $162.2 million. CEO Serge Saxonov said in a statement that modifications made to the company’s commercial processes and organization ‘to increase effectiveness represented a significant change in how we engage with customers. The transition “was more disruptive than we anticipated, especially in the Americas.”
E2open Parent - E2open Parent, a provider of cloud-based supply-chain management technology, cut its outlook for fiscal 2025, saying it expects revenue of $607 million to $617 million, down from a prior outlook of $630 million to $645 million. The company said large deals were taking longer to close than expected. Analysts has been expecting fiscal-year revenue of $632.7 million. Shares dropped 21.6%.
Toronto-Dominion Bank - Toronto-Dominion Bank was down 5.3%. The bank agreed to pay around $3 billion in penalties and accept limits on its growth in the U.S. as part of a settlement over charges it failed to properly monitor money laundering by drug cartels.
Skyworks Solutions - Skyworks Solutions was down 1.4% at $96.44 after Barclays downgraded shares of the semiconductor company to Underweight from Equal Weight, and cut the price target to $87 from $115.
CVS Health - CVS Health was up 1.3% to $66.85 after Barclays upgraded shares of the healthcare and drugstore company toOverweight from Equal Weightand increased the price target on the stock to $82 from $63. The firm listed a number of factors that could prompt “a compelling margin recovery opportunity” at CVS, including strides in 2025 Medicare margins, billions of dollars in cost-savings initiatives, and retail share gains helping to offset macroeconomic challenges.
Market News
US Inflation Rate Hit 2.4% in September, Topping Expectations; Jobless Claims Highest Since August 2023
The consumer price index increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both were 0.1 percentage point higher than forecast.
Excluding food and energy, core prices rose 0.3% on the month, putting the annual rate at 3.3%. Both core readings also were 0.1 percentage point above forecast.
Initial filings for unemployment benefits took an unexpected turn higher, hitting as seasonally adjusted 258,000 for the week ending Oct. 5, the highest total since Aug. 5, 2023.
AMD Launches AI Chip to Rival Nvidia’s Blackwell
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence chips but didn’t provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance.
The stock slid 4% to $164.18 on Thursday, making the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company, which hosted an event in San Francisco on Thursday, remain up 11% this year.
AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp. in the lucrative market for artificial intelligence processors, and Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su argued that its latest chips will exceed some capabilities of its rival. Computer systems based on AMD’s MI325X processors will be available soon and have an edge over machines running Nvidia’s H100, she said at the event. The MI325X’s use of a new type of memory chip will give it better performance at running AI software — a process known as inference — she said.