Wall Street's closing session on October 31 saw wild swings in equities, with the Nasdaq posting its worst single-day performance since June and Intel plunging 29% as investors dumped technology shares.
Popular Chinese concept stocks ended mixed on October 31, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing fell 5.95% amid signs that the AI trade is losing momentum, and European stocks outperformed their US peers over the course of October.
In New York currency trading, the US dollar weakened and the Nasdaq 100 index moved closer to a technical correction.
Across commodities, crude oil advanced, copper declined and gold retreated.
In oil markets, prices rose as uncertainty over the Middle East situation weighed on investors' minds.
On the macroeconomic and geopolitical front, a former Iranian official said building a nuclear bomb would be easy for Iran, while a Russian presidential aide said Moscow and Washington have begun consultations on a specific date for trilateral talks.
The US military denied claims that Iran destroyed an American maritime drone, and the Houthis said Saudi Arabia carried out 93 airstrikes on Yemen within 24 hours, even as Yemeni government forces accused the Houthis of attacking Aden International Airport and other locations.
Iran said it shot down a US military drone over Qeshm Island, and a US Treasury report said the maritime blockade and sanctions are severely damaging Iran's economy.
The United States approved the sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine, and Iran said a fourth tanker sailing in violation of rules struck a mine and exploded while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations office reported two separate incidents of vessels being attacked.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine are planned for November, though no date has been fixed, and Russia's foreign minister said Japan must stop its unfriendly policies toward Moscow before full dialogue can resume.
On the corporate front, Intel's $20 billion stock offering left investors sitting on paper losses of more than $6 billion, with the share price down 30% from the offering price.
Polaris's CFO said the company plans to restart share buybacks after two difficult years.
Chevron and Exxon Mobil hit record highs as refining margins soared on war-driven diesel prices, while rising chocolate costs are driving up Halloween expenses and could weigh on Hershey.
Intel shares tumbled, shrinking the US government's stake by about $10 billion on paper, although the investment still shows a roughly threefold unrealized gain.
Marvell Technology plans to acquire Lumentum, and the acquisition premium is unlikely to be very high.
Binance's Yi He spoke out, saying more than $3 billion in funds were affected, equal to 2% of user assets and reserves.
Ford's CEO said the company is aiming for 20% sales growth by 2032.
Fear over the wave of AI financing hit a new high, with the cost of credit default protection on bonds from Intel, Amazon and others surging.
A report said Anthropic may not secure an investment-grade rating immediately after going public.
Intel suffered its largest intraday drop in more than four decades after its quarterly revenue outlook fell short of expectations.
Amazon set up an $80 billion supplier-related financing arrangement to fund AI investments.
Apple overtook Nvidia once again to become the world's most valuable company, while Nvidia plans to provide backstop support for a $45 billion Anthropic project for a cloud service provider.
In commentary, US technology stocks fell sharply on worries about AI costs, with analysts calling it a buying opportunity in Amazon.
Intel and SanDisk hold sharply divergent views on the state of the memory chip industry.
St. Louis Fed President Musalem said monetary policy will need to be tightened "soon," while JPMorgan said US Treasury bill demand may fail to keep pace with supply in 2027.
The St. Louis Fed president said further rate hikes are necessary and should come as soon as possible, and the European Central Bank's chief economist said AI is an important driver of euro-area growth.
Bitcoin fell below $77,000 for the first time in a month, with the Binance incident adding to the crypto sector's troubles.
The Nasdaq 100 may be heading for a technical correction, dragged down by the rapid unwinding of the AI trade, while the "penalty effect" in US earnings season intensified and stocks that missed expectations were hit by heavy selling.
Fitch revised its outlook on France to negative while affirming the country's long-term debt rating, and S&P lowered its outlook on Meta to negative from stable.
In the US bond market, safe-haven buying lifted short-dated debt and federal funds futures volumes surged.
Sina's partner platform offers futures account opening, safe, fast and guaranteed.
Comments