By Mike Dolan
Nov 2 (Reuters) – A brutal October for US tech and AI-linked stocks ended with a withering selloff on Friday as Intel’s big miss and cash burn worries at Amazon compounded the sector’s month-long slide.
On the back of Intel’s almost 30% decline, the Nasdaq experienced its worst day since June and the worst month for the Nasdaq 100 in more than a year. Indeed, the S&P 500 tech index clocked its worst month since early 2025, while the communications sector index posted its biggest monthly drop in four years.
Apple reports earnings later on Monday and, having skirted the hyperscaler frenzy in recent years, will be more focused on its core offerings, big margins and how far rising input prices of chips are affecting all that.
With that up next and oil prices unwinding a little of last week’s surge, tech markets found a toehold first thing on Monday, with mixed fortunes in Asia trading but an early Nasdaq futures rebound of just under 1% as November gets underway.
Gnawing concerns about the rising cost of capital, some stress in high-risk credit markets, data-center pushback and shifting political sands were all factors in the tech retreat in recent weeks.
The extraordinary Binance crypto hack late last week didn’t help, although the exchange was back online on Sunday and claimed it had covered most of the $6.3 billion in stolen funds. Customer withdrawals have risen nevertheless.
Tuesday’s US midterms now dominate wider thinking. Even though polls and betting markets still lean towards a Democratic clean sweep of both houses, the Senate race will likely go down to the wire.
One major concern in energy markets has been the possibility that President Trump resumes attacks on Iran once the election is out of the way, but oil prices slipped back to about $109 early on Monday amid further mediation efforts.
The other big events of the week include the October US employment report, which is expected to show a rebound after a surprisingly soft payroll number for the month prior, and a likely interest rate rise from the Bank of England.
Bond markets continue to take their cue more from the equity market retreat than the lofty oil price, but a stream of Federal Reserve officials late last week seemed to make clear another rate rise is likely by year-end.
CHART OF THE DAY
Analysts expect Apple to report a nearly 11% rise in revenue to $113 billion for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter and net profit is expected to rise about 6% to $29 billion. Sales of iPhones are projected to climb about 15% to $56.5 billion, slowing from growth of about 22% in the previous three months.
That’s partly because the results capture just nine days of sales of the new iPhone 18 Pro models, and the iPhone Duo — the firm’s first foldable — only came out on October 23. Projections for the holiday quarter will therefore be the focus.
Today’s events to watch
• US corporate earnings: Apple, Palantir
• US ISM manufacturing PMI for October (10 a.m. EST)
• Chicago Fed’s Austan Goolsbee speaks
• Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate decision (10:30 p.m. EST)
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