CBN News 2026-10-21 06:51:10

Author: Chen Xiyu Editor-in-Chief: Ge Weier

• The three major stock indices showed mixed gains and losses, with the Dow Jones Index rising by 1.02%;
• Leading technology stocks are sluggish, while Chinese concept stocks are generally rising;
• International oil prices have fallen, with WTI dropping by 1.80%.

On Tuesday (the 20th), the three major U.S. stock indices showed mixed movements. Strong corporate earnings, coupled with a decline in oil prices, offset the recent sluggish performance of stocks related to artificial intelligence.

As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 529.85 points, or 1.02%, to 52,495.88 points; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell by 6.07 points, or 0.02%, to 26,424.82 points; the S&P 500 Index gained 21.84 points, or 0.28%, to 7,712.57 points.

Popular Stocks Performance

Leading tech stocks generally fell. Netflix closed down 1.66%, Meta fell 1.59%, Google fell 1.13%, Apple Inc. fell 1.00%, Microsoft fell 0.31%, NVIDIA fell 0.29%, SpaceX fell 0.11%. Tesla, however, rose 1.54% against the trend, and Amazon rose 0.07%.

SpaceX soared 5% after the market close. The financial report released after the market close showed that in the third quarter, the company's revenue increased by 161% year-on-year to $14.58 billion, significantly exceeding analysts' forecast of $12.8 billion.

Chip stocks performed poorly, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closing down 0.29%. Qualcomm fell 2.80%, SK SK Hynix dropped 2.16%, Applied Materials lost 1.97%, Micron Technology declined 0.98%, AMD fell 0.62%, and SanDisk dropped 0.42%. Tarreda, however, managed to rise 0.32% against the trend.

Hot Chinese concept stocks generally rose, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index closing up 0.68%. Xpeng Motors rose 7.60%, Li Auto rose 5.67%, Zhihu rose 2.03%, NIO rose 1.18%, Weibo rose 1.08%, New Oriental rose 1.07%, Tiger Securities rose 0.99%, Baidu rose 0.90%, Tencent rose 0.40%, Pinduoduo rose 0.29%, Alibaba rose 0.04%, and Futu Holdings rose 0.01%.

In the down camp, iQiyi fell by 0.76%, Bilibili fell by 0.64%, NetEase fell by 0.11%, and JD.com fell by 0.07%.

Market Overview

Oil prices gave back some of their previous gains, and coupled with the decline in U.S. Treasury yields, this significantly boosted investor sentiment.

Amid concerns about debt and demand, the market has recently been weighed down by worries regarding the sustainability of AI transactions. On its first day of trading, the South Korean AI company Elice tumbled by over 30%, dampening sentiment in the tech sector earlier in the day.

However, as trading progressed, some stocks related to AI rebounded. Western Data closed up 3.44%, Seagate Technology rose 2.17%, CoreWeave increased by 1.65%, and Micron Technology gained 1.40%.

Jack Behan, the head of capital markets at the American asset management firm Direxion, stated, "For most of this year, the market has been willing to ignore higher interest rates because the growth story—especially the growth story surrounding AI—was sufficient to support such an attitude. Last week, we saw that relationship begin to be tested."

He also stated, "Ultra-large-scale cloud computing vendors will release their financial reports in the coming weeks, which will be the next major stress test for the AI transactions. Regarding return on investment, data center expenditures, and guidance on capital spending for 2027, these will be even more important than the overall profit figures."

Jeff Smith, the CEO of the American hedge fund Starboard Value, stated that he believes the next few years will be "very exciting" for value stocks. The logic behind this is that companies that fully implement artificial intelligence within their organizations will be able to improve their profits "more quickly" by enhancing efficiency.

Industrial giant 3M saw its closing stock price surge by 5.78%, providing support for the Dow Jones Index. The company's financial report exceeded expectations, and it also raised its full-year performance forecast.

Aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman (Northrop Grumman) reported earnings that exceeded expectations, with its stock closing up 4.57%.

In terms of economic data, the number of new home starts in the United States declined significantly in September. At a time when the Federal Reserve is considering further interest rate hikes, this has once again raised concerns about the state of the real estate market.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Tuesday that, after seasonal adjustment, the annualized total number of new private residential starts was 1.22 million units, a decrease of 5.2% from August and far below the market expectation of 1.3 million units. In addition, new single-family home starts also weakened, with a total of 859,000 units, a decrease of 4.6% from the previous month.

Regarding the situation in the Middle East, according to Xinhua News Agency, Turki Maliki, the spokesman for the multinational coalition led by Saudi Arabia, said on social media on the evening of the 20th that the coalition had destroyed a platform used by Yemeni Houthi militants to launch ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. Earlier on the same day, Maliki stated that the coalition had intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Houthi militants towards Riyadh and also destroyed a drone in Riyadh province.

According to CCTV News, on the 20th local time, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stated during a meeting with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff General Munir that all issues in the region, from tensions and conflicts to the chaos in the Strait of Hormuz, are caused by U.S. aggression; it is impossible for the United States to increase sanctions and pressure on Iran while claiming to want to engage in dialogue and negotiations. Iran has been willing to talk in the past and is still willing now, but the United States must first remove threats and sanctions before any dialogue can take place.

Large-cap performance

International oil prices have fallen somewhat. WTI In November, crude oil futures closed down $1.87, a decrease of 1.80%, at $101.79 per barrel. Brent crude oil futures for December closed down $0.76, with a decline of over 0.69%, at $108.79 per barrel.

The precious metals market showed mixed trends. COMEX Gold futures closed down 0.42%, at $4,142.5 per ounce. COMEX Silver futures rose 1.51%, at $58.14 per ounce.