The S&P 500 rose 0.28% on Tuesday 20 October, which left it 1.19% lower over the five sessions since the 13 October close. Weekly figures below use that baseline. The AI hardware slide that began on 8 October stretched into a third week. Most of the week's damage had been done by Friday, and the last two sessions were quiet. Earnings reports produced the largest daily moves.
Optics and Power Infrastructure
The optical group is again down on the week with no company news behind it. COHR (-20.06% wk) closed at $231.80, LITE (-16.75% wk) at $822.51 and CIEN (-14.60% wk) at $341.95. Coherent was flat for the last two sessions, and Ciena's final session came on 0.71x average volume. Doubts about how AI build-outs get financed, which followed the Broadcom and Intel chief executives' remarks, remain the explanation on offer. Coherent describes fiscal 2027 as essentially fully booked, and its free cash flow is still negative.
BE (-15.49% wk) closed at $222.65. Most of the loss came on 14 October (-9.15%) after the hot CPI print, and no source explains the 6.34% fall on 16 October. The stock is up 125.61% this year, and results on Thursday after the close will test that valuation.
Server and Storage Hardware
The Barclays downgrades of 14 October keep weighing on the group. DELL (-19.26% wk) closed at $461.56 and HPE (-18.49% wk) at $56.09. Both edged higher for two sessions on lighter volume, again with no sourced reason. Dell remains up 264.97% for the year. P (-19.40% wk) closed at $126.52, and no company-specific catalyst has been found for it.
SMCI (-16.89% wk) closed at $32.47 and is the one name with fresh news. After the close it issued unaudited preliminary fiscal first-quarter revenue of $18.5bn to $19.5bn, against earlier guidance of $14.5bn to $15.5bn. Sources put the after-hours gain between 11.3% and 14%. That move belongs to Wednesday's session, and the weekly loss it follows has no single company cause.
Spin-Off and Warrant Stories
FLEX (-21.09% wk) closed at $87.49 after six losing sessions. The first leg followed concern over the $2bn convertible preferred financing for the Axiom spin-off, and the sources give no cause for the last two sessions. SKYD (-23.41% wk) closed at $7.10, with almost all of the loss on 14 October when the warrant distribution tied to the Warner Bros. Discovery deal took effect. The NYSE re-based the closing price for the warrants, so part of the decline is mechanical. The shares rose 4.41% on Tuesday with no news.
Third-Quarter Results
Four reporters rose on beats. HAS (+11.20%) closed at $109.52, a 52-week high, on adjusted EPS of $2.90 against about $1.86 expected and Magic: The Gathering revenue up 34%. About $55M of tariff refunds helped the quarter, and management guided to a softer fourth quarter. EFX (+11.33%) rose to $176.54 on adjusted EPS of $2.26 against $2.20 and a higher AI savings target of $150m, even though the full-year revenue midpoint fell to $6.66bn. MSCI (+5.00%) closed at $591.69 after asset-based fees grew 24.9%, and Raymond James and Goldman Sachs raised targets. MMM (+5.78%) closed at $171.37 on a raised full-year outlook and an expanded Amazon data-centre deal, and the sources cannot split the move between the two.
Two others fell on outlook. GM (-6.84%) closed at $77.09 on 3.8x average volume. Third-quarter EPS of $3.70 beat estimates, yet the guidance midpoint came in below the $13.41 consensus and commodity inflation reached about $2bn, which outweighed a new $20bn buyback. GPC (-5.12%) closed at $123.52 after narrowing full-year EPS guidance to $7.50 to $7.75 and pointing to the low end, with North American Automotive margin down 40 basis points.
One-Offs
DVA (-6.23%) closed at $175.35 on 3.23x average volume after HHS published its Kidney Care National Plan, which criticises dialysis consolidation and calls for lower entry barriers. It sets out no rule or effective date, so the financial impact is unquantified. MRNA (+6.69%) rose to $242.08, a new 52-week high, as positioning built ahead of the Phase 3 melanoma data at ESMO on Saturday. The $101.45 MarketBeat consensus target sits far below the share price. CRL (+5.14%) closed at $315.45 after a Citrini Research note on AI drug discovery, though the shares had opened above the prior close. IT (+5.74%) closed at $219.64 after Truist raised its target to $235 from $205 and Wells Fargo to $175 from $150 following the company's Symposium.
What to watch
- 21 October: Super Micro (SMCI) trades on its preliminary quarter.
- 22 October: Bloom Energy (BE) reports after the close.
- 24 October: Moderna (MRNA) presents melanoma data at ESMO.
- 28 October: Flex (FLEX) reports.
- 29 October: DaVita (DVA) gives its first response to the HHS plan.
- 3 to 5 November: Gartner (IT), Super Micro (SMCI), Coherent (COHR), Charles River (CRL) and Lumentum (LITE).
- 9 November: Skydance (SKYD) reports.
- 27 November: Dell (DELL) reports.