The S&P 500 rose 0.28% on Wednesday 28 October to 7,743.98, its third gain in a row, after the Fed held rates with two dissents in favour of a hike. Single stocks moved far more than the index. Results days produced drops of 10% to 20% in several names, and the AI hardware group extended the bounce that began last week. Weekly figures below run from the 21 October close.
AI Infrastructure Rebound
This continues the recovery from the slide that began on 8 October. VRT (+16.48%) closed at $242.94 after net sales rose 61% to $4,313 million and full-year sales guidance went up by $650 million. Organic orders more than doubled. The shares are still 9.98% below their level 60 sessions ago. The 50% organic growth Vertiv guided for the fourth quarter carries delivery risk.
FLEX (+11.61%) closed at $93.03 after raising full-year guidance to midpoints of $35.4bn in revenue and $5.00 in adjusted EPS, and lifting its Cloud and Power Infrastructure growth target to 75% to 85%. The stock has gained about 21% in two sessions from $76.99 and remains 15.42% below its 30 September close. SNDK (+7.66%) closed at $1,404.77 after SK Hynix reported record quarterly profit and said memory shortages will last through 2030. Sandisk reports after the US close on Thursday.
ORCL (+10.73%) closed at $144.54 on 2.79x average volume. Its Investor Day capped outside funding at $20bn through fiscal 2030 and set a free cash flow target of $30bn or more for fiscal 2029. Those targets address the debt worries behind a 25.16% loss this year. Alphabet's after-hours reaction to its own results raised fresh questions on AI spending for Thursday.
Guidance Cuts and Weak Bookings
Five stocks fell hard on outlooks that overshadowed the headline numbers. FFIV (-20.43%) closed at $365.53 on 6.53x average volume after next-quarter EPS guidance came in under expectations. The sources conflict on whether fiscal fourth-quarter revenue and EPS beat or missed, and the detail behind the guidance is unverified. CSGP (-13.96%) closed at $27.54 after net new bookings of $37 million, against $84 million a year earlier, overshadowed an EBITDA beat. A profit beat with weak bookings also produced a double-digit drop after the July report.
LII (-10.59%) closed at $332.64 after adjusted EPS of $6.84 missed $7.36 and full-year guidance fell to $21.00 to $21.50. Residential margin dropped 490 basis points on price cuts and tariff costs. Carrier and Trane report on Thursday and will show how far the pressure spreads.
Boeing and Xylem are back with the next stage of stories already running. BA (-13.07% wk) closed at $167.14 after a further 0.62% fall on Wednesday and a new 52-week low of $165.01. Its 2027 free cash flow guidance of about $3bn compares with a $5.5bn consensus. XYL (-17.04% wk) lost another 4.99% and closed at $88.23 on 4.55x average volume, and seven brokers changed targets.
FTNT (-5.90%) closed at $174.08 with no confirmed reason, since its results came after the close. They showed revenue growth slowing to 20% from 26% and a cut to the service revenue forecast. One report puts the after-hours price near $129.68, a fall of 25.51%. That belongs to Thursday's session and needs confirming against actual trading.
Freight and Oilfield Reactions
Three reporters fell despite beats. CHRW (-11.14%) closed at $127.60 after operating expenses rose 10.6%, cash from operations fell and TD Cowen cut its target. Landstar raised claims-cost worries a day earlier, though the weight of each factor is inference. ODFL (-7.33%) closed at $173.32 after guiding a fourth-quarter operating ratio of about 73.5%, against 71.5% in the third quarter. BKR (-7.36%) closed at $54.66 on 2.6x average volume as investors weighed leverage after the Chart Industries deal. It had risen 5.34% the day before, and SLB and Halliburton barely moved.
Healthcare Beats
GEHC (+6.62%) closed at $75.82 after adjusted EPS of $1.34 beat $1.21 and guidance rose to $4.95 to $5.05. Three brokers raised targets. LH (+8.78%) closed at $360.25 after adjusted EPS of $4.78 beat $4.64 and guidance rose to $18.30 to $18.70. It touched a 52-week high of $371.00 intraday. Labcorp faces a Medicare lab payment headwind in 2027.
Weekly Movers Hold
Last week's earnings winners kept their gains. ALLE (+13.62% wk) closed at $180.66, a 52-week high on a forward P/E of 17.8. LMT (+14.19% wk) closed at $629.75, and the F-35 framework still needs congressional authority. PNR (+22.37% wk) closed at $64.37 after another 3.34% gain, helped by an RBC target raise to $69, and remains 38.06% lower this year. PANW (-1.79% on the day, +13.60% wk) closed at $394.49. MRNA (-12.87% wk) closed at $214.16, up 5.7% from its 22 October low after the leaked melanoma data.
What to watch
- 29 October: Sandisk (SNDK) reports after the US close, with consensus at EPS of 46.41 and revenue of $10.70bn.
- 29 October: Fortinet (FTNT) trades on its results for the first time.
- 29 October: Carrier and Trane report, a read on residential HVAC pricing for LII.
- 6 November: Moderna (MRNA) reports.
- 19 November: Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reports.
- Date unconfirmed: CoStar (CSGP) fourth-quarter bookings.