- It’s election week — and earnings season is rolling on.
- Warren Buffett continued to sell off stock in the third quarter.
- Nvidia is in the new name in the Dow index.
Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Big week
November got off to a better start, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 288.73 points, or 0.69%, on Friday. The S&P 500, meanwhile, climbed 0.41%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.8%. The advances came as traders shrugged off the jobs report released Friday that showed the U.S. economy added far fewer jobs than analysts surveyed by Dow Jones had expected. Investors will be watching Tuesday’s election this week, as well as the Fed’s two-day policy meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. Follow live market updates.
2. Elections and earnings
Voters fill out their ballots for the presidential election during early voting ahead of the polls closing November 5 at the Detroit Elections Office in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. October 28, 2024.
More than two-thirds of S&P 500 companies have already reported earnings for this quarter, but there are still nearly 100 coming up this week. Meanwhile, mentions of the election have surged on earnings conference calls. In fact, the word “election” came up on 100 earnings calls between Sept. 15 and Oct. 31, according to FactSet data, more than in any similar period going back to 2004.
Here are the biggest names to watch this week:
- Monday: Palantir Technologies (after the bell)
- Tuesday: Yum Brands, Restaurants Brands International (before the bell)
- Wednesday: CVS (before the bell); Qualcomm, Arm Holdings, e.l.f., Virgin Galactic, AMC (after the bell)
- Thursday: Under Armour, Tapestry, Moderna, Warner Brothers Discovery (before the bell); Airbnb, Block, Lucid, Capri Holdings, Rivian, Draftkings (after the bell)
- Friday: Paramount (before the bell)
3. Buffett’s not buying back
Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4, 2024.
Warren Buffett continued his recent streak of selling stock while holding back from repurchasing any company shares. His Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate shed $36.1 billion of stock during the period ending in September. The company got rid of about a quarter of its Apple stake in the third quarter. It also saw its cash fortress climb to a record $325.2 billion in the period, up from $276.9 billion in the second quarter.
4. Dow shakeup
NVIDIA founder, President and CEO Jensen Huang speaks about the future of artificial intelligence and its effect on energy consumption and production at the Bipartisan Policy Center on September 27, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Out with the old, in with Nvidia. The company will replace rival chipmaker Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average starting on Nov. 8. Nvidia shares have soared more than 170% so far this year, after jumping roughly 240% last year, as investors have raced to get in on the artificial intelligence craze. The 30-stock Dow index is weighted by the share price of the individual stocks rather than by their total market value. In another change, Sherwin Williams will replace Dow Inc. in the index.
5. Halloween to holidays
Spooky season is over, but the holidays are just beginning for Disney. Its domestic theme parks have started transforming their decorations in a process that seems like it takes place overnight. But behind the illusion is a coordinated effort that takes six weeks and crosses many areas of the park’s operations, from horticulture to culinary departments. The transformation comes during some of the parks’ busiest times, as its experience division brought in $9.13 billion in revenue during the period from October through December in 2023, compared with anywhere between $7 billion and $8.3 billion during other quarters in 2023 and 2024. Read more about how Disney turns over its parks between its two most important seasons here.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Fred Imbert, Alex Harring, Robert Hum, Yun Li, Kif Leswing and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
