The S&P 500 rose 0.28% to 7,743.98 on Wednesday 28 October, its third straight gain, after the Federal Reserve held rates with two dissents in favour of a hike. The FTSE 100 was little changed as the Chancellor delivered the Budget. Index moves were small, but results-day reactions were large in both directions. Alphabet fell after hours on a miss, which put AI spending back in the conversation for Thursday. Weekly figures below run from the 21 October close.
AI Infrastructure Rebounds
The AI hardware bounce that began last week carried on, and this time it had company numbers behind it. 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 to a $14,650 million midpoint. The stock had been marked down on worries about how data-centre spending gets financed, and orders that more than doubled addressed the demand side of that worry.
FLEX (+11.61%) closed at $93.03 after raising full-year guidance to midpoints of $35.4bn revenue and $5.00 adjusted EPS, and lifting its cloud and power infrastructure growth target to 75% to 85%. It has recovered from $76.99 on 26 October but remains 15.42% below its 30 September close.
SNDK (+7.66%) closed at $1,404.77 after SK Hynix reported record results and a bullish memory outlook. The link to Sandisk rests on one article, and its own results arrive after the close on Thursday. ORCL (+10.73%) closed at $144.54 on 2.79x average volume. Its Investor Day set a $20bn cap on additional outside funding through fiscal 2030 and a free cash flow target of $30bn or more for fiscal 2029. The shares are still 25.16% lower this year.
Healthcare Beats
GEHC (+6.62%) closed at $75.82 after adjusted EPS of $1.34 beat a $1.21 consensus and the full-year range 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, with full-year guidance lifted to $18.30 to $18.70, and touched a 52-week high intraday. Labcorp still faces the 2027 Medicare lab payment headwind and the integration of several acquisitions.
Margin Warnings in Freight and Industrials
Four stocks fell on margin outlooks. CHRW (-11.14%) closed at $127.60 despite an EPS beat. Operating expenses rose 10.6%, TD Cowen cut its target, and Landstar had raised claims-cost concerns the previous afternoon. ODFL (-7.33%) closed at $173.32 after an EPS beat, because its fourth-quarter operating ratio target of about 73.5% compares with 71.5% in the third quarter. UPS, FedEx and Expeditors moved little, so both reactions belong to the individual companies.
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 from $23.00 to $24.00. Residential margin dropped 490 basis points on price cuts and tariff costs. Carrier and Trane report on Thursday and will show whether the pressure is wider. XYL (-4.99%, -17.04% wk) closed at $88.23, extending Tuesday's 14.21% fall after a guidance cut, and set a 52-week low at $87.40 during the session. Seven brokers changed targets.
Software and Tech Disappointments
FFIV (-20.43%) closed at $365.53 on 6.53x average volume after next-quarter EPS guidance came in under expectations. Sources disagree on whether the quarter itself beat, 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. The same pattern followed its July report.
FTNT (-5.90%) closed at $174.08 before it reported, with only one positioning-based explanation on offer for the fall. Results showed revenue growth slowing to 20% from 26% and a lower service revenue forecast. An after-hours price near $129.68 was reported, which would be a fall of about 25%. That belongs to Thursday's session and I have not confirmed it against the close. PANW (-1.79%) slipped in sympathy with weak software results.
Weekly Moves and One-Offs
BTRW.L (-6.57%) closed at 315.70p as the "Your First Home" scheme arrived with £4.7bn of funding and first loans in April 2027, later and thinner than investors wanted. Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon fell about 7%, so this is a sector move.
BKR (-7.36%) closed at $54.66 after a results beat, on leverage following the Chart Industries deal and integration costs. Peers barely moved.
The earnings winners from last week held their levels. ALLE (+13.62% wk) closed at $180.66 at a 52-week high, LMT (+14.19% wk) at $629.75 pending congressional authority for the F-35 framework, and PNR (+22.37% wk) at $64.37 after an RBC target raise added to Tuesday's 12.80% jump. Pentair is still 38.06% lower this year.
BA (-13.07% wk) closed at $167.14 and set a new low at $165.01, with nearly all the loss in Tuesday's 10.69% drop on a 2027 free cash flow guide of about $3bn against $5.5bn expected. MRNA (-12.87% wk) closed at $214.16, up 5.7% from its post-leak low, ahead of earnings on 6 November.
What to watch
- 29 October: Carrier and Trane report, a read on residential HVAC pricing after Lennox.
- 29 October: Sandisk (SNDK) reports after the US close, and Reddit (RDDT) follows.
- 29 October: Fortinet (FTNT) trades on its results for the first time.
- 6 November: Moderna (MRNA) reports.
- 19 November: Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reports.