Dow Jones futures rose modestly Friday morning, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. Apple, Tesla, Deckers and AI chip IPO Astera Labs are all in focus.
Apple stock got a Keybanc downgrade to underweight, essentially a sell, with a $200 price target. It cited some iPhone 16 upgrade concerns. Apple stock, with earnings next Thursday, fell slightly, signaling a move below the 21-day line but above the 50-day.
Western Digital, ResMed, Deckers jumped overnight on earnings, with all three stocks set to fly above early entries.
Astera Labs stock rose modestly, signaling a move above a 70.74 handle in a very deep cup base. The AI chipmaker has nearly doubled since early September, with earnings due Nov. 4.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures climbed 0.2% vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures advanced 0.35% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%. That's despite Apple stock's slight drag on all three indexes.
The 10-year Treasury yield edged down to 4.19%.
Crude oil rose slightly.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn't necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
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Stock Market Rally
The stock market rally was divided Thursday as big names moved on earnings. The 10-year Treasury yield fell four basis points to 4.2% but is still up 13 basis points for the week and 80 basis points since hitting a 3.6% low intraday on Sept. 17.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% in Thursday's stock market trading, with IBM, Honeywell and Boeing falling on news. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.2% and the Nasdaq rose 0.8%, fueled by Tesla and ServiceNow.
The Dow Jones fell from its 21-day, nearing the 10-week line. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose from that key level.
The small-cap Russell 2000 edged up 0.2%, again hitting resistance at the 21-day line and not far from the 50-day.
There were a number of earnings gap ups. Tesla stock spiked higher within a base while Pegasystems, Celestica, LendingClub and ServiceNow gapped out of bases. All were potentially actionable, but they were aggressive moves. Gap ups are powerful but they're also tricky, especially now.
In addition to Tesla, ServiceNow and the other earnings gap ups, Viking Therapeutics surged above very early entries on obesity drug news. Goosehead Insurance staged a powerful upside reversal following earnings.
But generally leading stocks had a quiet session. Nvidia edged higher, right around a buy point.
U.S. crude oil prices reversed lower, falling 0.8% to 70.19 a barrel.
ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF rose 0.8%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF popped 1.1%, with ServiceNow stock's 5.4% gain a big driver. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF climbed 0.4%, with dominant holding Nvidia edging up 0.6%.
ARK Innovation ETF jumped 3.6%. Tesla stock is a major holding across Ark Invest's ETFs. Cathie Wood also has built up a big NVDA stock stake.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF declined 0.4%. SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF edged up 0.3%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF edged down 0.1%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund and the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund fell 0.7%. The Financial Select SPDR ETF was just above break-even.
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Tesla Stock
Tesla stock spiked 21.9% to 260.48 on Thursday, its best one-day gain since 2013. That followed a surprise Q3 earnings gain, rebounding margins and CEO Elon Musk predicting deliveries will rise in 2024 and then another 20%-30% in 2025.
Shares gapped far above the 50-day line and are close to a 264.86 buy point from a cup-with-handle buy point, according to MarketSurge. Aggressive traders could have bought TSLA stock Thursday on the gap up.
Tesla stock fell slightly early Friday. That could be constructive. Investors may want to wait to see if Tesla can pause around current levels for a few days, or even a few weeks. TSLA stock has gone on two strong runs in the past four months but gave that all back before rebounding again.
What To Do Now
The market rally is acting fine. A pullback amid rising Treasury yields and ahead of massive earnings, economic data, the presidential election and the next Fed meeting, makes a lot of sense. Still, the major indexes remain near record highs.
Leading stocks generally are doing well.
But aside from earnings gap ups, there haven't been many actionable names this week, and some of those have earnings in the next few days.
The next two weeks are about as packed as possible. Apple stock, Microsoft, Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Meta Platforms all report next week, along with hundreds of others. The first Q3 GDP report and the October jobs report also are next week. The presidential election is Nov. 5 while the Fed meets Nov. 6-7.
So investors have plenty of reasons to be cautious about new buys. If you do take new positions, be ready to exit quickly. Investors also might consider trimming positions for various reasons.
A market pullback or pause could create a lot more setups. So keep updating your watchlists and exit strategies.
ServiceNow stock is on SwingTrader. Celestica stock is on the IBD 50. Celestica also was Thursday's IBD Stock Of The Day.
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