The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied in a mixed session that saw the Nasdaq lose again. Twitter gained after Tesla CEO Elon Musk issued a takeover pledge. Facebook parent Meta Platforms plunged, hampering the Nasdaq.
Meanwhile, a trio of noteworthy names made progress as the stock market uptrend tries to avoid more trouble. BP, Delek U.S. and Constellation Energy all tried to reach buy points.
Volume was lower on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, according to preliminary data.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 10 basis points to 3.92%. West Texas Intermediate crude oil popped 1.3% to trade at around $89 per barrel.
Stocks were given an early boost after U.S. gross domestic product rose 2.6% in Q3, its first quarter of growth for the year. This was above views for a 2.3% gain and up from a 0.6% decline in Q2. In other economic news, first-time jobless claims rose to 217,000, slightly below estimates.
Nasdaq Hit Amid Big Tech Weakness
The Nasdaq was given a pasting following Meta's poor results late Wednesday. The composite closed down 1.6%. Align Technologies was another major underperformer, falling 18.1% on a bad quarterly report.
The S&P 500 fell by a more moderate 0.6%. West Pharmaceutical Services plunged 13.1% on a Q3 earnings miss.
The S&P 500 sectors were mixed. Industrials, financials and energy were among the better areas. Technology and communication services struggled the most.
Small caps impressed by turning in relative overperformance, with the Russell 2000 rising 0.2%.
The Innovator IBD 50 ETF, a bellwether for growth stocks, reversed late and closed 0.6% lower.
Dow Jones Today: CAT, Boeing Stock Take Off
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off highs but still turned in a gain of about 200 points, or 0.6%.
It was boosted by strong earnings reports from Merck, Honeywell, Caterpillar and McDonald's.
All four popped, but Caterpillar stock fared best on the Dow Jones today as it rose 7.7%. This allowed it to rocket past its 200-day moving average.
Boeing, which reported earlier this week, was the next best performer as it rose 4.5%. It has a long way to go before it reaches a consolidation-pattern entry of 173.95, MarketSmith analysis shows.
Elon Musk Makes Pledge, Twitter Stock Rises
Musk took to Twitter to reassure an important customer base about the social media firm's fate one day before his deadline to acquire the company.
In a message addressed, "Dear Twitter Advertisers," he addressed concerns about the so-called "digital town square" becoming toxic due to his desire to preserve free speech.
"Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences," he said.
Musk also said the platform must be "warm and welcoming to all." He said he is not buying the firm "to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love."
It comes amid a Wall Street Journal report that advertisers are wary about his plans to reduce content moderation. Musk looks set to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share.
Twitter ended the day up 0.8%, just below Musk's agreed purchase price. Tesla ended the day up fractionally higher but remains shy of its major moving averages.
Facebook Stock Hammered As Firm Falters
Facebook parent Meta Platforms was given a painful mauling by the rampaging bears following a disappointing quarterly report. It ended the day down 24.6%, falling below the 100 level in the process.
The social media giant posted EPS of $1.64, well shy of Wall Street views for $1.89. Sales of $27.71 billion were slightly better than expected.
The firm was only in-line with expectations in the key Daily Active Users metric, which came in at 1.98 billion.
Meta is currently seeing its core business come under pressure from the insurgent TikTok. In addition, its Reality Labs augmented-reality project is hemorrhaging cash.
Investors seemed to be unconvinced by a plea made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who called for patience.
"I think we're going to resolve each of these things over different periods of time," Zuckerberg said during the earnings call. "And I appreciate the patience and I think that those who are patient and invest with us will end up being rewarded."
Investors should not be tempted to buy the dip; shares lost ground on all key moving averages. META stock has plunged more than 71% so far this year and has fallen to levels last seen in 2016.
Futures: Apple Falls, Amazon Joins Megacap Meltdown
Outside Dow Jones: Energy Stocks Test Entries
A trio of stocks tried to pass buy points, with a few coming from the strong energy sector.
BP stock gapped above a cup-with-handle base entry of 32.98. It ended the session in the buy zone. Volume was strong and the RS line is at new highs, both encouraging signs.
BP stock has a very strong IBD Composite Rating of 98 and is in the top 10% of stocks in terms of price performance over the last 12 months.
The British oil major reports earnings Nov. 1, which makes buying now risky. An approach highlighted by Investor's Business Daily is to use options as a strategy to reduce risk around earnings. It's a way to capitalize on the upside potential of a stock's move around earnings, while reducing the downside risk.
IPO stock Constellation Energy is in a buy zone after breaking out of a flat base. The ideal entry here is 90.28, with a buy range to 94.79. Its RS line just hit new highs.
Delek closed below its cup-with-handle entry of 30.97. Delek is an owner of refineries, storage sites and gas stations. It sits near the summit of the Oil & Gas-Refining/Marketing industry group, which itself ranks sixth out of the 197 industry groups tracked by IBD. Strong all-around performance is reflected in a Composite Rating of 95.
While the market is back in an uptrend, investors should continue to take care. Until the market proves itself, it makes sense to limit stock market exposure to a range of 20% to 40% of a portfolio for now.
Please follow Michael Larkin on Twitter at @IBD_MLarkin for more analysis of growth stocks.
