Wall St nudges higher amid Tesla, IBM haze, trade jitters

Wall Street rose marginally higher on Thursday, as underwhelming earnings from Tesla and IBM, as well as simmering U.S.-China trade tensions, kept risk appetite on a tight leash.

Tesla, which kicked off the ‘Magnificent Seven’ earnings parade, missed third-quarter profit estimates, dragging its shares down as much as 5 percent, with its revenue beat offering little comfort.

But as Tesla slipped, the rest of the tech titans stepped up — with bargain hunters scooping up megacap names.

The ‘Magnificent Seven’ cohort, which makes up nearly 35% of the S&P 500’s weight, saw modest gains. Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon  and Meta climbed about 1 percent, while Broadcom rose 1.4 percent.

At 11:31 a.m, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70.69 points, or 0.15 percent, to 46,661.10, the S&P 500 gained 25.17 points, or 0.38 percent, to 6,724.57 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 152.12 points, or 0.67 percent, to 22,892.52.

Honeywell rose 7 percent after the industrial giant raised its 2025 profit forecast despite the looming spin-off of its advanced materials unit. The gain kept the Dow afloat. But IBM, weighed on the index, sliding 2.5 percent due to a slowdown in its key cloud software segment.

Amid a whirlwind of earnings, profit-taking, and escalating trade tensions, Wall Street’s gains have been more measured and cautious.

While most companies have topped analyst estimates, cautious outlooks have kept equities locked in a tight range, as investors seek fresh justification for sky-high valuations.

“Earnings data this quarter to this point has probably been even a little bit more valuable than it might be in other quarters, simply because of the lack of other data on the state of the U.S. economy,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Quantum computing firms were a bright spot after the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration was in talks with several of them to take equity stakes in exchange for federal funding.

IonQ and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS.N), opens new tab gained 12 percent and 18 percent, respectively, while Rigetti Computing added 13 percent.

Energy stocks added 1.4 percent following a jump in crude prices on fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia. Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Halliburton rose between 1 percent and 2 percent.

Health insurer Molina Healthcare plunged 21.4 percent after slashing its annual profit forecast. Peer Centene fell 6.9 percent.

DATA DROUGHT DRAGS ON

With the U.S. government shutdown stretching into its 23rd day, key economic data — including Thursday’s weekly jobless claims — remain frozen, leaving investors flying blind.

That’s put Friday’s core CPI print – expected to hold steady at 3.1 percent – in the spotlight as the Federal Reserve’s clearest inflation signal ahead of next week’s policy meeting.

Markets have priced in a 25-basis-point rate cut, with traders betting the Fed will ease again in December.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report said the Trump administration was weighing sweeping curbs on high-tech exports to China in retaliation for Beijing’s latest restrictions on rare-earth shipments. The report injected fresh uncertainty into the markets.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.48-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.53-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and four new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 45 new highs and 62 new lows.