S&P 500, Nasdaq advance as oil eases ahead of Fed decision

Summary

Companies

Indexes: Dow down 0.14%, S&P up 0.16%, Nasdaq up 0.38%

Boeing slips after bigger-than-expected Q3 loss

Royal Caribbean gains after raising FY profit forecast

General Motors up after announcing listing switch to Nasdaq

Oct 27 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and ​Nasdaq advanced on Tuesday as easing oil prices supported risk appetite ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy ‌decision this week, while investors also assessed a raft of key corporate earnings.

The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady on Wednesday following an increase last month, though markets are pricing in at least two more hikes by mid-2027 as key inflation indicators remain elevated amid the ongoing US-Iran ​conflict.

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Brent crude slipped for the second straight session in volatile trading, though it still held near its highest level ​since late April.

At 09:57 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab fell 73.92 points, or 0.14%, ⁠to 52,287.66. The S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab gained 12.45 points, or 0.16%, to 7,689.22, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab rose 98.08 points, or 0.38%, ​to 26,267.46.

A 3.4% drop in shares of paintmaker Sherwin-Williams (SHW.N), opens new tab following a quarterly profit miss weighed on the Dow.

Six of the 11 major ​S&P 500 sectors advanced, with tech (.SPLRCT), opens new tab leading gains, while energy (.SPNY), opens new tab lagged.

Megacap and growth stocks traded mixed. Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab shares climbed close to 3%, building on their more than 5% gain from the previous session.

Chip stocks (.SOX), opens new tab rose 1.8%, up for the third straight day after a bruising few weeks, while neocloud ​firms CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab and Nebius (NBIS.O), opens new tab were also trading sharply higher.

Meta (META.O), opens new tab fell 1.1% after the company increased its largest-ever equity fundraising to $97.5 billion to ​fund AI expansion. The effort has also drawn interest of up to $5 billion in total from Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab and Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab.

The plan comes ‌as growing ⁠concerns over the viability of debt-funded spending in the face of rising borrowing costs have weighed on AI trade this month.

Against that backdrop, investors will now look to earnings from hyperscalers Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab later this week for evidence that hefty AI investments are translating into growth.

"If we see positive surprises and (earnings) raises on any of these AI stocks that are reporting from ​now until the Anthropic IPO, ​I think it's a very ⁠positive environment for the companies," said Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management.

AI lab Anthropic revealed its filing for a US initial public offering on Monday, taking a big step towards a potentially ​record-breaking listing even as it disclosed steep losses and security concerns.

Among other movers, Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab eased ​1.8% after reporting ⁠a bigger-than-expected loss in the third quarter, while water-management company Xylem (XYL.N), opens new tab dropped 8.8% after trimming full-year forecasts.

Royal Caribbean (RCL.N), opens new tab rose 6.5% after the cruise operator lifted full-year profit forecast, while General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab gained 5% following its plan to switch its stock listing to Nasdaq.

Investors are also looking ahead to the ⁠November 3 ​midterm elections, which will decide control of the US Congress.

The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the ​Nasdaq Composite recorded 26 new highs and 127 new lows.

Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Utkarsh Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar