Copyright The Street
Stock market update, reported as of 4 pm ET on October 29, 2025 After recording yet another round of fresh highs, the three major indices closed on a mixed note before the close, buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s rate cut announcement. The S&P 500, which had recorded gains by midday, closed just 0.30 points lower, but not without experiencing significant gains from strong earnings in various sectors. The Nasdaq Composite remained strong with stock gains in Palantir and Nvidia and closed 0.6% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, slipped 0.2% right toward the market close, along with the Russell 2000, which reported a 0.9% decline. The Fed rate announcement came in the afternoon, an expected quarter-point cut, leading to a range of 3.75-4%. While the market still wants one more rate cut in December, Fed Chair Jerome Powell threw doubt on the possibility. On a global level, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in South Korea began today, with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung presenting President Donald Trump with a replica of a historic gold crown, marking what he believes will be the start of a golden age of the South Korean-US alliance. Following a 21-gun salute welcome and the playing of the YMCA on the red carpet, the U.S. lowered import tariffs on South Korean goods to 15% from 25%. At the same time, South Korea agreed to invest $20 billion a year in cash and $150 billion in American shipbuilding operations. A geopolitical easing of tensions was reflected in gold prices, which declined for a third consecutive day. After rising during early trading hours, the prices closed 1% lower. However, let’s not forget the most talked-about event: Nvidia became the first company to reach a $5 trillion valuation, fueled by the AI boom. Nvidia’s impact and new deals were unveiled at its very successful GTC conference in Washington, DC. Palantir, which collaborated with Nvidia, saw a stock gain of 4.8%. Other notable stock movers were CoreWeave, up 3.8% and Fiserv, whose stock plummeted 44% intraday. Here are the most active stocks today Five S&P 500 stocks making big moves today are: Teradyne Inc: +20.5% Seagate Technology Holding: +19.1% Western Digital Corp: +13.2% Centene Corp: +12.5% Caterpillar Inc: +11.6% The worst-performing five S&P 500 stocks today are: Fiserv: -44% Smurfit WestRock PLC: -12.2% Garmin Ltd: -11.5% Verisk Analytics Inc: -10.4% CoStar Group Inc: -9.9% Stocks also worth noting include: Adobe: -6.1% PayPal: – 4.6% Palantir: +4.6% Nvidia: +3.0% Broadcom: +3.5% CoreWeave enters the Federal Cloud In a new announcement on Wednesday, October 29, CoreWeave announced its plans to expand into the US federal market, unveiling CoreWeave Federal. The stock of the AI cloud provider rose 3.5% today following the announcement, marking a 28% quarterly increase in stock price. More Palantir Palantir rival quietly builds a big business Senior analyst lifts Palantir stock price target with a catch Cathie Wood sells shares in major AI stock CoreWeave, which plans to acquire CoreScientific to solidify its position in the AI cloud infrastructure space, is now poised to deliver secure, high-performance AI cloud services to government agencies and partners within the defense industrial base. “We will bring our platform to the federal market in alignment with the government’s rigorous standards to help agencies accelerate innovation and strengthen mission performance. We look forward to expanding our partnerships with agencies and integrators to deliver outcomes that matter for the nation,” said CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator. The news was shared as part of the NVIDIA GTC GPU Technology Conference in Washington, DC. Palantir and Nvidia strengthen ties Palantir stock climbed 4.8% on Wednesday, adding to its 342% year-to-date rally, buoyed by a new partnership with Nvidia. At the GTC Conference in Washington, DC, Nvidia announced a collaboration with Palantir Technologies to build “a first-of-its-kind integrated technology stack for operational AI,” which will “accelerate and optimize complex enterprise and government functions,” read the official statement. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang described it as a “next-generation engine to fuel AI-specialized applications and agents that run the world’s most complex industrial and operational pipelines.” “Palantir is focused on deploying AI that delivers immediate, asymmetric value to our customers.” Alex Karp, co-founder and CEO Palantir Technologies. More recently, Palantir also made headlines after Red Cat, a drone and robotics company, successfully tested its Black Widow drone equipped with Palantir’s Visual Navigation Software. The test revealed that the drone, part of the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance program, is capable of navigating in GPS-denied environments. Fiserv hit its lowest, post-earnings Fiserv, a global financial technology and payments company, recorded its lowest stock price at $66.58 on Wednesday after its stock plummeted 44% intraday. This was driven by weaker-than-expected Q3 results on October 29, which also led to a cut in its earnings outlook. Fiserv, recording a 50% quarterly stock decline, announced several misses in the Q3 earnings: Adjusted revenue of $4.92 billion, only a 1% year-over-year increase. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.04, which decreased 11% yoy. Adjusted operating margin was 37%, down from its Q3 2024 of 40.2%. Repurchased 7.2 million shares for $1 billion. While the company’s Merchant Solutions segment saw modest growth, up $5, the Financial Solutions segment saw a 3% decline. However, Lyons looked optimistic about its future growth and potential for evolution in the dynamic e-commerce landscape. “As the world’s largest Fintech, Fiserv has the size, scale, and suite of innovative products, networks, and platforms, including Clover, to capitalize on the rapidly evolving finance and commerce landscape. With the actions being announced today, Fiserv will be better positioned to drive sustainable, high-quality growth and reach our full potential,” Fiserve CEO Mike Lyons said. However, analysts are bearish, with BTIG analyst Andrew Harte downgrading Fiserv to Neutral from Buy, stating, “a laundry list of reasons to not own the stock for the foreseeable future.” The analyst also noted that it has lost its “high quality” with an “abruptly upended” 39-year streak of double-digit EPS growth, as indicated by TheFly. Wolfe Research also downgraded Fiserv to Peer Perform from Outperform and removed its prior $160 price target following the Q3 results. Analysts note that a combination of weaker results across segments and Fiserv’s acknowledgement that growth has been running at mid-single digit since 2023 points to “too much uncertainty in the medium-term.” Along with its Q3 financial report, Fiserv also announced significant leadership changes, naming Paul Todd as CFO and appointing Takis Georgakopoulos and Dhivya Suryadevara as Co-Presidents.
