Ghosts of gains past for markets this Halloween

As Halloween looms, Wall Street is balancing tricks and treats.

Investors were spooked by some Big Tech capex plans, with all three major indexes falling Thursday. Meta stock suffered its biggest one-day loss since October 2022 as skepticism over its AI spending plans overshadowed strong results, while Microsoft lost 3%.

But it was not all doom and gloom. Amazon shares jumped more than 13% in extended trading after it beat expectations and saw strong growth in its cloud-computing unit. Netflix handed out treats to big and small investors alike as it announced a 10-for-1 stock split, making its shares more accessible to investors. 

On the trade front, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Busan for a summit that saw tariffs trimmed, soybean purchases promised, and rare earth controls put in abeyance for a year, with some sketchy deal details — tricks up the sleeves of the two economic giants?

As markets assess the Fed rate stance, tech exuberance, and diplomatic theatrics, one is left wondering: is this the start of a holiday miracle, or a nightmare before Christmas?

Disney pulled from YouTube TV. Content from The Walt Disney Company, including channels like ABC and ESPN, was removed from Google’s YouTube TV on Thursday after the two companies failed to renew a streaming contract. 

Xi speaks at APEC. Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Asia-Pacific countries to support free trade, and maintain supply chain stability, saying “The more turbulent the times, the more we must work together,” Xi said in a Chinese state media readout Friday, translated by CNBC. 

China manufacturing slump deepens. China’s manufacturing activity in October contracted more than expected, shrinking to the lowest level in six months. The purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.0, missing economists’ expectations for 49.6 in a Reuters poll. 

Nikkei reaches fresh record. Japan stocks led gains in Asia on Friday as investors saw trade tension ease between Washington and Beijing. U.S. markets fell, however, with the S&P 500 down 0.99%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.57%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down 0.23%. 

[PRO] Sectors to watch after Trump-Xi meeting. Gold, defense and chip stocks are just some of the sectors that the pros are saying to pay attention to for investors’ portfolios after the Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea ended with a raft of agreements.

The biggest takeaways from the Trump-Xi meeting — what the truce covers and what is still unclear

President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping reached a trade truce during a high-stakes meeting in South Korea on Thursday, de-escalating a dispute over rare earth elements that had threatened to push the world’s two largest economies into a full-blown trade war.

But this does not mean that the agreements are a comprehensive deal, cautioned Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to China during the Biden administration.

“Where we are is an uneasy truce in a long, still simmering trade war,” Burns told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.

— Spencer Kimball