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Market Recap
WEEK OF OCT. 27 THROUGH OCT. 31, 2025
The S&P 500 index rose more than 0.7% last week, led by the information technology and consumer discretionary sectors amid an onslaught of quarterly earnings, a monetary policy announcement and the China trade deal. The S&P 500 ended the month and Friday's session at 6,840.20, bringing quarter-to-date gains to 2.3% and year-to-date growth to more than 16%.
Five members of the so-called Magnificent 7 group, which compose more than a third of the S&P 500, reported earnings on Wednesday and Thursday.
Shares of Amazon ( AMZN ) ended the week 8.9% higher, followed by Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), which jumped 8.2%, and Apple (AAPL), which climbed 2.9%. Meta Platforms ( META ) shares fell more than 12% during the week, and Microsoft ( MSFT ) declined 1.1%, reflecting the impact of their planned capital expenditures related to artificial intelligence.
US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday to finalize a one-year trade agreement between the world's largest economies that is expected to be routinely extended. China agreed to resume purchases of US soybeans, keep rare-earth exports flowing and crack down on the illicit trade of fentanyl. The US, meanwhile, will halve the tariff rate on the Asian nation related to fentanyl, cutting the overall levy to about 47%.
On Wednesday, both the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points. This brings the BOC rate closer to 2.25% and the core rate in the U.S. in the 3.75%-4% range.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said another reduction in December is not set in stone which set investors sentiment back on the day. "In the committee's discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December," he said. "A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a forgone conclusion -- far from it."
The information technology sector had the largest percentage gain last week, up 3%, followed by a 2.8% increase in the consumer discretionary peer group. Four out of 11 sectors rose, with real estate declining 3.9% and materials shedding 3.7%, respectively.
Within the information technology sector, Teradyne ( TER ) led the pack after reporting Q3 results that beat the Street's expectations, and its Q4 guidance came in above analysts' projections. Shares jumped 26% this week.
The top gainer in consumer discretionary was Amazon ( AMZN ), which reported Q3 earnings and sales that outpaced analysts' estimates. Morgan Stanley said in a Friday note that Amazon ( AMZN ) is poised to see faster growth in its web services business due to expanding data centre capacity, increasing chip availability and surging backlog.
On the downside, shares of Alexandria Real Estate Equities ( ARE ) in the real estate sector sank 25% this week as Q3 adjusted funds from operations and revenue fell. The company also lowered the midpoint of its adjusted FFO outlook for the full-year 2025.
This week's earnings calendar includes Amgen ( AMGN ) , Uber Technologies ( UBER ) , and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) .
The economic data fog is likely to extend to this week amid the federal government shutdown. Data releases from private agencies will include October's ISM Manufacturing and Services PMI, Challenger job cuts, and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey.
