Weekly Market Report · October 26–30, 2026
Most Stocks Rose. The Market Still Fell.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.6% for its third losing week in a row as Alphabet and Intel had their worst days in decades, even though 9 of 11 sectors finished higher and Eli Lilly jumped 11%.
−0.6%
S&P 500
−0.8%
Dow Jones
−2.0%
Nasdaq 100
+3.1%
Best sector: health care
−5.3%
Weakest sector: communication
Winners and losers
Biggest winners
Eli Lilly jumps 11% as its weight-loss drugs keep selling
What happened
Eli Lilly rose from $1,273.46 to $1,417.54, a gain of 11.3%. Almost all of it came after its earnings report on Thursday: the stock gained 6.6% that day and another 3.2% on Friday.
Why
Lilly's sales grew 39% from a year earlier to $24.4 billion, about $2 billion more than analysts expected, driven by demand for its diabetes and weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. It also raised its forecast for the year's sales to $91–$92 billion, up from $85–$87 billion.
Why investors cared
Raising a forecast this much tells investors the company expects strong demand to continue, not just one good quarter. It also showed money moving toward health care in a week when technology stocks fell.
Tesla gains 7% after a big bank changes its mind
What happened
Tesla rose from $372.22 to $399.81, up 7.4%. Most of the move came on Monday, when it jumped 5.2%, and it held onto the gain while other large technology stocks fell.
Why
Barclays upgraded Tesla to "overweight", meaning it now expects the stock to do better than average, and raised its price target to $450 from $370. It pointed to car deliveries returning to growth, strong demand for Tesla's energy-storage batteries from data centers, and the possibility of a combination with SpaceX.
Why investors cared
Analyst upgrades often move a stock for a day or two. This one lasted because it gave investors new reasons to own Tesla, rather than just a higher price target.
Biggest losers
Intel has its worst day since 1974, despite beating estimates
What happened
Intel climbed nearly 10% to $95.53 by Wednesday, then fell 28.6% on Friday to $65.76. It ended the week down 24.4%, the biggest fall among the large companies in this report.
Why
Intel's last quarter was better than expected, but its forecast for the next one was far below it: $15–$16 billion in sales, against the $17.1 billion analysts expected. It blamed slowing sales of PCs, which have become more expensive because memory chips cost more, and an accident that shut one of its factories in Israel.
Alphabet loses nearly $500 billion in its worst day ever
What happened
Google's parent company fell 12.6% on Thursday to $283.82, its worst day since it began trading in 2004, wiping out nearly $500 billion of value. It ended the week down 12.6%.
Why
Alphabet spent a record $51.4 billion on data centers and other equipment in three months, more than double a year earlier, so more cash went out than came in. At the same time, sales from Google Search grew 12%, slower than the 17% of the quarter before, adding to worries that AI chatbots could take business away from search.
Sectors
Every part of the market, ranked from its best week to its worst.
The economy
The Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady
What happened
On Wednesday the Fed kept its key interest rate in a range of 3.75% to 4%, after raising it in September. The vote was 10 to 2: the two officials who disagreed wanted another increase, because inflation is still higher than the Fed wants.
Why it matters
The Fed's rate affects what it costs to borrow for homes, cars and businesses. Traders expect a good chance of another increase at the Fed's December meeting, so new inflation and jobs data will get a lot of attention.
Who it affected
The decision was widely expected, so the market barely moved that day. Mortgage rates remain above 7%, which matters most for home buyers and real estate.
Worries about AI spending hit the biggest companies
What happened
Alphabet and Amazon both reported enormous spending on AI data centers, enough that each paid out more cash than it brought in. On Friday, Intel's plunge added to the selling, and the S&P 500 fell 1.8%, its worst day since June.
Why it matters
Investors have been willing to pay high prices for big technology companies because they expect AI to pay off. When the costs keep climbing faster than expected, investors start asking when that payoff will arrive.
Who it affected
Communication services, home to Alphabet and Meta, fell 5.3% and technology fell 2.0%. Health care (+3.1%) and materials (+2.8%) led the sectors that rose.
Earnings
Amazon earned $1.89 per share on $201.9 billion in sales, both below forecasts. Its cloud business, Amazon Web Services, grew 39% to $46 billion, its fastest growth in nearly five years, but spending on data centers meant $42.4 billion more cash went out than came in over the past year. The stock fell about 7% before the market opened on Friday, then recovered most of it to close down 1.4%.
Boeing lost 34 cents per share after adjustments, more than the roughly 21 cents analysts expected, on sales up 4% to $24.2 billion. The bigger worry was timing: it said it would miss its 2026 targets for building 737 planes and pushed a $10 billion cash goal back to 2029. The stock fell 10.7% on Tuesday and ended the week down 8.9%.
What to watch next week
Apple reports earnings on Monday, November 2, after the market closes. It's the first earnings call led by its new chief executive, John Ternus.
AMD fell 10.9% on Friday alongside Intel and reports its own results on Tuesday. Investors will watch whether its outlook looks more like Intel's or like the AI demand it has described before.
A busy week for the whole market: the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday and the October jobs report on Friday, which could shape whether the Fed raises rates in December.
This week's lesson
How the market can fall when most stocks rise
This week, 9 of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 went up, yet the index went down. The reason is how it's built: the S&P 500 counts each company by its total value, so the biggest companies matter far more than the rest. A handful of giant technology companies make up a large share of the index, so when Alphabet, Intel, Nvidia and Meta fell, they outweighed gains in hundreds of smaller ones. When you hear "the market fell", it's worth asking which stocks actually did.
Sources
- Daily closing prices used to calculate every price change (Friday October 23 to Friday October 30, 2026) — Yahoo Finance
- Eli Lilly shares jump 7% as pharma giant raises 2026 outlook — Yahoo Finance
- Tesla Stock Surges After Barclays Upgrade on Hopes of a SpaceX Merger — Yahoo Finance
- Intel stock plunges nearly 29%, its worst day since 1974 — Yahoo Finance
- Intel stock plunges 21% as chipmaker blames PC slowdown for weak guidance — CNBC
- Alphabet tanks nearly 13% for worst day ever, losing $500 billion in value — CNBC
- Alphabet Stock Suffers Nearly $500 Billion Wipeout in Worst-Ever Trading Day — Yahoo Finance
- Fed interest rate decision October 2026: Fed holds rates steady — CNBC
- Key Takeaways: Fed Maintains Rates, Cites Strong Growth and Ongoing Uncertainty — Bloomberg
- How major US stock indexes fared Friday 10/30/2026 — Yahoo Finance
- Amazon posts negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion, holds 2026 capex unchanged — CNBC
- Boeing (BA) Q3 2026 earnings — CNBC
- Stock market next week: Outlook for Nov. 2-6, 2026 — CNBC
This report is educational commentary, not investment advice. Past performance does not predict future results.