Nasdaq rises on Amazon boost but Fed worries, benefits expiry add caution
October 31, 2025
By Sinéad Carew and Pranav Kashyap
(Reuters) -The Nasdaq index advanced faster than the S&P 500 and the Dow on Friday with a strong boost from Amazon’s upbeat earnings forecast, but worries about hawkish Federal Reserve commentary and the potential expiry of government food aid benefits dampened the investor mood.
Amazon shares jumped 11%, hitting an all-time high after the online retailer forecast quarterly sales above estimates. Apple’s forecast for iPhone sales in the holiday quarter surpassed Wall Street expectations late on Thursday, but CEO Tim Cook flagged supply constraints. Its shares were last flat.
Nvidia, which became the first publicly listed firm to surpass $5 trillion in market value earlier this week, was up 0.7% after CEO Jensen Huang said he hoped the company’s state-of-the-art Blackwell chips could be sold in China.
But in remarks that cooled investor hopes, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said on Friday that a December rate cut is not locked in despite market expectations for a cut. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she had opposed Wednesday’s rate cut because inflation is too high.
On Friday, traders were pricing in a 63% probability of a December rate cut, down from 72.8% on Thursday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
“Investors may have gotten in front of their skis a little bit and thinking, ‘OK, going to get lower rates,’ and maybe that will lead to some broadening of market performance, maybe get some economic tailwinds to certain cyclical sectors,” said Jake Seltz, portfolio manager for the Empiric LT Equity team at Allspring.
Some grocery stocks traded lower on Friday on worries about a dip in November sales if federal food aid benefits, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, lapse due to the ongoing government shutdown. However, a federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans.
Shares of grocer Kroger were down 2.9% while shares of Conagra Brands were off 1.8% and Walmart shares dropped 1.2%.
“Earlier, everybody got a boost from Amazon,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer of Bokeh Capital, adding that the Amazon boost gradually faded as Friday’s market was “like a slowly leaking balloon rather than pin pop.”
Forrest said investors, including mutual funds at the end of their fiscal year, may have taken a pause after a strong month. She also noted some signs of fears in grocery stocks in the face of a potential SNAP program expiry.
At 2:25 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.02 points, or 0.08%, to 47,560.14, the S&P 500 gained 22.13 points, or 0.32%, to 6,844.47 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 171.09 points, or 0.73%, to 23,752.23.
AI frenzy pushed Wall Street to record highs earlier this week before concerns about major spending from Microsoft and Meta as well as doubts about further interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve spooked investors.
For the month, the S&P 500 was higher, putting it on track for a sixth consecutive monthly gain – its longest such streak since August 2021.
The Nasdaq Composite was on pace for a seventh consecutive monthly advance, while the Dow was set for its sixth straight monthly win – their longest runs since January 2018.
Of the 315 S&P 500 companies that have reported third-quarter results so far, 83.2% have surpassed analysts’ estimates, according to LSEG data. That is well above the historical average, where roughly 67% of firms beat forecasts.
In other moves, Warner Bros Discovery rose 3.8% following a Reuters report that Netflix was actively exploring a bid for the company’s studio and streaming business.
Netflix added 2.8% as it unveiled plans for a 10-for-1 stock split.
Getty Images rose 2.7% after signing a global multiyear licensing agreement with Perplexity AI.
Western Digital gained 6.7% to an all-time high after forecasting quarterly earnings above Wall Street estimates.
Solar panel maker First Solar surged 13.4% to a more than one-year high after surpassing expectations for third quarter sales.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 124 new highs and 122 new lows.
On the Nasdaq, 2,467 stocks rose and 2,138 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.15-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and 34 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 65 new highs and 151 new lows.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York and Pranav Kashyap and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Matthew Lewis)
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