US stocks fell on Thursday as investors digested a newly announced US-China trade truce, tempered expectations for another Fed rate cut, and braced for the next round of Big Tech earnings from e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) and iPhone maker Apple (AAPL).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.2%, extending losses from Wednesday’s session. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost about 1% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell by more than 1.5%.

Tech was mixed. Meta (META) tanked more than 11% on concerns about its AI spending, but Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) shares rose following the search engine giant’s quarterly results.

Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger reports:

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Moderna (MRNA) stock jumped as much as 17% after STAT News reported that the vaccine maker is in talks regarding “a deal of significant scope,” which could include a buyout.

The type of agreement was unclear, with either the possibility of an acquisition or a partnership.

Moderna stock is down more than 95% from its 2021 all-time high, when the biotech firm rolled out a COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.

Yahoo Finace’s Dan Howely reports:

Yahoo Finance’s Laura Bratton reports:

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Global Gold (GC=F) demand surged to an all-time high in the third quarter, fueled by a wave of exchange-traded fund (ETF) investments and all-time high bullion prices.

A new World Gold Council report released on Thursday showed total demand for the yellow metal climbed 3% year over year to 1,313 metric tons. The demand was led by “huge ETF buying” and bar and coin purchases, the report said.

“Investors remained firmly in the driving seat in Q3,” the report said, citing “fear of missing out” buying.

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Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) stock rose 5% on Thursday while the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” group sank.

Nvidia (NVDA), which closed at a record high in the prior session, declined 2% to open below its recently hit $5 trillion valuation.

Meta (META) declined after the company reported a strong quarter, but concerns about AI spending may have spooked investors.

Microsoft (MSFT) also sank despite a strong quarter.

Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal reports:

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Rare earth stocks’ performance was mixed in the first minutes of Thursday’s trading session as the market digested the news out of South Korea that President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reached a deal that would delay implementation of Beijing’s rare earths export controls by at least a year.

MP Materials (MP), which operates the only commercial-scale rare earth mine in the US, fell by more than 1% before recovering to a gain of more than 0.8%.

USA Rare Earth (USAR) lost more than 2.8%, remaining red, while NioCorp Developments (NB) lost more than 2.5% before boomeranging back to a gain of more than 4%.

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies met in South Korea late Wednesday night, capping off a week of US trade policy negotiations with Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

Under the agreement reached between Trump and Xi, the ​United States will cut its tariffs on Chinese goods ‌related to fentanyl to 10% from 20%, while Xi will work “very hard to stop the flow” of fentanyl, Trump said.

China’s new export controls on rare earths, announced in early October and which rattled the market over their severity, tamping down exports of products containing even trace amounts of the minerals, were set to be a key focus of the summit.

Beijing has now agreed to hold off on implementing the export controls, which, among other policies, completely banned exports for weapons development applications for at least a year.

“They’re not going to impose the rare earth controls,” Trump said to a press gaggle aboard Air Force One Thursday morning.

China boosted its own mining and refining of a group of metals that includes rare earths by 14% year over year for the first quarter through the third quarter, according to numbers published Tuesday.

US stocks slipped at the market open on Thursday as investors eyed the results of President Trump’s sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, uncertainty around a potential next rate cut by the Federal Reserve, and another day of “Magnificent Seven” earnings.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost more than 0.5% in the first minutes of trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped by 0.95%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) held firm, losing a bit more than 0.1%.

Stocks fell as investors looked for clarity on the outcomes of the Trump-Xi summit and awaited results from a litany of major companies, with Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN) headlining after the market close,

Other companies reporting today include Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), and Shell PLC (SHEL), which posted results earlier this morning. Stryker Corporation (SYK) and Coinbase Global (COIN) will report after the closing bell.

Economic data: Initial jobless claims (week ended October 25); Continuing claims (week ended October 18); Personal consumption (third quarter); GDP annualized (third quarter)

Earnings calendar: Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Eli Lilly (LLY), Mastercard (MA), Merck & Co. (MRK), Shell (SHEL), Gilead Sciences (GILD), S&P Global (SPGI), Stryker Corporation (SYK), TotalEnergies (TTE), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Comcast (CMCSA), Southern Company (SO), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Roblox (RBLX), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Coinbase Global (COIN), Strategy (MSTR), The Cigna Group (CI), Cloudflare (NET), Motorola (MSI), Cheniere Energy (LNG), Reddit (RDDT), The Hershey Company (HSY), Estée Lauder (EL), Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Blue Owl Capital (OWL), Fox Corporation (FOX), The Carlyle Group (CG), Zillow (Z), GoDaddy (GDDY)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

What the Trump-Xi deal means for stability and markets

US and China declare 1-year trade truce after Trump-Xi talks

Trump: Nvidia chip talks with Xi didn’t cover Blackwell

Powell challenges the market’s idea of a Fed on autopilot

Earnings: Meta, Microsoft slide as Alphabet rises

OpenAI preps for juggernaut IPO at up to $1 trillion valuation

Novo bids $6.5B for Metsera, gatecrashing Pfizer’s deal

Trump orders nuclear weapons trials after Russia tests

Eli Lilly (LLY) stock rose 5% on Thursday before the bell after raising its full-year profit and revenue forecast as strong appetite for its widely popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro helped it beat third-quarter earnings estimates.

Reuters reports:

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Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) stock rose 7% in premarket trading on Thursday after reporting third quarter revenue and earnings on Wednesday that surpassed Wall Street’s expectations following a slew of AI deals involving its cloud segment.

Estee Lauder (EL) stock rose 5% before the bell on Thursday after beating Wall Street estimates for first-quarter sales in a sign that CEO Stephane de La Faverie’s turnaround push was beginning to take hold, sending its shares up about 5% in premarket trading.

Hanwha Ocean Co. (042660.KS) stock rose 6% on Thursday after the US and China agreed to end its tit-for-tat port fees on on vessels linked to the other for one year.

Microsoft (MSFT) stock is getting hit premarket after it reported slightly lower than expected Azure sales.

The results for its Azure cloud platform were still strong. Analysts at Citi made a good point in a note this morning, calling out Datadog (DDOG), JFrog (FROG), MongoDB (MDB), and Elastic (ESTC):

“We believe the solid Azure results bode well for other consumption-based companies set to report in coming weeks/months (DDOG, FROG, SNOW, MDB, ESTC).”

President Donald Trump addressed reporters, discussing the main points of interest from the long-awaited 90-minute trade talk between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Reuters reports:

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