Closing Bell 11/3/26

All right guys welcome to Closing Bell I'm Scott Walker live from post-9 here at the New York Stock Exchange. This make a break out begins with the markets next move after the mega caps and the midterm. So where do the stocks go from here? Well ask our experts over this final stretch in the meantime. Show you the scorecard here with 60 to go in regulation. Pretty decent day for the NASDAQ. Two thirds of one percent. You do have a strong move today in the semis. We're watching all that closely. Take a look at AMD. Nice move ahead of the earnings report in over time. Not the only one memories doing pretty well today too. There's the space and everything is green. Most of the mega caps are as well with the exception of Apple. It's services growth and margin guide sending shares lower today. We're going to take you through the biggest movers all around the markets coming up. It does take us to our talk of the tape. Stocks over the final stretch of the year and a big warning today from a well-known hedge fund. Our Leslie Picker begins there. Less. Hey Scott, yeah quite the acronym from Elliott in an investor letter. It's Fogo or fear of getting obliterated. This is the theme of the $80 billion hedge funds October investor letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Paul Singer's firm warning about AI and the debt finance capital spending and circular investments according to the journal. The report said that Elliott wrote about the potential market impact if there were any pricing pressures of AI products. Quote so many factors have lined up to cause this great boom that it may take disruption in only one or two of them to shift this momentum into reverse leading to a cascading, self-reinforcing unwind of this bull market and an abrupt change from FOMO to Fogo or the fear of getting obliterated according to the journal. Elliott writes that quote at present virtually every alarm bell warning of a substantial bear market ahead is ringing. The report said that other issues highlighted included US budget deficits, persistent inflation, private credit portfolios, in addition to market distortions caused by factors like zero-day options or betting on meme stocks. We've reached out to Elliott for comment but have not heard back yet, Scott. Well, Leslie, it's a talker. You know that and I'm glad we led with it. Thank you for your reporting. That's Leslie Picker. Voters hitting the polls today as well. Midterm elections underway from coast to coast Wall Street, preparing for more volatility. Aiman Javros following that angle for us, Aiman? Yes, Scott, that's right. Wall Street analysts have been quietly forecasting what they think is coming after today and in a word what they see is volatility. The big caveat, of course, we don't know the results ahead of time but the analysts are generally assuming Democrats will have a good night tonight. So how does Wall Street think President Trump will handle that by doubling down? Analysts at Piper Sandler wrote that Trump is likely to make more aggressive policy moves after the election and they said Trump might try to upend the status quo in the Persian Gulf, increase tariffs significantly, step up his attacks on the independence of the fed, demand Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent take a more activist approach to try to lower rates. Analysts at Raymond James wrote that post-election President Trump is likely to remake the mold of a lame duck president and press the limits of executive action. And what about newly-empowered Democrats? Wall Street doesn't expect them to be able to get much past with one important exception, Piper Sandler analysts wrote that Democrats may push for tax increases, higher regulation, tougher anti-trust enforcement, and higher domestic spending, and they expect aggressive investigations of the Trump family's business dealings. The result of all that, they say plenty of acrimony. But Deutsche Bank analysts point out that neither side will likely have veto-proof majority. So Democrats may have to content themselves with slowing or blocking executive branch appointees, including at the Fed and at the Supreme Court. And here's that key exception, populism. Piper Sandler flags the possibility of compromise on interest rate caps on credit cards or an increase in the minimum wage with which both whole well among Republicans and Democrats. And Deutsche Bank, of course, points out that data centers could come under bipartisan fire in 2027, Scott. Back over to you. >> All right, a lot to consider there as well. I mean, Javers, thanks very much to you, our panel now. Solus is Dan Greenhouse, Alexandra Wilson, Elisando of Goldman Sachs, New Edges, Cameron Dawson. It's nice to have everybody here. We could take midterms first. I mean, do you feel like a lot of volatility on the other side? Acrimony equals more volatile market? >> I don't think so. We discussed this in the past. What's a foregone conclusion? Almost surely, if not, I would bet dollars. So donuts, as we say, that Democrats take the house that seems like a given the only question is your margin there, probably 15 seats, something like that. The Senate's a toss up. But even if Democrats don't take the Senate and they take one house, you have for all of intensive purposes divided government. And aiming laid out the landscape pretty clearly, there's not going to be a majority to do anything. You're going to have the investigations. Senate appointments are probably going to grind to a halt. And nothing's going to happen for two years. >> And you're going to say gridlock is good? >> No, I'm not going to say that. >> No, you're not, but people in the market are going to say gridlock's good. I mean, that's traditionally how the market thinks about that. >> Unless something needs to get done. But in this case, listen, what does the government doing these days, not much of anything? And with respect to the volatility comment, I would just push back. I don't know why that environment creates a particularly volatile investing environment. If you're focused on companies, cash flows, yada yada, divided government, or single, I just don't think it's going to factor very much over the next two years. >> Well, that goes to the point where gridlock is good. I mean, acrimony, gridlock brings acrimony and then maybe it translates into a less volatile market. Let's take the the Elliott warning if you want to call it that. You agree with any part of what they say? >> Listen, I think any time you have a lot of leverage in the market to a singular trade, there's that risk. But, you know, I think it's more of a local pause right now and there's a lot of opportunity. I would actually take the other side saying you can get high quality paper at 8%. I mean, these are some of the most important companies in the world. And I just, I see that there's a lot of fears. Things have re-rated. They've reprised. Some of the tech stack looks really compelling to us. So I would say, versus a few years ago, where you were buying 100-year bonds at zero, and now you're actually getting paid for a complexity and risk. And even quality, there's a lot of stuff in the market that's very, very exciting. >> Your points, earnings are still great. Stocks have gotten materially cheaper. >> Yeah. >> And what's been happening with questions about AI has just manifested itself into a rotation. One, two, and three are all positive. You make the argument. >> Yeah, I do. And then even we'd argue you could see local peak bond yields at all that together with 4% nominal GDP next year. That's, you know, really good new moon music for stocks. >> You agree with that? >> Yeah. Look, I think that what the market is trying to contemplate right now is that you have semiconductors trading at 16 and a half times forward earnings. That's a multiple that suggests that we're near a peak in earnings. But if you look at earnings estimates, they're expected to double over the next three years. So you have pockets of areas of the market that look cheap because there's pricing and potentially that earnings are going to slow down. The question is, will we see any confirmation of that earnings actually slowing down, based on what hyperskiller is saying about their spending and the flow through down to the bottom line of semi? >> Well, I mean, AMD reports, tonight, you know, you'll get a good look and then commentary from from Lisa Sue. She'll be on the network tomorrow morning. By the way, are you making the case that semis have peaked? Because that's a bigger conversation and a more negative one. You could easily argue for the overall AI trade, couldn't you? >> I think we have to open our minds up to the idea that June could have been the peak in semiconductors. Now that doesn't mean that you can't own the names. It means that you might have to own them for more tactical reasons. You could see a 25-30% rally just to get back up to a downtrend line. But the reality is is that these charts are starting to look more and more like we are seeing a peak. Mostly things like the cost be, for example. So it raises the question of if the market is looking so confident that earnings are going to continue to grow, but you're trading them as if you are at peak already. There's a big huge divergence there that will have to be resolved. >> It's also important that not that the camera does know this, but it's also important to contextualize the recent pullback in the semiconductor stocks and the cost be as well. You had a humongous rally, a legendary rally leaving up into the summer where you eventually peaked in the traded sideways since. Many of those stocks and certainly the indices themselves are only 50% off that pre-move earlier this year. So there's still tremendous gains in the books, but what you've seen more than I think any questioning of a peak in semiconductors is just the broader rotation that you alluded to. Yes, semis had been trading sideways for a while. The whole market has generally been trading sideways for about five months. However, the S&B 500 if you X out tech and you X outcom services is making a new high. The equal weight index is pretty close to making a high. So I think, not that I disagree too much with Cameron, I think just more right now there is a fear that's taking hold in the tech sector that's leading to a reallocation in just some of these other names. And at least the Sue has some positive things to say, I think you might be able to reassert that uptrend. But wouldn't you wouldn't you also agree that the equal weight has been making these new highs carried in part and a large part by defensive areas of the market. Not exactly the greatest sign to say, hey, did you notice the broadening out in the market, the equal weight keeps sitting the, how, why you make that look? I mean, staples, utilities, healthcare, been the the biggest gaining sectors over the last month, not even close by a lot. We've been doing this for a lot of years, Scott, how many times over the years have we said, oh, healthcare is the leading sector, this quarter, this month, this year, isn't that bad for the market? No, but I said healthcare staples and utilities. Yeah, obviously I'd rather sick Parts of the market leading it higher, however, to the extent that we are focused on the market and not individual names Then you have these other names seeing the rotation and seeing the move higher over the last month since the S&P Itself-peaked I think it was 10-6 was the peak Every single staple stock is up every single basically every single staple stock is up Basically every healthcare stock is up basically every material's name is up now Is that enough to compensate? Well, no, that's why the market is traded sideways for five months However, if you're picking individual stocks, that's a good chunk of stocks that you can invest in and rotate it as you wait for some confirmation that maybe Sendies haven't peaked learning's breath has gotten better too Which is why a lot of stocks outside of tech I hate to use the word deserve But maybe some of the moves are justified because the earnings power of a lot of things outside of tech has looked pretty good too It has but I would even argue some of those sectors have guided down on the forward and they're still trading up So there it's just some defensive rotational trade in the market that's taking place Which is going back to the point of it's still in the market It's not rotating out completely and going to treasuries or a gold in fact you've seen the opposite there So from my perspective, it's just this indigestion that's taking place a little bit of a rotation and then we're going to see it go back up So if if you think semis maybe in the process of You know, maybe they have peaked and then you make the argument here too that some of these alleged Safety valuations look stretched too. Are you negative the overall market? No, the market can still make a new high even if you have higher beta names part of the market already having peaked We learned that in 2000 remember the market didn't peaked the S&P didn't peak in 2000 until September Tech stocks peaked all the way back in March So it's very possible that you see leadership rotations I would say being careful around some of these perceived safety traits You have staples trading at a 29% premium to the S&P 500 That's the max premium it has over the last 10 years and the average is 6% So there definitely is some stretch, but it's not just cyclicals or defensives that are rotating higher You are seeing some signs of life out of things like regional banks hotels Restaurants some of the transports aerospace and different lately. I mean oil came down a lot from where they've had you know Hit a hit what may have been a top. So obviously those trades were going to work you you make the point too in thinking of What Elliott had to say that this this is your note to our producers. I know it was going to be a red online It is okay. It always does you don't want it read on the air stop you now. Don't send it. Okay, all right This is or will be a bubble in AI which I've said repeatedly is it I don't what listen The main argument I've made on this topic, which I stand by entirely is for all of humankind in in a free market Capitalist democracy like the United States nothing gets done without Enthusiasm at a bubble we've all listed them forever sometimes it's nonsense like tulips and sometimes it's productive assets Like communication services or railroads and we're probably in one of those moments right now that'll only Reveal itself in hindsight by one or two years. We'll have built too many data centers too much power too many gigawatts are coming on Line will only know in retrospect so nothing really gets done without a bubble But that's not necessarily a negative obviously if you're invested. It can be a negative Well, it depends on the time frame that you put forward So if you say in one or two years, I think they're starting to get a fear in the market that is it one or two months Have we already sort of come to the you know towards the finish line of of this cycle? That's some of the argument that's made Cameron Cameron is essentially not making that this is a bubble point But making that argument that semis of I would just simply argue you don't know that in real time It's going to be incredibly difficult for any individual investor let alone an institutional investor that lives and breathes This 24 hours a day to determine that in real time So I'm not someone who advocates building diversified portfolios and you want to whether the story that's not you don't want to have a diversified portfolio That's not what no, I would actually make the opposite argument you want to be concentrated, but that's another segment I don't know that this is a bubble, but where I would disagree listen Elliott is a I have nothing but positive things to say about what they do Okay, bye. Where are you going? I disagree with this argument as much as I disagreed with Henry Blodgett 10 years ago as much as I disagreed with Stan Every multiple times I just there's a lot of negativity you can point to deficits and you can point to excessive optimism etc. But that would have been true a day a week a month a year two years ago. It's just everyone is still trying to be Noreal Robini ala 2009 and I just with all due respect to all the people I just named and everyone else I just I find it Impossible to think that you are going to replicate that we all see the same data. I get it. There's a lot to be concerned about I just don't think from a professional position standpoint you really need to fear every time one of these people comes out and says this Are you D green house at solace or is it Dan dot green house my email? Don't do that. That's not my email. They'll find it. There's numbers in the email. You'll never find it. How do you address that idea of you know the market seems to be trying to figure out if if earnings have peaked or they're in the process of for AI If we are inflating a bubble that's going to get pretty ugly and maybe sooner than people think So I think as it relates to earnings the market is struggling with the second derivative which is the growth is still there It's just less aggressive than it has been As it relates to the the question of bubble or no bubble We I mean, I just think that it's a really pedestrian question. You're not asking the right question And the real question is how do you invest in the most interesting industrial cycle that we've seen as investors You have to know what you're buying you know have to know we cash flows. You're getting the quality of the credit that you're investing in the security All of that you can't just be out there saying like I'm going to ride the beta wave the market's basically telling you that that trades over Yeah, look I think the second derivative point is exactly why the market is struggling so much Do you have a market that's going to grow earnings by 36 maybe up to 40% this year that slows to 15% next year But there's no contemplation for to earnings estimates that we peak you have earnings growing in 14% in 2028 another 12% in 2029 so I think that is going to be the big question driver returns is at what point do those earnings forecast start to level off And that's when the returns start to level off guys. Thanks for being here. Appreciate everybody's time Let's get to some of today's top movers We'll start with apple shares lower following earnings Mackenzie Cigalos has that story for say Mac Hey, Scott so apple actually pairing its losses going into the clothes only down around two percent now Is the street starts to look past the margin squeeze to a record year He's got 2026 revenue rising 15% to nearly half a trillion dollars EPS jumping 20% and then apples guiding to holiday quarter revenue growth in the range of seven to ten percent That's a beat on the street and it comes despite those ongoing supply shortages of max iPads and the new foldable iPhone Apple could also absorb higher memory costs better than Android and window makers part of why it's been taking share this year And max sales they jump 24% even as intel just had its worst days since the 1970s on a weak PC outlook But that high margin services business is of course the sticking point this quarter with growth guided below 10% going into December But excluding the hit from a stronger dollar Bernstein actually says it services grew 12% last quarter in line with the quarter before So the real drag here looking ahead is a flat app store plus weaker licensing revenue Which some analysts read as the billions of dollars at Google pays to be the iPhones and default search engine But if I AI chatbots keep pulling searches from Google the concern is that payments to Apple could then fall CEO John turnis though telling me that Apple's answer here is Siri AI and those heavy users hitting usage caps Who will ultimately be asked to pay more for capacity? It's got Mac. Thank you, Mackenzie Segal chip stocks ripping as we said at the top of the show Get ready for AMD's results in overtime as well. Seema Modi taking us there. Seema well Scott AMD needs to prove to Wall Street that its outlook looks bright despite potential weakness in the PC market where AMD does compete With intel remember until saw a drop off in the man in late august early September from PC customers Executives there blaming higher memory costs the question is if AMD CEO Lisa Sue shares a similar outlook Also top of mind how big of a driver is meta-muse to AMD's bottom line and if AMD plans to be more Acquisitive following its nine billion dollar acquisition of world labs the AI research Startup worth noting AMD has been less active than its peers in the debt market Scott only raising about five billion in debt so far in 2026 We did confirm separately that meta is out today with a 20 to 25 billion dollar debt sale That doesn't seem to be denting optimism the way other ii financing news did yesterday with Nvidia intel broadcom all rebounding After we get AMD tonight Scott we will focus on Qualcomm results, which are out tomorrow also tomorrow AMD CEO Lisa Sue on squawk in the street nine a.m. Scott now will be there. Thank you Seema Modi Let's get out of Pippa Stevens watching the move in the AI power names today. What do you see? Well, Scott it's been a high bar for data center names this quarter with many struggling to clear it But not eaten, which is up 7% on the day after a solid report with electrical orders coming in ahead of expectations Perhaps the swaging some concerns around the pace of the AI builds out now the company beat on the top and bottom line And also updated q4 EPS guide with the midpoint ahead of estimates the company's backlog grew 33% year over year and set electrical sector Data center orders on a rolling 12-month basis more than doubled with data center revenues up about 65% year over year The industrials are the best sector on the day with other AI power players including GE Vernova Quantus serving is Generac and Vertive in the green. Now all of these names have gotten hit by the AI slowdown fear and remain at least 17% below their recent highs. But strong earnings reports now counteracting some of those fears and perhaps setting up a better outlook on the other side of the midterms. Scott. All right. Thank you. Steve as we're just getting started coming up next Pfizer is lower despite hiking. It's a number of cases. All right. Welcome back shares of Pfizer lower despite an earnings beat today. Anika Kim Constantino has the details on exactly why. What can you tell us? Hey Scott. So Pfizer had a solid quarter and raised its full year sales guidance by 1.5 billion at the midpoint. And this is on the back of strong $5.5 billion in sales this quarter and grew 32% operationally. And those drugs, including the targeted cancer drug paths have are helping offset the steep declines we're seeing with COVID products. Here's what Pfizer CEO Albert Borla told us earlier today about the trajectory of these newer products. What we acquired were platforms that they have tremendous pipeline that we are working on data right now. So in addition to the revenues that they are getting now and they will continue generating so that we can overcome the patent the loss of patent exclusivity. We are bringing pipeline that will perform even better in terms of growth. So there was new drugs are central to Pfizer strategy for managing upcoming patent explorations for blockbuster drugs, including the blood that are eloquent that it shares with Bristol Meyer squibs got. All right. Anika, thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you very much. Those shares hire following reports. The company planning to cut several thousand jobs. What do you know here? Well Scott Disney is indeed planning to lay off several thousand employees according to sources familiar with the situation. Now they're those sources are telling me that some managers and certain parts of the company have been asked to reduce cost by as much as 20% from both labor as well as general and administrative expenses. In addition months in Disney's August earnings shareholder letter the company said quote. We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers including reductions in labor and SGNA saying we are midstream in this work. They said that back in August. Now all of this comes after Netflix said last month that it would lay off about 6% of its workforce and skydance the newly combined and water brothers' discovery is expected to do meaningful layoffs to achieve the six billion dollars in synergies it's committed to. Scott? Okay Julia thank you. Shares of Shopify as well. Sliding today after reporting that company's results brand of Gomez following that what's behind this move? Hey Scott yeah shares down almost 8% after the company's so strong growth but missed Wall Street expectations revenue rose 32% in adjusted earnings beat but investors were also expected. Shopify expects fourth quarter gross profit growth to trail revenue growth as it invests in AI and infrastructure. Shopify's president also joined squawk on the street earlier today take a listen to what he said about the health of the consumer. I think businesses are really optimistic I think shoppers are feeling some economic pressure which means every new dollar spent is a more deliberate decision but truth is we're seeing growth across merchant sizes geographies and channels. Strength seems very broad based. So the question here can Shopify keep growing across its merchant base and turn that momentum into more profit Scott? Okay Brandon thank you appreciate that Bernie Gomez coming up. One of the nation's top bank financial advisors opens his playbook as we head into that final stretch of the year. Treasury partners Richard Sapperstein he is at post nine next. But just 40 trading days left in twenty twenty six you believe that? Forty quick. Top financial advisors like this guy look into the year's final stretch for big opportunities. Richard Sapperstein Treasury partners founding principle in CIO. One of this country's top rated financial advisors welcome back. Thank you. Sounds like one of the country's top rank financial advisors is getting a little cautious on the market. More so than you've been recently. So the narrative has changed from how big is the AI opportunity to how is it going to be funded? What's the return on the capital? And we're seeing a digestion because of the missed expectations not from the fundamental underlying growth. So I mean you think risks above decent size pullback are increasing elevated? How would you describe that? Look we've been trimming equities all year. You have? Yeah but you've been like trimming stamen then just adding to mega caps right? We've held mega caps with trimming peripherally and we've been buying high grade municipal bonds. Still. Yeah we're still buying. We're buying very aggressively now. Why right now? Well because yields have four and a half five percent tax free and for our clients who where the return of capital is more important than return on capital. It's a very important asset allocation. When you think about our client asset allocations in the last four years the markets up what 120 percent? So a lot of clients are overweight equities right now. So it's very important for us to start trimming and we've been doing that all along. So when you talk as far as I can remember at least in the last couple of years at least about munis. Can you be more actionable for people who are watching this and thinking okay I'm down with that which ones? Okay so the bonds are long term let's say 20 to 30 year final maturities and they have call features in let's say 10 years. So they're called kicker bonds because if you they aren't called they kick to the coupon rate of the bond. So right now though they're trading at a 455 five and a quarter percent tax free yield. Every state has these muni bonds and so depending on what state you live in you can find bonds that are appropriate for your wrist parameter and your exact maturity structure. So it doesn't even matter. Wherever you live you can find something that fits what you think makes sense. Yes exactly. When you see someone like Elliott come out today and sort of give like a laundry list of you know major worries about the market you share some of those concerns. Look we've had disruptive technologies have market pullbacks for years whether it was deep seek or tariffs or Iran constantly there are pullbacks in the market and what he's doing and by the way it's a very well known investor what he's doing is basically the greatest I mean obviously exactly he's accumulating all of them and bringing them out so these risks are there yet we could have talked about many of them a year or two ago and the market started to go higher. I'm not wishling past the graveyard but and I'm conscious of it and that's one of the reasons why we're reallocating assets right now but we still like large cap technology. Why aren't you relocating reallocating assets to sort of other areas of the actual stock market. I mean the equal weight's done well as guests have already pointed out the markets had an undoubtedly more defensive tone. You know staples health care are representative of that are you not a big believer in the durability of any bigger broadening. We do have other industry groups within our portfolios so we're not just exclusively in large cap tech and the peripheral stocks around it. But I think it's like what? Pharmaceuticals? Bank health care. We're in pharma, we're in banks. There's other names in our portfolios but we're concentrated in large cap growth. If you look at peg ratios, the PE ratio to the growth rate, large cap tech is 0.6 to one one and a half whereas if you look at proctor and gamble or other industry groups, they're over three three and a half. So you're paying for less growth and that comes down to like take Google for example. Where there's a very negative attitude about the stock right now. Large amount from its high. Exactly. So the narrative is there's an existential threat against their search business which is $320 billion a year which puts them in the top 10 of the S&P 500 right behind Exxon. That's the size of this business. So it went from 19% growth to 12% growth. Now Google has four key things. They've got chips, compute, they've got a frontier model and they've got cash so they can always get together a consumer agent and compete with meta. So I wouldn't really just throw the company out of a portfolio right now and keep in mind names like that we've owned for over a decade and we use these opportunities when dust clears here to add to that. So you come out of mega cap earnings season. Everything would in video right? Because we now have had everything but we just had Apple. If not better about the stories than you did six months ago? Yeah and here's why. The question is what's the return on all this massive CapEx investments? A big question. It is. And we go right to the cash. If you look at Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, the large three hyperscalers, and look at the growth of funds from operations over the last three years, it's averaging 150%. So Amazon and Microsoft, 240 billion of funds from operations, Google, 270 billion over the next 12 months. These are stratospheric amounts of cash they are creating to reinvest in their businesses. So if we're going to look for the returns on this investment, look at the cash, it's there, and that's why we own these stocks. And I know that the cash is kind of decreasing. It's being consumed more than the cash, and they're going into the capital markets to no problem with that. I do not, they're not at all. Microsoft is under leveraged, these companies are under leveraged. So what they're always under leveraged, because of their size of their balance sheets and their cash hoard. Exactly, so they can use to issue debt and more efficiently use their balance sheet. So I'm completely comfortable with it. A long-term investor. I know, I hear you. It's my pleasure. All right, Rich Saperstein. Up next, we track the biggest movers as we head into the closed Brandon's back with that. What do you see? They've got a crypto name bounces back with Bitcoin, a luxury automaker, races higher on guidance, and a food distributor gets hit by weak restaurant demand. These are the tickers taking over these last two minutes of trading coming up after this. 15 from the bell back to Brandon with the stocks that he's watching. Top of your list is what? He's got a top of the list. Coinbase jumping nearly 6% after sliding 10% Friday and another 3% on Monday. Now that initial drop followed, Q3 results that showed weaker crypto trading volumes. Morgan Stanley then downgraded the stock. Bitcoin now trading higher after declines last week, and may be a reason for Coinbase's turnaround today. Meantime, Ferrari is up 3% after raising its 2026 guidance and posting Q3 results that beat estimates. Management citing stronger consumer personalizations, lower than expected currency headwinds, and its Formula One championship position as the reason for the move. The stock seeing its best day since mid-April. And then Cisco ticker S.Y.Y. Sinking 9% after posting Q1 revenue that missed estimates while profit came in line. Cisco CEO says the cyclospor outbreak worsened already weak restaurant demand. The company had halted distribution of Taylor Farms' iceberg lettuce from Mexico in July following that outbreak's stock. Okay, Brandon, appreciate that. Thank you, Brandon Gomez. Coming up all over the biggest names, reporting it over time. That much more is in the market zone, which is coming up next. We're now at the closing belt market zone, Mike Santoli, and Empower's Martin Norton here to break down these crucial moments of the trading day. All of a red extending byline from the Cevo Global markets in Chicago. We do have full team coverage on the names reporting it over time as well. Seema Modi with a last look at AMD forest, Bikinti Segales, back to look at Block, and the test of Brewer is watching booking holdings. However, Michael Santoli, we will begin with you. What do you think about this market today? I mean, pretty understandably, we stayed at kind of a low idle, I think. Pretty much trying to remain neutral ahead of the election results. Clearly, there's signs that we are a little bit kind of tightened up ahead of what is to come in terms of those results, the VIX at 20, even though the index isn't doing a whole lot. And I think some of the stuff that looks like it got overdone in the short term, having some reversals makes a lot of sense. Semi's bouncing, staples pulling in a little bit. I think there's a very plausible case that you will have an exhale, perhaps after the midterms assuming they go roughly as expected. And there's plenty of proof. I think a lot of parts of this market that were previous leadership were very wounded and they have some work to do, I think, to kind of win back their status as engines of the bull market. I mean, we've got to get something good from AMD, right? And the commentary from Lisa Sue. I mean, you'll have that coming up in overtime for a trade that's taken some body blows. No doubt about it. It's been a while since one of the main bellwethers actually not only delivered the results but also got applause from the street and had co-tales and you had other stocks following it higher during this earnings season. So maybe we're due for one of those. We'll see a presumably, you know, expectation should have been beaten down a bit, heading into this. We'll see if that's enough. Yeah, well, let's start running into the print, too. And Semi's going to have more on that, of course. We'll see you coming up in overtime, Michael. Thank you very much. We'll go to the SIBO Global Markets. Oliver's playing options, actually. What are you looking at? Midterms, too, Scott. It looks like someone thinks clean energy stocks are a win if it goes blue tonight. That's the best explanation I can see for a big and very one-sided surge in options trading on underperforming names like first solar, solar edge and the solar ETF tan. That fund usually trades around 500 to 1,000 options max per day. And today, it surpassed 20,000 and 99% of them are calls. The most popular trade was buying the 50 strike call for December X-Pri for 80 cents and looking for a 17% rally. Other notable trades included buying the 35 strike call expiring Friday on solar edge, which reports earnings in the morning and currently trades at 32 bucks, as well as buying the 35 strike call for January in in phase, which already reported earnings and trades at $31, Scott. Okay, Oliver, thank you. That's Oliver Renek for us in Chicago. Seema, we mentioned AMD. It's coming up after the bell. The stocks having a nice run today. And there's a lot, I think, weighing on this. What do we need to know, you think? Well, overall, Scott, Wall Street is expecting AMD's AMD to see about a 92% year-over-year jump in third quarter earnings. So the bar is higher. And investors recently have been souring on the chip's trade. AMD has been a solid outperformer outpeating the gains in Nvidia and its peers in 2026 as investors grow optimistic about AMD's pipeline. The relationship it has with Meda and powering news with AMD chips. CEO Lisa Seuss goal to play a more meaningful role in the data center site. That's expected to be a big topic on the earnings call. We also want Sue to address those topics, as well as her read on the personal computing market. We have seen the stock fall about 26% from its recent high, Scott. Okay. Seema, thanks for certainly see what happens. As we will, Mac with Block. So Scott, Block's earnings have been on a tear this year. The company slashed headcount and then reorganized around AI and profit is expected to nearly double from a year ago. Now, investors want to know how much room is left on margins or whether Block has to start spending again to fend off rivals like Stripe and Toast. Cash app, it is the engine here and lending is driving it. Block is stretching out its short-term loans and charging more for them. That's a lift profit, but longer loans also means that more customers aren't going to pay them back. And that is the bear case here. Block has been sharing less detail on credit in past reports. The other knock is on cash app. That user growth has been virtually flat for three quarters. And then on the merchant side, Square's growth has been picking up, but Wall Street expects a slight slowdown this quarter in an increasingly crowded market. Block is running way ahead of the three-year targets it said at last year's investor day. So watch for whether it raises that bar again. Last quarter, Block beat and raised in the stock still fell. Those shares are off this year's August high. Still down 70% from their 2021 peak and down 2% going into the close. All right, so we'll watch those earnings as well. Mac, thank you. Booking holdings as well. Contessa, tell us more. Well, Scott, booking is having a tough year here. Stock is down 30% year to date. Two big focal points for investors in this report. What's travel demand like globally, especially with the conflict in the Middle East? What's the competitive impact from AI on the online travel agents? Now, we've heard from other global travel companies about uneven demand that they're seeing it strong at the premium level still, still there for corporate travel. But booking has said it's employing AI to its own advantage now. And for instance, deploying penny at price line, it's agent to better serve and sell customers. So we'll see what they say in on demand and on the AI competitive threat. UBS today, price target on booking from $274 to $265. Wall Street expects booking to report adjusted earnings of $450 per share on revenue of $9.5 billion for that quarter, Scott. Okay, Contessa, appreciate the walk up there. That's Contessa, Robert Martin. I'm sitting to my left here, midterms first. We get this clearing event out of the way. Is that what it feels like to you? I mean, it feels like that today. But I think one of the concerns that investors have is what happens to you politically. Once we have the midterms in our revenue mirror, it's not really clear. We're getting a lot of mixed signals, but that's the way I run this bond all year. Yeah, it feels like something's going to happen. Yes. I mean, oil market's been really interesting over the last few days as well. You say this market requires investors to quote, "Live in the Grey Zone." What does that mean? Well, I think there's a lot of mixed signals when we're looking around the market. I don't know if there's a single sector or industry where you can say all signs point to yes. You know, a lot of the defensive areas can protect you from volatility, but they don't have valuation in their favor. You can look at some areas like small caps and say earnings could pick up, but you could also suggest that right with rising rates, that's going to hurt that area. And then with the AI trade, all of a sudden you need a contrarian mindset to start delving in there. You think that the defensive areas of the market have run too far? I think they've run too much. Too much. Yeah, I mean, healthcare was an area we liked for the past year. And even though some of the fundamentals are good, now the valuations just seem way higher than makes sense to us. What about the whole broadening story? I mean, how do you see that? more defensive, although that big move in oil lower got a jump in discretionary in industrials and materials in those more cyclical areas. So what what wins out at the end of the day do you think? Well I mean from an earnings perspective you can make the case for broadening right? You can even see some of the softness and hyperscaler earnings are ready appearing and then you can make the case for healthcare and in small caps. I think the bigger question is whether you can get prices to follow that and I think that's a little bit harder to ascertain. I think areas like financial path that managers actually are cheap and so if the economy remains strong maybe that's an area that you can go to but I think the broadening is great itself you know because enough question marks around it that you don't want to consider it a sure thing. Do you have questions about the AI trade at this point? Do you think it's fully intact? It doesn't feel like it at the moment. I think what we all have to do is consider where the fair values sit in an AI world and that might not be for the hyperscalers where they were pre-AI and so that's where we're doing the most work right now. It's figuring out whether the discount is as large as it seems or maybe a little bit more modest. You think because well I mean they have valuations have compressed. They've compressed quite a bit right? Doesn't that help? You're trying to figure out? I wonder whether fair values also come down. You look at something like alphabet and it's for business and the advertising questions are there so they have to pivot their business and how does that work? What is the monopolistic position look like in an AI world? I think those are questions that we have to answer. What about the semis? It's such an important group. We're waiting on AMD. It doesn't get as much pub as Embidia does but it's no less important especially just now when we're asking these questions about a super important space within the market. Yeah I mean this semi-trade broadly has seemed overdone to us but I still think that over to the downside over it's done to the downside but had a very strong run in the first half of the year right? So I think the fundamentals remain intact. It's whether the price is really off of you much opportunity. All right well maybe AMD will help us answer some of those questions. It's my turn to ring the bells. We do approach those earnings. Now it's going to be negative by a couple hundred points. S&P looks positive that Nasdaq is going to win this day. I'll send it into overtime with Melissa Lee and Mike Santolio and Doko Wendy were a whole slate earnings.