Midterms, Jobs Data, and Apple Earnings Test Wall Street This Week: Will Stocks Hold?

Wall Street this week faces midterm elections, a jobs report, and Apple earnings. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2% last week and posted its worst month since March 2025.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) held rates last week, with two of its 12 voters backing a hike. A strong jobs report could lift rate-hike odds, adding pressure to risk assets weighed by artificial intelligence (AI) spending doubts.

Can Friday’s Jobs Report Shift Wall Street This Week?

Economists polled by Dow Jones expect October nonfarm payrolls, due Friday, to show 55,000 jobs added. The report measures monthly US hiring outside the farm sector.

The Fed’s split over hikes therefore raises the stakes for that number. CME FedWatch, a futures-based rate tracker, priced an 84% chance of a December hike before the October decision.

Apple, meanwhile, reports after Monday’s close, and McDonald’s and Qualcomm follow later in the week.

Can Midterms Outweigh AI Doubts and Oil Above $100?

Democrats are expected to win the House on Tuesday, CNBC reports, while Senate control remains uncertain.

Mike Dickson, Horizon Investments’ head of research and quantitative strategies, says Congress control has tended to matter little for stocks.

AI-linked shares got a lift early last week from Anthropic’s public filing for an initial public offering (IPO).

Selling then returned when Alphabet and Microsoft guided to lower-than-expected capital spending. Amazon left its full-year spending guidance unchanged.

Oil, however, adds pressure after a rise of more than 10% in October. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded near $102 and Brent, the global benchmark, near $112 late Sunday.

Separately, Israel’s election deadlock keeps Middle East risk in play for oil traders.

Kioxia, a Japanese memory chipmaker, fell about 14% Monday. Its flash memory price gains slowed to the mid-20% range last quarter from 70%.

Still, the Dow gained almost 2% in October as money shifted toward healthcare and other defensive stocks. That suggests capital moved rather than left.

Friday’s payrolls could test whether firmer rate-hike bets widen that retreat from tech.