Today’s Market Recap: Three Major US Indexes Plunge, Philadelphia Semiconductor Index Tumbles Over 7%, Oil Falls, Gold and Silver Advance

Tracking Market Trends

TradingKey - With the U.S. midterm elections approaching, the three major U.S. stock indices and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index collectively suffered sharp falls last Friday. Among them, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% to close at 51,770.31; the Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 2.86% to close at 25,437.00; and the S&P 500 Index dropped 1.82% to close at 7,580.07. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index faced the heaviest selling pressure, tumbling 7.2% in a single day to close at 10,688.8.

The semiconductor chip sector suffered a heavy blow overall, with Intel (INTC) plummeting over 28%, SanDisk (SNDK) falling over 13%, Qualcomm (QCOM) dropping over 11%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) sliding over 10%; TSMC (TSM) and Broadcom (AVGO) also both dropping over 5%.

International crude oil prices both fell by around 1% this morning, with WTI crude (USOIL) falling 0.99% to $101.41 per barrel; Brent crude (UKOIL) down 0.97% to $110.65 per barrel. Spot gold (XAUUSD) rose 0.7% to $3901.55 per ounce; spot silver (XAGUSD) rose 1.7% to $49.932 per ounce.

Cryptocurrencies generally rebounded, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising 0.77% to $78,152; Ethereum (ETH) gaining 0.63% to trade at $2,274; Ripple (XRP) falling 0.71% to trade at $1.24; Binance Coin (BNB) rising 0.96% to $710.

Market News

Iran is reviewing proposals from U.S. Vice President Vance, with its foreign minister stating there are currently no plans for talks, while the military declared it will confront the U.S. and Israel with 'high intensity and without geographical limitations.' Saudi media reported that Iran is studying the proposals contained in a letter from Vance. The letter outlines general principles and a framework for bilateral negotiations but does not include a complete plan. Iran demands guarantees of a permanent and comprehensive end to hostilities in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials also insist on a full ceasefire before initiating negotiations, noting that 'a new round of talks is expected to take place, but it is premature to fix a specific timeline.'

The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.25%, warning of rising risks of an inflation overshoot. The BOJ voted 8-1 to maintain rates, stating in its policy statement that underlying inflation has reached a level consistent with its 2% price target while emphasizing the need for vigilance against inflation overshoot risks. The central bank lowered its core-core CPI forecast for fiscal 2026 to 2.4% from 2.5%, and raised the forecast for fiscal 2027 to 2.7% from 2.6%. If implemented, a proposed temporary consumption tax exemption on food is expected to reduce core CPI by about 1.3 percentage points in fiscal 2027. Hawkish board member Hajime Takata dissented, advocating a rate hike to 1.5%.

Amazon has future spending commitments of $883 billion and has opened a new $80 billion financing channel. Amazon secured a credit line of up to $80 billion for technology infrastructure asset purchases, available for drawdowns from the first quarter of next year through the third quarter of the following year, with lenders receiving collateral rights on a portion of the purchased assets. As of the end of September, Amazon's total spending commitments stood at $883 billion, up 36% from three months earlier and more than double the figure from a year ago.

Nvidia steps in to back an emerging cloud provider by guaranteeing over $5 billion in construction financing for Nscale. Nvidia is in talks with Nscale to provide over $5 billion in credit guarantees for the construction of its 460-megawatt data center, which will serve Anthropic. Structured as a residual value guarantee, Nvidia would step in to take over the facility if Nscale defaults. To date, Nvidia has provided approximately $170 billion in cumulative credit support and investments.

OpenAI has cut its latest funding round target by $10 billion and is now seeking to raise roughly $20 billion at a valuation of $1.25 trillion.

Top 10 Most Active Stocks

The table below lists the ten most actively traded stocks in the latest market. Supported by massive trading volume and excellent liquidity, these assets have become key benchmarks for tracking global market dynamics.