Oil relief lifts the Dow, but the technology rebound fades
Monday's close: chips slide again, AI financing stays in focus, and the midterm vote comes next.
Lower oil prices gave much of Wall Street room to recover on Monday, but technology stocks could not hold their early gains. The Dow finished higher while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell, leaving a split market heading into Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections.
The close
| Index | Close | Change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,541.40 | -0.51% |
| Dow Jones | 51,983.98 | +0.41% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 25,164.32 | -1.07% |
What moved
Chip selling resumed. Intel lost another 8.8% after Friday's rout. The weakness also reached Marvell and Lumentum after their all-stock deal. The market's early rebound did not remove concerns about valuations, customer spending and the cost of expanding AI infrastructure.
The financing bill grew clearer. Oracle's planned debt and share sale and Alphabet's euro bond offering kept funding in focus. Anthropic's updated financial disclosure paired rapid revenue growth with very large future computing commitments. Commitments extending over years are different from cash spent in a single quarter.
Oil gave other sectors relief. WTI settled at $96.46 a barrel, down 7.36%, and Brent at $104.77, down 7.63%, as diplomacy raised hopes of easing Middle East supply disruptions. The move extended the oil decline covered earlier. Hopes for talks are not a completed peace agreement or a guarantee that shipments normalize.
Credit remained uneven. The Fed's lending survey showed tighter standards for small businesses and commercial property, while larger-company standards were basically unchanged. It offers another reason to distinguish the broad economic picture from the experience of a particular borrower.
What to watch next
Tuesday's midterm vote and another round of company results will test the rebound outside technology. AMD's earnings are due after Tuesday's close; Friday's jobs report is the next major labor-market checkpoint. For the wider calendar, see the week-ahead edition. This edition reports the regular-session close; it does not treat after-hours prices as closing levels.
