Stock Futures Edge Higher as Wall Street Braces for Apple, Oil, and Midterm Week

Stock futures opened higher Sunday evening as Wall Street prepared for a consequential week anchored by Apple’s earnings, the U.S. midterm elections, and crude oil hovering near the psychologically important $100-a-barrel level. Futures for the S&P 500 (ES=F), Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F), and Dow Jones (YM=F) all traded higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq taking the lead after last week’s sharp artificial-intelligence and semiconductor selloff.

Futures Signal Cautious Optimism Sunday Evening

S&P 500 futures, Nasdaq 100 futures, and Dow futures were all higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way after last week’s AI selloff. The move suggests investors are looking past a volatile close to October and positioning for a stacked calendar of corporate earnings, political developments, and energy-market shifts.

October’s Selloff Hit Tech Hard While the Rest of the Market Held Up

The selloff that closed out October was brutal but narrow. The biggest artificial-intelligence and chip stocks have lost roughly $5 trillion in market value since Oct. 6, according to Yahoo Finance calculations, while the other 625 large U.S. stocks in that tally added about $1.3 trillion. Nvidia and Alphabet each lost about $834 billion, SpaceX lost roughly $505 billion, and TSMC fell by about $395 billion. Across 47 AI and chip stocks, the losses totaled about $5 trillion.

Last week drove the divergence home. The S&P 500 slipped about 0.6 percent, yet nine of its 11 sectors rose about 1 percent or more. No other down week for the index since at least 1999 had more than seven advancing sectors, by Yahoo Finance calculations.

From the end of a midterm October through the following June, the S&P 500 has risen every time since 1950.

What’s Next: Apple Earnings, Crude Oil, and Election Week

What comes next is up for debate. One read of history says the tech meltdown could get a lot worse before it is over. Another says the stock market’s sweetest stretch starts now. Both could turn out to be true, since the October selloff showed the rest of the market can climb while tech sinks.

Apple and the Magnificent Seven Face a Pivotal Week

Apple. Apple reports after the bell Monday, with iPhone 18 sales in the spotlight as the world’s most valuable company again. It closed Friday worth about $5.03 trillion, ahead of Nvidia at about $4.93 trillion, and it is the only “Magnificent Seven” stock beating the S&P 500 this year, up about 27 percent versus about 11 percent. Palantir also reports Monday.

Oil Stays Near $100 Amid Middle East Uncertainty

Oil. West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) opened lower Sunday after settling Friday above $104 a barrel, its highest close since mid-September. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut in the ninth month of the Iran war, and OPEC+ held its December output targets steady on Sunday.

Midterms, Jobs Data, and the Federal Reserve Outlook

The midterms and jobs. Voters go to the polls Tuesday, and the October jobs report arrives Friday, with Wall Street debating whether the Federal Reserve put is back. The central bank’s policy path will likely remain a dominant theme as traders weigh fresh employment data against the election outcome.

The Week Ahead: Key Themes for Investors

Apple’s earnings, crude oil’s next move, and the midterm elections will set the tone for November. For investors, the deeper story may be market breadth: mega-cap technology has carried much of the index’s gains this year, but the October rotation showed that gains can narrow quickly. Whether the post-midterm historical pattern holds will depend on whether non-tech leadership can sustain the rally while the AI trade digests its losses.

Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.

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