Wall Street ends mixed as earnings lift the Dow

Wall Street ends mixed as earnings lift the Dow

By Stephen Culp

Tue October 21, 2025 4:30 PM

Upbeat Q3 reports from industrials shot the Dow right up and it stayed up the whole day, but disappointment from chip companies generated a lot of volatility in tech leaving the Nasdaq down and the S&P near flat. Today’s weakness is explained by today’s expert, “We’re at a little bit of a point of indecision, where nobody feels particularly strongly about anything,” thus muting the reaction to earnings. With the indexes at record highs and valuations stretched, the positive Q3 is no longer sufficient for risk taking.  

The positive Q3 is also reflecting good news about minimal impacts from tariffs leading such stalwarts as General Motors, 3M, Lockheed and Northrop to raise their forecasts. 78 S&P companies have reported with 87% beating forecasts. Still coming this week are Tesla, IBM, P&G, and Intel. It is still expected that the Fed will have two more rate cuts this year but the prospects for 2026 are less clear. The shutdown has left investors and analysts in the dark for data and especially making things difficult for the data-dependent Fed. China remains a major concern though the White House remains confident that a fair deal can be reached. Volume remains below the 4-week average of 20.26 billion, coming in today at 19.73 billion. 

DJ: 46,706.58  +515.97      NAS: 22,990.54  +310.57     S&P: 6,735.13  +71.12       10/20

DJ: 46,924.74  +218.16      NAS: 22,953.67  -36.88        S&P: 6,735.35  +0.22         10/21

Tue 10-21-25 4:30 pm Wall Street ends mixed as earnings lift the Dow | Reuters