Stocks slid on Thursday as Wall Street digested discouraging quarterly reports from megacap technology names and awaited further results.

The S&P 500 tumbled 1.86% to finish at 5,705.45. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2.76% to close at 18,095.15. Both indexes posted their biggest one-day declines since Sept. 3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 378.08 points, or 0.9%, to end at 41,763.46.

Microsoft shares slid 6% after the tech giant's revenue guidance disappointed investors and overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. Meta Platforms dropped more than 4% after the Facebook parent missed the Street's expectations for user growth and warned that capital expenditures will significantly rise in 2025.

"I think we're getting to the point where AI enthusiasm and potential is not enough. These companies, while they're still levered to those themes and hold favorable long term growth profiles, are not quite delivering the growth that is priced into them," said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird Private Wealth Management.

Big tech earnings so far this week have been a mixed bag. While Alphabet shares rose nearly 3% on Wednesday after the company reported strong revenue growth, chipmaker AMD fell more than 10% as investors were disappointed by the company's guidance for the fourth quarter.

Tech earnings continue on Thursday with results from megacap stocks Apple and Amazon due after the bell.

The latest personal consumption expenditures price index showed 12-month inflation rose at a rate of 2.1% in September, arriving inline with estimates and moving closer to the Federal Reserve's 2% target. The PCE reading is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.

Thursday's PCE reading, along with Friday's October payrolls report and unemployment data, will inform the Fed's interest rate decision on Nov. 7 when it ends its two-day policy meeting.

The major averages are on track to end the week in the red. The Dow has dropped 0.8% week to date, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down around 1.8% and 2.3%, respectively.

Thursday was also the final trading day of what has been a choppy month for the market amid heightened uncertainty ahead of the U.S. Presidential election on Nov. 5. The 30-stock Dow lost 1.3% in October. The broad market index shed 1% in that time, while the Nasdaq declined 0.5%.

Correction: An earlier version misstated a move in Alphabet shares.

Stocks end lower Thursday

U.S. stocks finished Thursday's trading session in the red.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite declined 1.86% and 2.76%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 378.08 points, or 0.9%.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. crude oil closes nearly 1% higher as OPEC+ could delay production boost

U.S. crude oil futures closed nearly 1% higher on Thursday, as OPEC+ could delay its planned output boost and gasoline demand picked up in the U.S.

U.S. crude oil gained 65 cents, or 0.95%, to settle at $69.26 per barrel, while Brent futures rose by 61 cents, or 0.84%, to close at $73.16 a barrel.

Sources told Reuters that OPEC+ could delay its output hike planned for December by a month or more. The prospect of higher supplies next year has weighed on prices recently.

U.S. gasoline inventories also fell by 2.7 million barrels last week, signaling an uptick in demand.

Oil prices are down more than 3% this week after selling off steeply Monday in the wake of Israel's retaliatory strikes against Iran. Israel spared the Islamic Republic's oil facilities, providing some relief for an oil market that had been on edge over the risk of a supply disruption.

— Spencer Kimball

Navy's biggest shipbuilder slides 25%, suffers largest-ever 1-day slump

Newport News, Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the country's largest military shipbuilder, slid as much as 25% Thursday to $187.36, on pace for its worst-ever one-day decline, according to FactSet data. 

The cause of the slump: Huntington's latest financial numbers. Third quarter earnings of $2.56 per share were far short of the Street's consensus estimate ($3.85), and missed even the most pessimistic of 12 analysts' forecast ($3.69). Revenue of $2.75 billion similarly trailed the average estimate of $2.87 billion and the most bearish individual forecast of $2.81 billion.

CEO Chris Kastner blamed "uncertain timing and structure" of anticipated awards from the Navy of contracts to build Virginia-class Block V and Block VI and Columbia-class submarines in the second half. Huntington also blamed an inability to boost manufacturing performance and reduce risk, "due to late critical material deliveries from the supply chain and reduced experience levels within our teams, both in production touch labor and supervision. This leads to labor inefficiency, and in some cases to rework, which can affect program schedules."

Huntington began trading as a separate entity after being spun off from Northrop Grumman in 2011.

— Scott Schnipper

'Primary trend of the major averages is higher,' Piper Sandler market technician says

Despite variables and the potential for short-term hiccups, Piper Sandler still see reason to be optimistic about the market in the long run.

"Given the uncertainties surrounding the upcoming U.S. Presidential election and Q3 earnings season, we should anticipate near-term pullbacks or modest profit-taking in some extended equities," chief market technician Craig Johnson wrote to clients. "However, the overall technical evidence remains constructive, and the primary trend of the major averages is higher."

Johnson reiterated his target for the S&P 500 of 6,100 at the end of 2024. That implies the broad index can rise nearly 5% from where it finished Tuesday.

He also expects the index to reach 6,600 at the end of 2025, meaning he foresees a positive year for the broad market.

— Alex Harring

Coinbase drops 12%, heads for worst day in more than 18 months

Coinbase shares were under pressure Thursday, a day after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings and gave a tepid revenue outlook for the current quarter. The broader market decline also pressured Coinbase.

The stock lost 12%, putting it on pace for its biggest drop since March 2023, when it fell 14%.

Other crypto-related stocks fell as well. Robinhood, which also reported weak earnings Wednesday, tumbled 15%. Miners Mara Holdings and Riot Platforms slid 9% and 12%, respectively. Bitcoin, which is often a big influence on the price of Coinbase, slid 2% after hovering below its all-time high this week.

Read our full story on the move here.

— Tanaya Macheel

Wall Street eyes KLA, says semi stock is a critical play that addresses Nvidia's 'most pressing bottlenecks'

Some major Wall Street firms are eyeing semiconductor manufacturer KLA Corp after the company beat earnings and revenue estimates on Wednesday.

Oppenheimer analyst Edward Yang upgraded KLA to outperform and raised his 12-18 month price target by $100 to $850, which suggests nearly 22.9% potential upside. The company's one of the top five wafer fab equipment companies that comprises 80% of total industry revenue, he pointed out.

"KLA is a critical "picks-and-shovels" play that addresses NVDA/AI's most pressing bottlenecks," Yang said in Wednesday note to clients. "AI compute demand doubles every six months, but hardware performance only every two years. This leads to a severe, structural shortage of advanced semiconductors and the tools needed to manufacture them."

KLA's down 20% from its all-time high, making it an attractive entry point for investors to buy the stock, according to Yang. Its shares are up 13.9% year to date, but have plummeted about 14.5% this quarter.

Bank of America also reiterated its buy rating on KLA on Wednesday, calling it a high-quality compounder and top semicap pick. Citi Research said it views KLA as the "best place to hide" among semi equipment peers.

"The necessity for its systems has made KLAC's business less cyclical and more profitable that its peers, resulting in more stable FCF and shareholder returns," Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya said.

— Pia Singh

Peloton shares rally after earnings beat

Peloton shares surged 29% Thursday, headed for its best day since Aug. 22 after the company posted better-than-expected fiscal first quarter earnings. Peloton also announced Ford executive Peter Stern would be its next CEO.

The company is back to generating free cash flow and edging within reach of profitability with a breakeven earnings per share report.

Shares have rallied over 170% since former CEO Barry McCarthy announced his departure in May and the company shifted away from growth at all costs to focus instead on profitability.

— Brandon Gomez, Hakyung Kim

Gold slides, heading for first losing session in five

Gold futures pulled back roughly 2% on Thursday and headed for their worst day since July.

Spot gold also pulled back 2% and headed for its first losing session in five. For the month, bullion has advanced about 5%.

— Brian Evans, Nick Wells

Nvidia's slide suggests tech slump is about positioning, not AI, portfolio manager says

Nvidia's decline on Thursday stands against the idea that AI-related spending for companies like Meta Platforms is what is weighing on tech stocks, said Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.

"There's some skepticism moving into Nvidia here simply because of the broader tech sector moving lower, despite the fact that cap-ex for the rest of the tech sector really benefits Nvidia, as we all know. So that's an interesting kind of square inside of a circle," Stucky said.

The Big Tech names were already well owned by active managers, so some investors may just be taking the solid, but not great, earnings season as a chance to recalibrate, Stucky said.

"This is just a digestion of positioning, in my mind," he added.

Shares of Nvidia were down more than 4% in afternoon trading.

— Jesse Pound

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Peloton, Super Micro Computer and more

These are the stocks moving the most in midday trading:

• Peloton — Shares soared 28% after the exercise equipment company posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal first quarter and raised its full-year profit outlook.
• Super Micro Computer — The AI server maker slumped 13%. That comes a day after shares shed 33% and posted their worst day since 2018 after revealing that Ernst & Young had resigned as its auditor.
• Robinhood — The brokerage firm declined 14.6% after posting third-quarter per-share earnings of 17 cents, below the 18 cents per share analysts polled by LSEG had expected.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Financials outperform October

The financials sector is up 3.3% in October, making it the best-performing sector in the S&P 500.

Raymond James is the top outperformer, jumping 21.6% month to date. Wells Fargo has jumped 15.5%, while Morgan Stanley has rallied around 12% in the period.

The only other sectors in the green are communication services and energy, which have risen 2.2% and 0.6%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

iShares Semiconductor ETF is on track for a second losing session

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) slumped more than 3% on Thursday as chip stocks suffered.

Monolithic Power Systems was a notable loser in the ETF, plummeting about 17% and heading for its worst day since March 2020. Shares are tumbling after the company issued its third-quarter results, wherein it beat analysts' estimates on the top and bottom lines, per FactSet. However, revenue from enterprise data fell short of the Street's expectations.

SOXX holding Universal Display lost more than 8% after the company trimmed its full-year guidance on revenue and management warned that the rate of growth this year is expected to be "more modest than previously projected."

Chipmaker and SOXX member Arm Holdings also dropped more than 8%.

—Darla Mercado, Gina Francolla

AI spending, economic strength can help fuel stock rally through 2025, UBS says

Stocks are under pressure on Thursday after a big round of earnings and economic data, but the trend for both of those areas point to further upside for equities, according to UBS.

Solita Marcelli, the CIO for the Americas for UBS global wealth management, said in a note to clients that the earnings reports for Big Tech stocks point to further strength of the AI trend.

"The continued growth in AI-related capex reported by all three tech giants supports the positive structural trend. We see the best opportunities in AI-linked semiconductors and US megacaps," the note said, referring to Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta Platforms.

"The combination of solid growth and Fed rate cuts provides a supportive backdrop for risk assets, in our view, while the AI trend should lend further fundamental support to equities," Marcelli continued.

UBS projects that the S&P 500 will reach 6,600 by the end of 2025, or up about 15% from here.

— Jesse Pound

BTIG: 'We continue to see downside risk' over coming weeks

BTIG's chief market technician is forecasting tough days ahead for the broader market.

"The QQQs are down ~2%. While the day to day path is difficult to predict, we continue to see downside risk broadly over the coming weeks," Krinsky, the firm's chief market technician, wrote in a Thursday note.

Wednesday's trading session tied the longest stretch without a 1% daily S&P 500 move in nearly three years, Krinsky added, noting that the S&P 500 has broken its uptrend from August lows. He said a year-end target of between 5,500 and 5,650 is a reasonable objective for the broad-market index.

— Pia Singh

Microsoft leads Dow loses

Microsoft's 5.9% decline led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower on Thursday.

Amazon and Merck were the following biggest underperformers of the index, falling 2.9% each.

Only 12 stocks in the Dow were positive on the day.

— Hakyung Kim

Chip stocks lower Thursday

The semiconductor sector broadly fell on Thursday.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF declined 2.9%. Shares of chipmaking giant Nvidia dropped more than 3%. Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro Computer continued their pullbacks from Wednesday and fell 2.6% and 14.3%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim

Stocks open lower Thursday

U.S. stocks began Thursday's session in the red.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 220 points, or 0.5%.

— Hakyung Kim

Comcast explores separation of cable network business

NBCUniversal parent Comcast is considering a separation of its cable networks business.

Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said during Thursday's earnings call that the company is looking into forming "a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks."

Shares of the stock jumped nearly 7% before the bell on Thursday after earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The stock has lost more than 3% in 2024.

— Alex Harring, Lillian Rizzo

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. 

Carvana, eBay among the names making moves premarket

Some stocks are making big moves before the bell:

• Carvana – Shares surged more than 19% on the heels of a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat. For the period, Carvana earned 64 cents per share on $3.65 billion in revenue, above the 25 cents per share and $3.45 billion that analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting. The online used car dealer also raised its full-year outlook and said that results would be "significantly above the high end" of its prior range.
• Roku – The streaming stock shed 14% after guiding for fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $30 million, while the FactSet consensus had called for $34.4 million. The company said its fourth-quarter revenue will come in higher than expected. Roku's third-quarter adjusted EBITDA and revenue beat also topped analyst estimates.
• eBay – The stock lost about 9% after the online marketplace's fourth-quarter forecast missed Wall Street's expectations. Ebay forecasts that revenue for the current quarter will total between $2.53 billion and $2.59 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $2.65 billion, according to StreetAccount. For the quarter just ended, eBay reported better-than-expected earnings.

Read here for the full list.

— Sean Conlon

Closely watched Fed inflation figure rises in-line with expectations in September

The personal consumption expenditures index — a closely watched inflation gauge by the Federal Reserve — rose 0.2% in September and 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. The data was in-line with estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones.

The core figure, which excludes energy and food, rose 0.3% on a month over month basis. On a yearly basis, the figure came in at 2.7% and slightly ahead of the 2.6% expected by Dow jones.

Elsewhere, weekly jobless claims data for the week ending Oct. 26 came in at 216,000, behind a 230,000 estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones.

— Samantha Subin

Planned layoffs hit highest level since 2020, Challenger says

Announced layoffs in October rose 51% from a year ago, bringing the 2024 total to its highest level since the Covid-scarred 2020, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Companies listed 55,597 job cuts for the month, which actually showed a 23.7% decline from September, Challenger reported Thursday. The total, though, is 51% higher than October 2023.

When looked at on a year-to-date basis, layoffs are up 3.7% in 2024 to 664,839. That's the highest since 2020, and excluding the pandemic is the most since 2009. The bulk of the October cuts came from aerospace and defense and were specifically related to the Boeing strike, the report said.

—Jeff Cox

Key inflation measure to be released

The Federal Reserve will get its last look at a key inflation gauge Thursday morning when the Commerce Department releases its monthly reading on the personal consumption expenditures price index.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect that headline PCE increased 0.2% in September and 2.1% from a year ago. Excluding food and energy, core PCE is expected to show 0.3% and 2.6% increases, respectively. The Fed uses the PCE as a baseline for monetary policy.

Along with the inflation report, there also will be releases on weekly unemployment claims as well as the employment cost index.

—Jeff Cox

Uber shares fall on bookings miss

Shares of Uber declined around 6% Thursday before the bell following the company's quarterly earnings announcement.

Although the company beat consensus estimates for third-quarter revenue, it missed on forecasts for gross bookings. Uber reported $40.97 billion in gross bookings last quarter, while analysts surveyed by StreetAccount had projected $41.25 billion.

— Hakyung Kim

European markets open lower on Thursday

European markets opened lower on Thursday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index down 0.65% at 8:04 a.m. London time.

Sectors widely traded in negative territory, with insurance stocks falling 1.42% and retail shares pulling back 1.14%.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Stocks making the biggest moves after hours

Check out some of the companies making headlines in extended trading:

Microsoft — The technology giant slid nearly 4% after its revenue guidance for the fiscal second quarter disappointed investors. Microsoft's outlook called for revenue to range between $68.1 billion to $69.1 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG sought $69.83 billion.

Booking Holdings — Shares of the online reservation company jumped almost 6%. In the third quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings of $83.39 per share and revenue of $7.99 billion, while analysts surveyed by LSEG expected $77.52 in earnings per share and $7.63 billion in revenue.

Starbucks — Shares ticked nearly 1% lower. The coffee chain said its global same-store sales dropped 7% in the fiscal fourth quarter, as demand in the U.S. and China sagged. Results in the period disappointed, with earnings coming in at 80 cents per share on revenue of $9.07 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were looking for $1.03 per share in earnings and $9.36 billion in revenue.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Stock futures open lower

Stock futures were lower on Wednesday, as investors digested fresh earnings from technology companies including Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

S&P 500 futures ticked down 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.3% lower. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 25 points, or 0.06%.

— Brian Evans