Key Highlights

● The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted a third straight weekly decline.

● The week began with gains after Anthropic filed for an IPO on October 26.

● The Fed held rates in a 10-2 vote on Wednesday.

● Earnings from Alphabet, Intel and Amazon then drove selling.

The S&P 500 ended the week on Friday, October 30, 2026, at 7,580.07, down 43.61 points from its October 23 close of 7,623.68. The Nasdaq Composite finished at 25,437.00, down 518.34 points from 25,955.34. According to market data, it was the third straight weekly decline for both indexes.

Most of the damage came on Friday alone. The S&P 500 fell 140.32 points and the Nasdaq 747.73 points in the session, the Nasdaq's worst day since June 5. Both indexes had closed on Thursday above their levels of the previous Friday, at 7,720.39 and 26,184.72, before the final session erased those gains.

An early-week lift fades

The week started with some optimism. Anthropic filed for an initial public offering on Monday, October 26, seeking a Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT, and market data credited the filing with early-week gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The offering could raise up to $100 billion, according to market data aggregation.

Then the Fed and Earnings took over. The Federal Reserve held rates steady on Wednesday in a 10-2 vote, with two officials preferring a hike, and Chair Kevin Warsh declined to offer forward guidance. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) reported on Wednesday night, and on Thursday the stock suffered its worst day ever after free Cash Flow of negative $9.1 billion fell far short of forecasts.

Friday's double blow

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) finished the job. Intel warned of cash burn this year and plunged to $65.76 on Friday, while Amazon's results showed trailing 12-month free cash flow of negative $42.4 billion. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index sank to 10,688.80, and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) all fell.

Other pressures added up. U.S. crude rose to $104.12 a barrel on tensions around Iran, gold fell to a 52-week low, and a reported $6.3 billion hack at Binance hit crypto stocks. Traders also priced in a December rate hike as the likely outcome. The Dow fared no better for the week, losing 444.85 points, while the Russell 2000 gained 35.95 points as investors rotated away from megacap tech.

Why the footing keeps slipping

Strategists pointed to a higher bar for the AI trade. "Global markets are ending an exceptionally busy week on a cautious note," a senior market analyst said, adding that "strong AI Demand is no longer enough on its own."

"The earnings bar is very high," an Investment strategist said. "A lot of them kind of got ahead of themselves. It's all earnings based and right now, they're not producing," said a trading specialist according to market data.

What to watch

The coming week could decide whether the streak stretches to four. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) reports on Monday, November 2, the midterm elections take place on Tuesday, November 3, and ISM Manufacturing and services data arrive during the week ahead of the October jobs report on Friday, November 6.

Seasonality offers some encouragement for bulls: one market strategist has said November is the second-best month in midterm years. But October already broke the usual pattern, with the S&P 500 falling for the month, and one asset manager has said fundamentals "are more important indicators of future returns than the election calendar itself."