Tech stocks stumbled in the week of Oct. 26 as Big Tech earnings disappointed, while the U.S. economy topped forecasts. As Wall Street worried about whether Big Tech’s huge spending will pay off, investors got trigger-happy with even the biggest tech stock names. Intel plunged 23% after hours Thursday on weak guidance, and Amazon slid 7.3% after hours as capital spending and negative free cash flow jolted investors. Meanwhile, the Binance heist saw hackers make off with roughly $6.3 billion from the world’s largest crypto exchange.
Anthropic Files For An IPO
Monday, Anthropic filed its S-1 with the SEC to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ANT. Revenue for the first half of 2026 reached $16.3 billion, up about 1,300% from $1.16 billion a year earlier. The headline net loss was $80.7 billion, but roughly $72.4 billion of that came from revaluing convertible notes as the company’s worth climbed. The operating loss was a more modest $693 million, while compute and infrastructure costs jumped to $8.95 billion from $2.33 billion. That is a lot of zeros for a first date.
New Homes Pile Up Unsold
Tuesday’s housing data showed builders still have plenty to sell. Inventory of new single-family homes for sale at all stages of construction was 480,000 in September, up 49% from September 2019, according to the Census Bureau. Sales fell 3.4% from a year earlier to 56,000 homes, despite incentives, mortgage-rate buydowns and price cuts. The three-month average median price slid 4.6% year-over-year to $393,300 for new homes, the lowest since August 2021. So much for the housing shortage.
Fed Holds As Hawks Dissent
Wednesday, the Federal Reserve held its policy rate in a range of 3.75% to 4.00%, as widely expected. The surprise was two hawkish dissents, from Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, who both wanted a quarter-point hike. The statement upgraded the economy from “solid” to “strong” and said “inflation remains elevated,” leaving the door open to future hikes. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped 4 basis points to 5.04%. Chairman Warsh summed it up: “We just came out of a heck of a family fight.”
GDP Strong, Tech Stocks Slide
Thursday, the economy beat the forecasters. Real GDP grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter, above the 3.1% expected and up from 2.2% in the second quarter. Equipment investment jumped 20.9%, while goods imports surged 26.4%, which subtracts from GDP. The article’s table shows consumer spending and business investment growing in each of the last six quarters. Residential investment was the weak spot, shrinking 3.3% for its fifth decline in six quarters. Tech stocks didn’t join the party. Alphabet plunged 12.3% on heavy capital spending and slower search ad growth.
Binance Heist Rattles Crypto
Friday, Binance said its probe of the hack had widened beyond an engineer’s compromised laptop to “additional points of breach.” Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said about $6.36 billion moved out of Binance wallets, most of it in roughly 20 minutes. TRM Labs and Chainalysis have linked the attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking unit, though that attribution has not been officially confirmed. About $3 billion has been frozen on-chain, and Binance says it will cover all losses with company funds and hopes to restore withdrawals by Sunday. Bitcoin fell 5% to $76,800, and Coinbase dropped 12%, partly on its own earnings.
It’s A Wrap
According to Yahoo Finance, since last Friday’s close the S&P 500 lost 44 points or .57%. The NASDAQ dropped 518 points or 2.00%. While the DOW decreased 445 points or .85% as all three averages finished the week lower.
Strong growth and a split Fed make a tricky mix for a jittery market. Next week brings the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and Anthropic could start pitching its IPO to investors as soon as the week of Nov. 9. If the economy keeps running this hot, the two Fed dissenters may soon have company.
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