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Daily market wrap ·

Alphabet slides 8.7% as US indices edge higher on Wednesday

Alphabet fell 8.7% on Wednesday as the S&P 500 closed 0.17% higher, with oil, gold and bitcoin also moving before the 5 November Bank of England decision.

388 words · written at 21:00 GMT after the US close · 8 headlines referenced

The wrap

The S&P 500 closed up 0.17% at 7,735.51 on Wednesday, and the Nasdaq-100 rose 0.55% to 29,813. The FTSE 100 gained 0.07% to 10,695. The S&P 500 ETF closed down 0.33% at $769.81 on the same day. Alphabet was the weakest of the large names, falling 8.7% to $293.90 on Wednesday. No headline in the data explains that drop, so it is described here without a cause. UnitedHealth rose 3.24% to $420.53 on Wednesday, while Oracle fell 2.66% to $140.50 and Intel slipped 2.07% to $93.55.

Several company stories dominated the headlines. According to MarketWatch, Vertiv's earnings sent an upbeat signal about AI ahead of Big Tech results. MarketWatch also reported that Micron's stock rose after SK Hynix earnings, and that ServiceNow's stock slid because an earnings miss clouded a raised AI outlook. The same outlet noted that U.S. oil-refinery stocks are up roughly 150% this year, and asked how long that run could last.

In crypto, bitcoin rose 0.42% to $80,964 in the past 24 hours, and Ethereum added 0.37% to $2,349.34. Litecoin led the gainers with a 3.47% rise to $58.66, and Chainlink climbed 2.59% to $11.74. The crypto Fear & Greed index stands at 51, which is labelled Neutral. Gold closed up 0.15% at $4,066.14 on Wednesday, and the Gold ETF closed down 1.55% at $367.79. WTI crude closed up 2.87% at $102.77 on Wednesday, and no headline in the data accounts for that move.

The rest of today's wrap

On inflation, US CPI rose to 3.74% in September 2026 from 3.4% previously, and core CPI reached 2.56% from 2.45%. UK CPI climbed to 3.5% from 3.1%. US M2 money supply stood at $23,413.9bn, up 5.71% year on year. The Fed funds effective rate is 3.88%, inside the 3.75–4.00% target range.

The 2-year Treasury yield is 4.7% and the 10-year is 4.99%, down from 5% previously. According to CNBC Economy, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was "not necessarily" a mistake if the Fed hikes again. The Bank of England Bank Rate is 3.75%.

Across the 54 trend scores tracked, 25 carry an Uptrend label, 16 sit at Sideways and 13 carry a Downtrend label. The Bank of England rate decision follows on 5 November, the US CPI release on 10 November and the UK CPI release on 18 November. The Federal Reserve rate decision is due on 9 December.

Written by AI (Claude, claude-haiku-5-5) from the market data on this site at the time shown, and checked against that data before publishing. Prices at the time of writing; they will have moved since. Educational only, not financial advice.

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