US open: Stocks higher on easing China tensions, upbeat Q3 results
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Tuesday 28 Oct 2025
(Sharecast News) - Major indices opened higher on Tuesday as market participants digested some solid quarterly earnings reports at the bell.
As of 1430 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.42% at 47,742.89, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.09% to 6,881.24, and the Nasdaq Composite came out of the gate 0.33% firmer at 23,715.23.
The Dow opened 198.30 points higher on Tuesday, extending gains recorded in the previous session as investors cheered easing tensions between the US and China ahead Donald Trump's highly-anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Tuesday marks the start of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, with markets widely expecting the central bank to make its second rate cut this year. Investors will also look for guidance from Fed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday regarding a potential third cut in December, amid concerns over a weakening labour market.
The Federal Reserve will be operating under a partial economic data blackout due to the ongoing US government shutdown, heightening the importance of recent inflation and employment indicators.
Attention will also turn to a wave of earnings due out on Wednesday and Thursday from number of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" companies, with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft all set to report before the week is out.
So far, the third-quarter earnings season has delivered a solid start, with investors watching closely for updates from the tech giants as macro uncertainty continues to weigh on sentiment.
In terms of Tuesday's earnings, PayPal surged on Tuesday as it upgraded full-year guidance and announced a payments wallet deal with OpenAI's ChatGPT, while United Parcel Service beat Wall Street expectations for third-quarter earnings and revenue on Tuesday, and guided above consensus for the fourth quarter as it looked to offset softer B2B demand with price increases, and UnitedHealth beat earnings expectations, posting adjusted earnings per share of $2.92 against a consensus of $2.82.
Still to come, Visa, Booking Holdings, Electronic Arts and Logitech will publish their latest quarterly earnings after the close.
Elsewhere in the corporate space, eRetail giant Amazon was reportedly preparing to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs this week in what would mark the largest round of layoffs in the company's history, according to multiple media reports.
On the macro front, US private sector employers added an average of 14,250 jobs per week over the four weeks ended 11 October, according to preliminary data released by ADP on Tuesday, marking a sharp reversal from September's negative print. ADP's latest reading implies monthly job growth of around 55,000, compared with a 32,000 decline reported in September's NER. However, the preliminary figure will be revised when the next NER is released.
On another note, US house prices rose 0.4% month-on-month in August, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or 2.3% on a year-on-year basis, while S&P Case-Shiller's national home price NSA posted a 1.5% annualised gain for August, down from 1.6% in July.
Still on data, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index inched down by one point in October to 94.6 from an upwardly revised 95.6 in September, with the present situation index ticking up 1.8 points to 129.3, offset somewhat by the expectations index, which declined by 2.9 points to 71.5. Expectations have been below 80, which typically signals a recession, since February 2025.
Finally, the Richmond Federal Reserve's manufacturing index rose by 13 points month-on-month to -4 in October, contrasting with expectations of -14 to reflect the softest magnitude of pessimism in the Fifth District's factory activity since March.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
Dow Jones - Risers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $40.81 3.20%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $547.29 2.97%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $307.06 0.96%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $70.47 0.59%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $793.73 0.47%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $256.45 0.38%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $386.15 0.23%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $155.46 0.12%
Boeing Co. (BA) $223.18 0.08%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $71.42 0.04%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $25.00 -2.82%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $187.90 -1.26%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $67.77 -1.20%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $87.09 -1.03%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $523.14 -0.75%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $289.14 -0.69%
3M Co. (MMM) $167.36 -0.62%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $103.95 -0.50%
American Express Co. (AXP) $360.15 -0.42%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $308.81 -0.38%
S&P 500 - Risers
Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG) $10.40 13.29%
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $85.15 12.28%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $78.19 11.30%
Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO) $102.06 10.78%
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) $96.03 7.63%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $628.61 7.40%
Sherwin-Williams Co. (SHW) $359.80 7.06%
Nucor Corp. (NUE) $152.55 5.82%
National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) $14.63 4.87%
Msci Inc. (MSCI) $569.28 4.10%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (ARE) $65.94 -15.31%
VF Corp. (VFC) $15.05 -9.42%
Everest Group (EG) $311.74 -9.37%
Royal Caribbean Cr (RCL) $292.95 -8.53%
F5 Inc. (FFIV) $267.29 -7.96%
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) $253.82 -7.92%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $85.92 -7.70%
Crown Castle International (CCI) $92.11 -5.62%
Celanese Corp. (CE) $41.46 -5.44%
Corning Inc. (GLW) $84.66 -5.27%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $85.15 12.28%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $78.19 11.30%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $628.61 7.40%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $205.76 7.32%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $40.81 3.20%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $547.29 2.97%
Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (BMRN) $53.85 2.23%
Qvc Group Inc Series A (QVCGA) $10.65 2.11%
Tesla Inc (TSLA) $461.81 2.08%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $1,114.48 1.82%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $85.92 -7.70%
Cadence Design Systems Inc. (CDNS) $335.78 -4.44%
Synopsys Inc. (SNPS) $446.22 -4.12%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $12.96 -3.36%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $182.04 -3.01%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $223.59 -2.92%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $123.03 -2.87%
Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) $63.35 -1.86%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $126.27 -1.86%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $133.40 -1.66%
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