Short News

ServiceNow shares tumbled 25% on Thursday, on track for their biggest one-day loss ever, after third-quarter results gave investors little reason to stay optimistic. Revenue climbed more than 20% to $4.11 billion, roughly matching the $4.10 billion forecast. Adjusted earnings of $1.00 per share missed estimates of $1.02. The company nudged its full-year subscription revenue outlook up to between $15.78 billion and $15.79 billion, and new AI contract value rose 65%. That was not enough to calm worries that AI tools could undercut traditional software businesses. Investors were also uneasy that ServiceNow’s spending on a new team of engineers placed inside client companies has yet to pay off. Citi’s Tyler Radke said the lack of upside was unusual for ServiceNow.

Nvidia shares fell about 1% before Thursday’s open, trading near $213.83, after a report said the US Department of Justice is examining its proposed $12.9 billion deal for AI platform Hugging Face. The review reportedly centres on concerns that the deal could give Nvidia an unfair edge in artificial intelligence. Neither Nvidia nor the DOJ has commented on the report. Broader tech selling added pressure, with Nasdaq-100 futures down 1.22% and Alphabet sliding more than 10% after posting negative free cash flow. On the chart, NVDA needs to win back $216 to open a move toward $220. A drop below $210 would put the $205 to $208 zone in focus.

Oppenheimer has raised its price target on Palantir to $235 from $200 and kept an Outperform rating before the company reports third-quarter results on November 2. The firm expects Palantir to beat revenue forecasts again and lift its full-year outlook, with US commercial revenue growing more than 140% and government revenue up over 65%. Its checks with customers point to strong demand, though it flagged that deployments take effort and clients need to see new value at renewal. Rosenblatt recently raised its target to $260, and JPMorgan started coverage at Overweight. In the second quarter, US commercial revenue jumped 149% to $764 million and total revenue rose 92.8%. Palantir trades at about 156.6 times trailing earnings, against 22.6 times for the S&P 500, and options pricing implies an 11.65% swing after results.

US stock futures were mixed to lower on Thursday as investors reacted to a heavy round of corporate results. Nasdaq-100 futures fell 1%, S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2% and Dow futures traded near flat. Alphabet sank 10% in premarket trading after missing estimates for adjusted earnings and revenue and reporting negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion. Caterpillar dropped 9% as its construction business sales came in slightly below forecasts. Microsoft rose 2.6% after Azure cloud growth helped it beat expectations, though its lower capital spending weighed on neocloud stocks. Chipotle gained 7.6% after a third straight quarter of same-store sales growth. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4% and said it needs more data before acting again.

SpaceX is turning into one of the biggest suppliers of AI computing power. Anthropic’s IPO filing shows the Claude maker has agreed to spend up to $120.5 billion on capacity from SpaceXAI, the rocket company’s AI arm, under contracts running into 2029. Payments would reach about $3.1 billion a month once all capacity is in place, which Anthropic expects by December 2026. A separate Google contract could bring SpaceX roughly $30 billion through June 2029 for access to around 110,000 Nvidia GPUs. To meet that demand, SpaceX signed a $40 billion equipment lease on October 24, led by Apollo and Goldman Sachs, covering Nvidia’s Vera Rubin systems. Deliveries start in early 2027. SpaceX’s AI unit earned $7.56 billion in third-quarter revenue, up from $813 million a year earlier.

Alphabet shares fell about 10% before Thursday’s open, putting the Google owner on track for its biggest earnings-day loss since listing in 2004. A close down more than 9.77% would set that record. Investors reacted to a free cash outflow of $9.07 billion in the third quarter, far deeper than the $2.70 billion expected. Alphabet kept its full-year capital spending forecast at $195 billion to $205 billion. Search advertising, its main revenue source, grew 12% to $63.35 billion but fell short of estimates. Executives said ads in AI Mode earn less for now. Microsoft moved the other way, rising nearly 4%. Its capex of $45.2 billion came in below the $50.67 billion forecast, and free cash flow stayed positive at $18.63 billion despite a 27% fall.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) shares recovered in early trading on Thursday, October 29, after falling on Wednesday amid weakness in Indian IT stocks. TCS declined around 2% to close at ₹2,460 on Wednesday, while the Nifty IT index fell more than 3%. Selling followed renewed concerns about artificial intelligence disruption, profit booking in IT shares and uncertainty ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision. Rising crude oil prices and concerns over foreign investor outflows also weighed on market sentiment. On Thursday, IT stocks gained around 0.5% in early trade after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged.