What moved
The S&P 500 rose 0.36% to 7,568.92 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.83% to 25,372.01. The Dow slipped 0.38% to 51,786.72, held back by Apple. The Nasdaq is still 8.48% below its 52-week high, so this was a bounce within a correction, not a recovery.
The bigger move came in Asia. Taiwan's benchmark ended down 4.21% and the Kospi down 1.43%, as chipmakers sold off after Monday's slide on Wall Street. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.99% and Shanghai 0.25%. Tokyo was closed for a holiday; the Nikkei's last close, from Monday, was 0.33% lower. Europe ended in the red. The FTSE 100 lost 1.14%, its weakness concentrated late in the session, while the DAX fell 0.45%, the CAC 40 0.34% and the Euro Stoxx 50 0.51%.
Why
Asia's slump was the overnight reaction to Monday's chip sell-off in the US, where worries about the scale of AI infrastructure spending and the debt behind it have been eroding chip valuations for weeks. Asian time zones absorbed that hit before the US rebound began. By the time New York opened, chips were recovering: Nvidia, Broadcom, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta all gained, and Nvidia did the most to lift the S&P 500. No single catalyst stands out. The bounce looks like a partial reversal of a steep slide, helped by positioning ahead of AMD's results.
Apple was the main drag. It beat earnings estimates but guided to a fourth-quarter gross margin of 45–46%, blaming a global shortage of memory chips that AI data-centre demand has made more expensive. Because the Dow weights stocks by share price, a high-priced loser like Apple pulls on it harder than on the S&P.
US job openings for September came in above the roughly 7.1 million economists expected. A tight labour market makes it harder for the Fed to ease, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose 5.8 basis points to 4.952%. Reports of a US strike on Iran's Qeshm Island pushed oil around: Brent traded between about $102 and $107 and is at $104.37, down 0.38%. Copper fell 2.08%, which with weaker gold weighed on London's miners.
Sentiment & risk appetite
The index gains hide a weak tape. On PrimerIQ's count, 3,238 US stocks fell and 2,757 rose, an advance/decline ratio of 0.85 on a day the S&P gained. Sectors split widely: technology (XLK) rose 1.31% while consumer staples (XLP) fell 2.07% and materials (XLB) 2.01%. Our Asian breadth was worse, with a ratio of 0.47 and a median technology move of -4.32%. The VIX eased 0.32 to 20.83 but is still 23% higher over five days. The MOVE index of bond-market volatility sits near 100. The safe-haven trades did not rally: gold fell 0.79% to $3,938.10, the dollar index edged up 0.11%, and the yen weakened to 158.71 per dollar.
Economic calendar
September JOLTS (job openings) beat forecasts, with employers advertising more vacancies than expected, and pushed yields up across the curve. The 5-year rose 5.0 basis points and the 30-year 5.5 basis points to 5.324%. Separately, Australia's central bank raised its policy rate again, its fifth increase this year.
Tonight's catalyst is political: US midterm results will come in through the evening and overnight. Historically Wall Street has tended to prefer split control of Washington. Wednesday brings the ISM services survey and ADP private payrolls, and October non-farm payrolls follow on Friday.
Earnings
AMD beat after the close: third-quarter revenue of $13.38bn against $13.06bn expected, data-centre sales nearly doubled, and fourth-quarter revenue guidance of about $17bn, well above the roughly $16.23bn consensus. The shares rose more than 7% after hours. Earlier in the day, Pfizer beat earnings forecasts and raised its 2026 guidance. Sysco fell 9.33% on in-line earnings, and Stevanato dropped 28.57% after warning that weaker GLP-1 volumes will slow its growth in 2027.