Wall Street Splits as Oil Tumbles and Apple Earnings Approach

U.S. stocks split in afternoon trading on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average holding a strong gain, the S&P 500 keeping a small rise and the Nasdaq Composite giving back much of its advance. Oil prices tumbled, and investors waited for Apple earnings after the closing bell.

As of 12:50 p.m. Eastern, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent, the Dow was up 1.0 percent, or 494 points, and the Nasdaq was up 0.4 percent, according to AP. The figures are intraday readings, and the 4 p.m. close will settle them.

Stocks opened higher across the board. As of 9:42 a.m., the Dow was up 407 points, the S&P 500 was up 0.48 percent and the Nasdaq was up 0.69 percent. Semiconductor shares then pulled back and trimmed the technology advance. In a late-morning snapshot, a semiconductor exchange-traded fund was down 1.6 percent, and energy shares fell with oil prices.

The drop in oil was the session's biggest driver. Brent crude was down 7.5 percent at $104.92 a barrel as of 12:50 p.m. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6.4 percent to $97.41, below $100. Brent traded in a range of $105.86 to $112.41 during the session, a spread of more than $6.

Diplomacy drove the decline. Talks between Iranian and Qatari mediators entered a third day, raising hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. OPEC+ held its December production targets unchanged at a meeting on Sunday. Goldman Sachs raised its December Brent forecast to $105 a barrel from $90, according to reporting on Monday.

Manufacturing data also helped. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 55.5 in October from 54.5 in September, above the 54.7 forecast. Its prices index fell to 75.2 from 77.9 but remained elevated. Sixteen manufacturing industries reported higher raw-material prices, and none reported decreases.

Friday was the worst session since June. The Dow fell 1.09 percent to 51,770.31, the S&P 500 fell 1.82 percent to 7,580.07 and the Nasdaq fell 2.86 percent to 25,437.00. Intel fell 28.6 percent, Reddit fell 29.2 percent and AMD fell 10.9 percent. The Nasdaq lost almost 7 percent in October, its worst month since the tariff rout of April 2025.

Apple reports quarterly results after the close. Analysts expect earnings of about $2 a share on revenue of $113 billion, up from $1.85 a share a year earlier. It is the first earnings call for John Ternus, the new chief executive. Demand for the iPhone 18 lineup, memory-chip costs and artificial intelligence commentary are the points to watch. Apple has passed Nvidia as the world's most valuable listed company. Palantir and Vertex Pharmaceuticals also report after the close.

The week still holds the midterm elections on Tuesday, a services-sector reading on Wednesday and the jobs report on Friday. The median forecast for the jobs report is a gain of 65,000 jobs, with unemployment holding at 4.2 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield stood near 4.93 percent.

Trading ends at 4 p.m. Eastern, and the closing levels will determine how much of Monday's advance survives the afternoon.