What are today's top business/market headlines?

Here's a roundup of today's top business and market headlines (October 21, 2026):

Markets Overview
Asian shares and US equity futures rose as strong earnings from some of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom revived optimism over the tech trade, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbing 0.6% and shares gaining in South Korea and Japan. The Kospi Index rose 1.9%, rebounding after one of the country's worst IPO debuts on record.

Tuesday's close in the US showed mixed results: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.02% to 52,495.88 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.28% to 7,712.57 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.02% to 26,424.82. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.65% to 2,773.42 points, and the VIX dropped 6.13%, closing at 17.31.

Earnings Season Heats Up
Big Tech earnings are in focus today — the first of the "Magnificent Seven" reports earnings, with Tesla and Meta Platforms both set to report Q3 2026 results on Wednesday. For Tesla, automotive margins and guidance around electric vehicle demand will shape how investors think about appetite for big ticket purchases at current loan rates. For Meta, advertising revenue and any comments on AI-related spending will influence sentiment on digital ad budgets.

Big Corporate News

Sector Moves
Of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, nine advanced — healthcare rose approximately 2.3%, real estate climbed about 1.7%, and utilities and financials each gained more than 1%, while communication services declined 0.89% and information technology fell roughly 0.3%. Within the Magnificent Seven, five declined and two gained — Meta fell 1.59%, Alphabet Class C dropped 1.11%, Apple declined 1%, Microsoft fell 0.31%, and Nvidia dropped 0.29%, while Tesla rose 1.54% and Amazon edged up 0.07%.

Semiconductors/AI Hardware
Western Digital surged as chip stocks rebounded, supported by easing yields and renewed interest in AI hardware. Meanwhile, in the broader semiconductor space, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 0.29%, with Lam Research dropping 3.21% and ARM falling 3.07%, while TSMC rose 1.21% and Qualcomm gained 1.26%.

Amazon/AWS
Amazon.com is in focus after two new AWS-related moves, including TorchNeuron, a tool for running PyTorch models on Amazon's Trainium chips that targets Nvidia's CUDA advantage.

Looking Ahead
Markets are also awaiting earnings from SpaceX and Netflix, and separately, a new AI bond ETF just launched on Wall Street, South Korea's Elice saw its stock sink 32% on its trading debut amid AI jitters, and Meta's Muse AI agent hit 10.9 million downloads.