I'll pull today's top business and market headlines for you.
Today's Top Business / Market Headlines - Monday, October 26, 2026
US Market Recap & Futures:
•Stocks closed lower Friday - the S&P 500 fell 0.52% to close at 7,623.68 points; the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.21% to close at 25,955.34 points; the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.23% to close at 52,215.16 points. The Dow dropped 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to 52,215.16
•Looking to today, On Wall Street, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both edged up 0.2%. In Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 0.2%, while DAX futures gained 0.1%
Global Markets - Cautious Start:
•Share markets got off to a cautious start on Monday as oil eased from six-month highs ahead of a week packed with central bank meetings and company earnings that will further test investor confidence in the AI boom
•In Asia: Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.8%, after losing 4.0% last week, while South Korea fell 0.4%, having shed almost 19% so far this month. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1%
•Australia: The S&P/ASX 200 is down 59 points or 0.7%, as the sectors that benefited from the recent rush into defensives pull back sharply - Banks trading broadly lower while Materials bounced 1.34% after 4-day skid
Oil & Commodities:
•Brent oil slipped 1.0% to $115.48 amid reports Qatari mediators were in Tehran on Sunday as part of an effort to de-escalate regional tensions
•Brent futures jumped 6.2% last week to their highest weekly close since mid-2022 as Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concerns over energy supplies
•Gold was a fraction firmer at $4,001 an ounce, having fallen more than 4% last week
Big Theme This Week: Hyperscalers Test AI Hype
•Earnings highlights will include the hyperscalers Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, among one-third of S&P 500 companies reporting. Results from Intel and Sandisk also could influence the AI trade
•Consensus on Microsoft is for $90.6 billion of revenue and an adjusted EPS of $4.73, with Amazon at $202 billion of revenue and EPS around $1.97. Alphabet revenue is seen at $128 billion and EPS of $3.00
•Today kicks off with Verizon Communications VZ reporting third-quarter 2026 earnings on Monday, October 26, 2026
Central Banks in Focus:
•Markets assume the US Federal Reserve will stand pat, but imply an 80% chance it will pull the trigger in December. Much the same is priced in for the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank
•"The Fed is set to skip raising rates at its October meeting but is likely to deliver a second hike in December," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note
Other Top Business Stories:
•Brazil Shock: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won a record fourth term as Brazil's president, a blow to investors who had bet on rival Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula won 51.76% of the vote to Bolsonaro's 48.24%. An ETF tracking Brazilian stocks tanked 13% in Japanese trade after the result
•SK Hynix Bucks AI Selloff: SK Hynix shares rose as much as 3% in Seoul on a report that it will hand most of its Kioxia windfall back to shareholders - The special dividend of about 16 trillion won (US$12bn) would distribute the bulk of the 20 trillion won gain booked on its Kioxia stake - Rival Samsung Electronics fell 1.9%, while Kioxia dropped 3.7%