Stock Market Today: Nasdaq Hits New High Ahead of Alphabet Earnings

Stocks opened lower Tuesday as Wall Street sifted through the latest round of corporate earnings reports. Data showing cooling in the labor market also weighed on sentiment. However, the main benchmarks quickly came off their session lows, with two of the three climbing into positive territory by the close.

Starting with the earnings calendar, McDonald's (MCD, -0.6%) made headlines after the fast-food giant beat top- and bottom-line expectations for its third quarter, thanks in part to positive comparable-store sales in the United States.

This rise in domestic comparable-store sales is "one ray of light, albeit only just," says Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown. However, international sales struggled due to a dip in China, and the impact of the conflict in the Middle East more than offset strength in Latin America, he adds.

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Nathan also warns that the Dow Jones stock is at risk of "more volatility until the damage" from the E. coli outbreak in the U.S. "has been quantified."

PayPal sinks after top-line miss

PayPal Holdings (PYPL) stock was another post-earnings decliner, falling 4% after the payments giant topped earnings expectations but came up short of revenue estimates for its third quarter. The company also raised its full-year profit forecast.

While most of Wall Street remains bullish toward the financial stock, Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette has an Equal Weight (Hold) rating on PYPL. Faucette admits the company's lead in the fintech industry, operational improvements and stock buybacks can support earnings-per-share growth, but its strategic direction and investment priorities are among his concerns.

Pfizer drops after earnings, CVR Energy suspends dividends

In other earnings news, Pfizer (PFE) stock declined 1.4% as concern over an outsized boost from the company's Covid-19 treatments offset a beat-and-raise quarter.

"Investors don't have much faith in the long-term value of the company's Covid-19 business, and those results are unlikely to inspire much investor optimism," as Barron's explains.

Elsewhere, CVR Energy (CVI) crashed 24.2% after the renewable fuels and petroleum refiner reported a wider-than-expected loss and lower-than-anticipated revenue in its third quarter. The company also said it will suspend its Q3 dividend payment.

"The Board's decision to suspend the quarterly dividend reflects its concerns on just how long the current margin environment will persist in light of the company's large, planned turnaround at its Coffeyville refinery in Q1 2025," says UBS Global Research analyst Manav Gupta (Neutral, the equivalent of Hold).

Shareholder returns could remain at risk "if the downcycle continues for a long duration," the analyst adds.

As for the main indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4% to 42,233, while the S&P 500 added 0.2% to 5,832. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8% to 18,712, a new record closing high, ahead of a busy slate of mega-cap earnings. Alphabet (GOOGL, +1.8%) kicks things off when it reports its third-quarter results after tonight's close.

Job openings dry up, consumer confidence climbs

Looking at the economic calendar, the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning said job openings fell 5.3% from August to September to 7.4 million – the fewest since January 2021. Hires and separations ticked slightly higher to 5.6 million and 5.2 million, respectively.

"Decreasing or subdued job openings, quits and hiring rates last month all point to a cooler labor market compared to one year ago," says Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet. "Employers aren't bringing many folks on and workers aren't super eager to leave the comforts of their existing roles in the current environment."

Meanwhile, The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Survey increased to 108.7 in October from 99.2 in September.

"Consumer confidence recorded the strongest monthly gain since March 2021, but still did not break free of the narrow range that has prevailed over the past two years," says Dana M. Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, in a statement.

Indeed, "this morning's reading was strong," says Jordan Rizzuto, co-founder and chief investment officer at GammaRoad Capital Partners, though he cautions against "assigning too much weight to any single observation."

And based on his company's research, he "would expect the market environment to be characterized by higher volatility or intermittent spikes in volatility, like we saw in early August."

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