Trying to move beyond the nonsense

Briefing.com Summary:

*Tesla and IBM have taken a lower turn following their earnings reports.

*Oil prices have moved higher in the wake of sanctions for Rosneft and Lukoil.

*Mega-cap stocks continue to trade in a timid manner.

Yesterday’s session was an interesting one for a variety of reasons.

• Netflix (NFLX) never attracted any meaningful buy-the-dip interest despite a pretty decent earnings report, absent the Brazilian tax issue.
• Beyond Meat (BYND) gained as much as 112% intraday and lost as much as 28% before finishing down 1.1% on trading volume that exceeded 2.2 billion shares.
• Reuters reported that the U.S. is considering software export curbs on China in response to its rare earth export controls, ratcheting up the trade tension between the two countries. Sidenote: President Trump will make an announcement today at 3:00 p.m. ET, but the topic is unknown.

We begin today’s column with that summation, because yesterday’s issues may be an issue for the stock market today. The price action in Netflix and Beyond Meat was halting, as it forced participants to contemplate matters such as valuation and speculation, both of which had gotten stretched. The move in Beyond Meat, frankly, was beyond nonsense.

Netflix, interestingly, closed a smidge above its 200-day moving average (1114.33), so it will be interesting to see if it finds some technical support there or keeps falling. It is up a mere 0.2% in pre-market trading after losing 10.1% yesterday.

Today has its share of high-profile losers after their earnings reports. Tesla (TSLA) is down 3.7%; IBM (IBM) is down 7.8%; Lam Research (LRCX) is down 3.4%; Roper (ROP) is down 6.7%; and Molina Healthcare (MOH) is down 18%.

To be fair, there are some big winners, too. Dow component Honeywell (HON) is up 4.1%; Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is up 6.3%; American Airlines (AAL) is up 5.0%; and Dow, Inc. (DOW) is up 7.6%.

There are many other movers, like the quantum stocks, which are rallying on reports that the Trump administration is looking at possibly taking stakes in these companies. The eyebrow-raising element today is that there isn’t a buy-the-dip inclination coming off yesterday’s setback.

Currently, the S&P 500 futures are down two points and are trading in line with fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 34 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 67 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value.

There is some geopolitical intrigue wrapped up in those indications. The Treasury Department announced sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, and the EU also announced a new sanctions package for Russia.

WTI crude futures are up nearly 5.0% to $61.36 per barrel following these moves. The bump in oil prices, which works against the disinflation narrative, has helped push Treasury yields higher. The 2-yr note yield is up three basis points to 3.47%, and the 10-yr note yield is up three basis points to 3.98%.

These aren’t big moves, but it is the direction more so than the scope ahead of tomorrow’s release of the September Consumer Price Index that has created a headwind for stocks.

The ultimate headwind, though, is a general lack of sponsorship from the mega-cap class. Other than Tesla, they aren’t up or down much, yet that is the point. They aren’t leading like they used to in front of earnings reports next week from many of them, yet the treatment Netflix got yesterday and the treatment Tesla is receiving so far today have exposed some of the challenges of being priced for perfection.

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Originally Posted October 23, 2025 – Trying to move beyond the nonsense