Market-moving news for Friday, October 30, 2026

What happened

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis claimed attacks on Thursday against several Saudi oil installations, including the kingdom's largest refinery at Ras Tanura, the Rabigh refinery, and an Aramco production facility in Abqaiq; a Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a cruise missile and ballistic missiles headed toward the kingdom, with debris injuring one civilian in Riyadh. Separately, a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by explosive devices attached by a small boat, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported Friday. The U.S. embassy in Riyadh ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia effective immediately, citing Houthi attacks on civilian airports and critical infrastructure.

What happened

Wall Street suffered its steepest losses since June on Friday as the AI-spend revolt escalated: the Nasdaq Composite dropped more than 3.8%, the S&P 500 fell 2.5%, and the Dow fell 770 points (-1.5%). Intel plunged more than 30% after weaker-than-expected Q4 guidance tied to a faltering PC market and manufacturing bottlenecks. Nvidia fell 5.6% and a chipmaker index sank 9% as investors questioned returns on Big Tech's AI splurge. More than $2 trillion in market value is set to be wiped from the Nasdaq 100 in October alone. By the close, Alphabet and Meta were in bear-market territory (down 20%+ from recent highs), while Amazon and Nvidia joined the correction club (down 10%+). The outlier was Tesla, up about 5% on the week and the only Mag 7 name plus Microsoft and Apple to avoid correction or bear-market status. Amazon's Q3 report — EPS of $1.89 vs $1.97 consensus, free-cash-flow negative with full-year capex running toward $220B — added fuel to the fire.

What happened

Three Federal Reserve presidents publicly called for higher interest rates on Friday, directly pushing back against Chair Kevin Warsh's more dovish outlook and cementing market expectations of a December hike. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan — a voting member of the FOMC this year — said Friday she would like to see two more quarter-percentage-point rate increases 'in the near future.' Their comments came just two days after the Fed voted 10-2 to hold rates at 3.75%-4.00%, and investors now see roughly a 73% chance of a hike at the December 8-9 meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The December meeting is the Fed's final gathering before a more dovish cohort of regional presidents rotates onto the rate-setting committee in January.

What happened

Ukrainian drones struck Rosneft's Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region before dawn on October 30, the first reported Ukrainian hit on a Russian refinery since October 15. The drone manufacturer Fire Point said its FP-1 drones scored several hits across the plant, including on a unit that hydrotreats diesel fuel; monitoring channels reported at least 11 separate fires, and Copernicus Sentinel satellite imagery showed smoke drifting from the site. A separate overnight strike hit the Konservsushprod food factory in Bryansk Oblast, which produces rations for Russian armed forces, and drone activity forced temporary closures of all four major Moscow airports. The plant, owned by Rosneft since 2007 with ~8.8 million tons of annual crude processing capacity, supplies military jet fuel.

What happened

The Wall Street Journal reported that the top American commander in the Middle East briefed President Trump on military options, sparking fears the U.S. could resume military strikes against Iran. The report, carried by Dow Jones Newswires on Oct 30 at 05:55 ET, hit amid an already risk-off session. Brent December contracts (expiring Oct 30) rose 1.6% to about $117.70 a barrel, with January delivery around $112.50, as investors priced fresh strike risk on top of the week's Hormuz tanker incidents.

What happened

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday at 8:30 AM ET that the Employment Cost Index rose 0.8% quarter-over-quarter in Q3 2026, matching the consensus forecast and easing from 0.9% in Q2. Wages and salaries increased 0.7% (down from 0.9% in Q2) while benefit costs rose 0.9% (down from 1.0%). On an annual basis, total compensation costs for civilian workers increased 3.4%, unchanged from the prior quarter, with wages up 3.1% and benefits up 3.9%. Inflation-adjusted wages and salaries declined 0.6% over the year, as nominal wage growth continues to trail consumer price increases. Within private industry, union compensation costs rose 4.3% y/y versus 3.3% for nonunion workers.

What happened

ExxonMobil and Chevron both beat analyst expectations for quarterly profit Friday, as soaring refining margins made their fuel-making businesses rival their upstream segments. Exxon reported Q3 adjusted EPS of $4.23 (topping the ~$4.12 consensus), net income more than doubled to $3.72/share, and revenue of $113.16B (+33% y/y) — also beating estimates. It raised the quarterly dividend to $1.07, repurchased aggressively (debt cut by $8B in Q3), and set a $20B 2027 buyback plan. Chevron earned $9.9B ($5.06/share GAAP; $5.28 adjusted) as revenue surged 36% to $67.8B, easily topping estimates. Both ran U.S. refineries near full rates (Exxon's Gulf Coast at 100%), profiting from margins inflated by the wars with Iran and Ukraine, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and refinery attacks in Saudi Arabia and Russia. Chevron's results include one month of Venezuelan production; it plans $7B of Venezuelan investment over five years and signed deals cutting Bakken midstream costs ~50%. Exxon pledged more refinery investment (Baytown, Texas) plus ~100K bbl/day of additional distillate capacity.

What happened

Hackers drained about $6.3 billion of crypto from Binance's transaction-processing wallets in roughly 20 minutes starting around 20:00 GMT Thursday, making it the biggest digital-asset theft in history — more than four times the previous record (Bybit, $1.5B). Binance initially blamed a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop; blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs says the attackers compromised Binance's signing infrastructure to authorize unauthorized withdrawals. TRM and Elliptic say the attack bears the hallmarks of North Korea's TraderTraitor unit, the same state-sponsored group the FBI blamed for the Bybit theft. Roughly half the stolen assets — about $3B — have been frozen by stablecoin issuers (Tether, Circle, Ripple, and World Liberty Financial); an estimated $2.4B in BTC and ETH is likely beyond reach. Binance has suspended all deposits and withdrawals, expects to resume them within 45-48 hours, and says customer funds are safe with losses covered by its $1B SAFU reserve. Bitcoin fell over 3-4% to a six-week low near $76,400 and ether slid to a two-month low near $2,180.

What happened

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan warned on the company's analyst call that the PC correction has 'accelerated over the last 2 months,' as OEM partners are 'aggressively managing inventory to match the softer sell-through.' Intel now projects PC shipments will decline 12% this year and 10% in 2027, with the slump persisting through at least the first half of 2027. In the overnight session after the call, HP Inc. (HPQ) fell 7.4% and Dell Technologies (DELL) fell 7.2% — the latter after closing 3.7% lower in the regular session — while Intel (INTC) tumbled over 23% overnight on its weak December-quarter guidance, flagged manufacturing bottlenecks, and heavy production-expansion spending. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits flipped to 'bearish' for both HPQ and DELL.

What happened

JPMorgan lowered its Alphabet price target from $425 to $375 while maintaining its Overweight rating (confirmed via Morningstar/MarketWatch and TradingView/Benzinga on Oct 29; analyst Doug Anmuth). A claimed Goldman Sachs cut from $435 to $385 (Buy maintained), reported by overnight CoinDesk coverage, could NOT be independently verified — the most recent verifiable Goldman note on Alphabet is dated July 23, 2026 ($440 to $435). The Goldman portion of this alert should be treated as unverified unless/until confirmed by a second source. JPMorgan lowered its Alphabet price target from $425 to $375, and Goldman Sachs reduced its 12-month target from $435 to $385 — an ~11.5% cut — while maintaining its Buy rating, per overnight CoinDesk market coverage. The cuts followed Thursday's record session in which Alphabet (GOOGL) closed down 12.64% with $39.4B in trading volume, its largest single-day decline since its 2004 IPO, erasing nearly $500B in market value — the second-largest single-day market-cap loss in U.S. history. Goldman noted Q3 search and related revenue of $63.35B came below its $64.2B expectation and the $64.9B consensus, and kept focus on the maintained $195-205B 2026 capex guide with a significant further increase flagged for 2027.