Trending stocks as Wall Street stumbles ahead of US elections

The final week before the US elections was the second straight week of losses for Wall Street, with the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) index slipping 1.8% for the week.

This was the first time since early August the index was in red for two straight weeks, and comes after five months of consecutive weekly gains. The market this week was impacted in part by the continued quarterly results season, including five of the Magnificent Seven companies.

A mixed bag of new economic data also came out this week, with the job openings in September at the lowest level since 2021 and October nonfarm payrolls and GDP growth estimates for Q3 that missed the consensus.

Market volatility picked up as the race to the US elections heated up, reflected by the S&P VIX Index (VIX) reaching its highest point in nearly three weeks. The fear and sentiment index advanced 12% to hit 22.78, a level not observed since October 8.

As the market braces itself for Election Day, these were the stocks trending during the week:

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) closed the week over 45% down and had its worst week on record after EY resigned as its auditor, raising concerns of alleged financial reporting and governance issues. The company has also extended the deadline to file its financial statements, which was due at the end of October, to December 31, 2024.

Microsoft (MSFT) was down nearly 5% following a disappointing Q1 report that offered soft Azure cloud revenue growth guidance, despite comfortably surpassing consensus estimates for the quarter.

Meta’s (META) declined 2.6% for the week after its results were also met with mixed reactions. The Q3 results beat on top and bottom lines, but AI-focused capex plans weighed on profits and this is expected to continue as the company pushes big on heavy technology spending.

Apple (AAPL) dropped 4.5% after it missed quarterly revenue consensus estimates in key market China and in its services segment. Analysts also pointed to a ‘conservative’ revenue outlook for the first quarter of its new fiscal year, although margins are expected to be strong on a higher mix of services.

Alphabet (GOOG)(GOOGL) was up around 1.3% delivered a comfortable top- and bottom-line beat, driven by a strong showing in subscriptions, platforms, devices and Google Cloud. Core search and advertising revenues also came in better than expected, despite competition from AI start-ups.

Amazon (AMZN) saw the most positive reaction and closed 4.4% higher, after the e-commerce and tech giant issued strong revenue guidance for the all-important holiday season quarter. The cloud business also met expectations with strong AWS sales.

Eli Lilly (LLY) declined 8.4% this week after it missed on both the top and bottom lines in its Q3 financial results and lowered its 2024 outlook, despite strong revenue growth in its GLP-1 tirzepatide franchise.

Intel (INTC) shares rose 2.3% during the week after the semiconductor giant reported Q3 results and guidance that were largely ahead of Wall Street estimates and showed that it is making progress on its cost reduction plan.

AMD (AMD) plunged more than 10% in the week despite stronger-than-expected Q3 results, weighed down by concerns about its Q4 guidance, particularly that its AI business won’t see the quarter to quarter momentum in 2025 that it has seen so far in 2024.

Boeing (BA) was in the news after it reached a deal with leaders of its machinists union, the third time the aviation giant has sought to end a strike that has halted most factory output. Workers are set to vote on Monday on the new proposal.