Mid-Morning Look: November 04, 2026

Mid-Morning Look

Wednesday, November 04, 2026

U.S. stocks surging in an absolute wild string of events in the last 12 hours, with massive gains in some of the biggest tech companies of the world (AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT) propelling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, along with huge gains in consumer staples (XLP), Healthcare (XLV), REITs (XLRE) and Materials (XLB), while Energy (XLE) tumbles as markets react to the Midterm Election results. Oil prices are now down -12% over the last 4 days! Midterm elections having profound impacts on Wall Street today as Democrats are projected to take control of both the House and the Senate, flipping seven Senate Seats (including TX and OH) and five governorships (TX, GA, Nv, OH and IA). This was not entirely a surprise as we have now seen six midterms in a row now with a change in power in Congress and you have to go all the way back to 2002 the last time things stayed the same. But the magnitude in which they did it and taking predominant “red” states and turning them “blue” as did in some races in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas is noteworthy. The biggest focus for Wall Street today was the governor and Senate seat in Texas going “Blue” and with data Centers a Central theme in several of these campaigns, we are seeing a broad sell off in Ai related names (semis, power stocks, infrastructure and data centers), though the rest of the S&P 500 sectors (outside of energy) is seeing broad strength today. Precious metals and gold miners rise with spot gold surging around 3%, bolstered by a weaker US dollar after Democrats seize control of both the Senate and House in US midterm elections. Bond markets rise as well.

• S&P Global October final services PMI at 56.1 and S&P Global October final composite PMI at 55.9.
• ISM report on U.S. non-manufacturing sector shows PMI 54.5 in October (consensus 54.8) vs 54.9 in September; business activity index 53.8 in October vs 56.5 in September; ISM non-manufacturing new orders index 55.9 in October vs 59.8 in September; employment index 51.4 in October vs 50.1 in September and prices paid index 73.0 in October vs 74.0 in September.
• U.S. Sept trade deficit $105.0B (consensus $108.0B) vs Aug deficit $105.7B (prev $105.6B); U.S. Sept goods deficit $135.91B, services surplus $30.87B. Sept exports +1.9% vs Aug +1.6%, imports +1.2% vs Aug +4.4%. Sept exports $321.51B vs Aug $315.67B, imports $426.56B vs Aug $421.40B.

• Auto sector: Ford (F) total U.S. vehicles sales 174,123 units in October, and total U.S. electrified vehicles sales 15,173 units in October, down 31.7%. In auto dealers: AN and GPI were downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and to underweight from Neutral respectively at JP Morgan saying expects unfavorable estimate revisions in the near-to-medium term for Group 1 amid a challenging parts and service backdrop. Auto parts, MOD shares fell as reported Q2 EPS below consensus on better revs, but shares fall as Keybanc noted while topline and order strength is well appreciated and continues unabated, Modine continues to struggle with multiple headwinds on margin.
• Health insurers, hospitals rally after sweeping midterm win for Democrats. Shares of Medicaid names CNC, MOH and hospitals HCA, THC, UHS rose as Democrats’ sweep of the Senate and House of Representatives in the midterm elections fueled hopes of sector-friendly policy changes. Analysts said the Democratic win could delay implementation of Parts of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) that are expected to reduce Medicaid enrollment and constrain certain State Healthcare payments, easing pressure on Medicaid and Affordable Care Act insurers and hospital operators.
• E&C sector: among the hardest hit sectors today from the midterm elections was power infrastruture names with PWR, MTZ, CAT, ETN, GEV, VRT and others tumbling on data center buildout concerns. In earnings, PRIM Q3 revenue and backlog were in line, EBITDA of $134M was higher than consensus on better margins while guidance range narrowed for EBITDA, but midpoint stayed at $300M despite Q3 beat. Data centers the other heavily impacted sector on the Texas governor and Senate wins by Democrats, with CIFR, CLSK, HUT, IREN down the most.

• AMZN +7%; along with strong gains in other hyperscalers MSFT, GOOGL, META while the data center names fall on potential slowdown of building due to midterm election results. Note slowing the buildout could actually be very good for the stocks of well-entrenched companies.
• ANET +10%; rises as Q3 revenue, operating margin, and EPS all beat, and fourth-quarter guidance was also well above consensus. Fervent demand for networking switches. Arista is also pushing into “scale-up” networking within server rack.
• BKNG +8%; Q326 results beat expectations and came in at the high end of guidance, as resilient travel demand offset some moderation late in the period; Gross Bookings/Adj. Revenue/Adj. EBITDA were 4%/3%/3% ahead of consensus.
• HELE +20%; as Empower brands announces proposal to acquire Helen of Troy Ltd. for $37.00 per share in cash; proposal values Helen of Troy at $1.60B enterprise value,
• MMM +7%; as announced it would commit nearly $7.35B over nine years to settle PFAS “forever chemicals”-related personal-injury claims saying the settlement addresses about 99% of current personal-injury claims inside and outside the AFFF multi-district litigation.
• QCOM +4%; and SPCX announced a collaboration that will see the chipmaker power Starlink Mobile’s nationwide terrestrial 5G network in the U.S. Qualcomm will provide its Dragonwing QRU100 radio units, Dragonwing QDU100 baseband units, and Layer 1
• XYZ +15%; after raising its full-year gross profit outlook to $12.63B from $12.51B view prior and forecast 2027 gross profit of $14.52B; follows better Q3 results as adj operating income rose to $923M from $480M y/y and above consensus.

• DDOG -10%; good results/mixed guide as Q3 beat but flat sequential growth. Datadog posted Q3 revenue of $1.197B, up 35% Y/y and ahead of the ~$1.146B Street estimate; raised year guidance but Q4 revenue outlook of $1.19B-$1.20B landed roughly in line with the $1.202B estimate.
• FIS -21%; shares tumble as Q3 EPS/revs narrowly beat estimates but lowered FY26 adj EPS of $5.82-$5.89, implying 1.2%-2.4% growth, vs prior forecast of 7%-8.5% growth and cuts FY pro forma revenue growth forecast to 3.1%-3.6% from 4.5%-5.0% and lowers FY pro forma adjusted EBITDA growth forecast to 2.9%-3.6% from 5.9%-6.9%; also announces CFO to step down.
• GEO -3%; Prison REITs CXW, GEO shares declined on mid-term election results; The two stocks have rallied sharply since Trump won the presidency two years ago, as his clampdown on illegal immigration boosted the need for detention facilities.
• MOD -21%; reported Q2 adj EPS below consensus on better revs but shares fall as Keybanc noted while topline and order strength is well appreciated and continues unabated, Modine continues to struggle with multiple headwinds on margin.
• NRIX -41%; after SNY announced it has discontinued development of SAR448272, an oral STAT6 degrader. Sanofi recently initiated the Phase I study of SAR448272, triggering a $10M milestone payment to Nurix in August. Nurix did not disclose the rationale for the discontinuation
• SWKS -7%; posted solid FQ4 results, but shares fell as guided FQ1 (Dec) below. Much of the weakness, particularly in the guidance, was attributed to QRVO’s ACG revs related to Samsung smartphones in the China market.