Dow Drops 1% as Oil Climbs; S&P 500 and Nasdaq Touch Five-Week Lows

U.S. stocks were mostly lower on Friday, October 23, 2026, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 1% as crude oil held near a more-than-five-month high, a day after a sharp selloff in artificial intelligence-linked shares. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite touched their lowest levels in five weeks during the morning, Reuters reported.

Where the indexes stood

At 9:53 a.m. Eastern time, the Dow was down 535.54 points, or 1.01%, at 52,332.44. The S&P 500 had lost 29.14 points, or 0.38%, to 7,634.09, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 23.61 points, or 0.08%, at 25,986.76, according to Reuters. By around midday, the Dow was down 1.1% and the S&P 500 0.2%, while the Nasdaq had edged 0.1% higher as chipmakers Nvidia and AMD recovered part of Thursday's losses, Yahoo Finance reported. The 10-year Treasury yield held below 5%.

For the week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track for losses, while the Dow remained higher, supported by gains in defensive sectors, according to Reuters. Nine of the S&P 500's 11 sectors declined in the morning. The energy index rose to a record high, tracking oil prices, and the real estate index gained 0.8%. The communication services index fell 1% as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile dropped between 3% and 4.7% on a report that SpaceX is in talks to secure access to cell tower sites for a wireless network.

Market breadth was negative. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.4-to-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange and by 2.03-to-1 on the Nasdaq. The Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 190 new lows.

Earnings movers

Comfort Systems was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500, down 10.1%, even though its third-quarter revenue and profit beat estimates, Reuters reported. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractor's margins came in below expectations, while its backlog rose 90% from a year earlier, CNBC reported. Bloom Energy fell 11.3% even after raising its full-year forecast; the fuel-cell maker reported negative cash flow of about $180 million for the quarter, according to Investing.com. Oilfield services company SLB rose 2.4% after third-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates.

Several other companies moved on results before the opening bell, according to an Investing.com roundup. American Express fell 2.5% in premarket trading despite raising its 2026 earnings forecast to $18.30 to $18.60 per share from $17.30 to $17.90, after third-quarter revenue rose 9% to $20.1 billion and billed business increased 8% to $454 billion. Robert Half jumped 10.1% after adjusted earnings of $0.49 per share topped the $0.47 consensus, and RingCentral climbed 15.5% after raising its full-year outlook. Autoliv fell 6.3% after adjusted earnings of $2.19 per share and sales of $2.693 billion missed estimates.

Economic data

S&P Global's preliminary October survey showed U.S. manufacturing activity at 56.0, up from 55.9 in September and the highest in 53 months, while the services index was 57.9 and the composite index eased to 57.6 from 58.4, FXStreet reported. Readings above 50 indicate expansion.

The University of Michigan's final October consumer sentiment index was 48.0, compared with 48.1 in September and 53.6 a year earlier, the university said. About 69% of consumers expect interest rates to rise in the year ahead, the highest share since April 2023, and 85% said it is a bad time to buy a house.

Background and week ahead

On Thursday, the Nasdaq fell nearly 3% as investors reassessed spending on artificial intelligence. "This is the short term where the selloff is extreme, and I don't think there are fundamental reasons for it," Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, told Reuters.

Analysts now expect S&P 500 companies to report third-quarter profit growth of 32.3%, up from a forecast of 30.7% previously, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon are scheduled to report next week, and markets expect the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting next week, according to the CME FedWatch tool.