Stocks slip after latest raft of earnings; Netflix drops: Live updates

The three major averages finished solidly in negative territory on Wednesday.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 334.33 points, or 0.71%, to end the day at 46,590.41. The broad market S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.53% and 0.93%, closing at 6,699.40 and 22,740.40, respectively.

— Sean Conlon

A Fanuc robotic arm moves bins of products during a media tour of the Amazon.com Inc. DAB2 fulfillment center in Daytona Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon’s robotics ambitions can lead to multibillion-dollar cost cuts for the company, according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Brian Nowak estimated that the company’s plans to add about 40 next-generation robotics warehouses by the end of 2027 could translate to between $2 billion and $4 billion of annual recurring savings for the company by 2027.

“Near-term we expect AWS growth to matter most for AMZN shares,” Nowak wrote in a Wednesday note to clients. “However, we continue to believe the market is under-appreciating AMZN’s GenAI advances in its Retail business with robotics-driven efficiencies.”

Amazon stock performance over the past year.

The analyst maintained his overweight rating and $300 price target on Amazon stock, which suggests it can jump roughly 35% from its latest closing price. To be sure, Morgan Stanley’s cost savings estimate could end up being on the softer end of Amazon’s own far-reaching goals. Read more here.

— Pia Singh

Small-cap stocks felt the brunt of Wednesday’s market decline.

The small cap-focused Russell 2000 tumbled 2% in the session. By comparison, the broad S&P 500 fell just under 1%.

Russell 2000 vs. S&P 500, 1-day

Small caps have underperformed this year, with the Russell 2000 gaining 9% compared with the S&P 500’s 13.5% advance.

— Alex Harring

Wednesday’s sell-off dragged the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite into the red on the month.

Both indexes fell around 1% in the session. With those declines, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively, for October.

The S&P 500, 1-month

The Dow fell almost 1% in the session, but was still on track to end the month up 0.4%.

— Alex Harring

On Wednesday, eight stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week highs.

Tickers that hit this milestone included:

• Warner Bros. Discovery trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• American Express trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in May 1977
• Cencora trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in April 1995
• HCA trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in March 2011
• Howmet Aerospace trading at all-time highs back to its Alcoa spinoff in November 2016
• 3M trading at levels not seen since August 2021
• Amphenol trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in 1991
• TE Connectivity trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in 2007

Just two stocks in the index traded at new 52-week lows:

• Charter Communications trading at lows not seen since April 2024
• LyondellBasell trading at lows not seen since April 2020

— Christopher Hayes, Lisa Kailai Han

The Trump administration is considering putting curbs on exports to China that are made with U.S. software, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a U.S. official and three people briefed by U.S. authorities.

Such restrictions would be placed on items ranging from laptops to jet engines and would serve as a way to push back on China’s rare earth export restrictions, according to the sources.

The sources said that the plan might not move forward, however, and that it’s not the only option that’s being discussed.

— Sean Conlon

Goldman Sachs remains bullish on GE Aerospace after the company’s latest earnings results, reiterating its buy rating on Tuesday.

The aerospace company reported better-than-expected third-quarter revenue on Tuesday. It also raised its full-year guidance across the board.

“While there are market debates about the relative performance of aftermarket versus OE [original equipment] as the air framers work to improve new aircraft deliveries, we think GE remains positioned to execute above investor expectations in both markets going forward, given its substantial commercial aircraft engine market share,” Goldman analyst Noah Poponak wrote in a note to clients.

His price target of $321 suggests 4.7% upside from Tuesday’s close. Shares have gained 77% year to date.

— Michelle Fox

Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

• Vicor — The maker of modular power components soared 25% after third-quarter earnings per share more than doubled the Wall Street consensus. 
• Travel + Leisure — Shares rose nearly 12% after the travel publication reported strong results for the fiscal third quarter. The company earned $1.80 per share, excluding items, beating a FactSet estimate of $1.73 per share.
• Texas Instruments — The chipmaker dropped more than 5% on disappointing earnings and weak quarterly guidance. The company earned $1.48 per share, missing an LSEG estimate of $1.49 per share. Fourth-quarter profit guidance came in a range of $1.13-$1.39 per share, below the consensus of $1.41 per share.

Read more here.

— Fred Imbert

Gold prices fell for a second day on Wednesday, as investors took profits after a weeks-long rally.

Gold futures were down $47.10, or 1.15%, to $4,062.00 per ounce by 11:22 a.m. ET. Gold mining stocks such as Newmont and Barrick fell more than 1% and more than 2%, respectively. Read more.

Gold futures, 1-day

A sign is posted in front of a Hewlett-Packard (HP) office on May 29, 2024 in Palo Alto, California.

Justin Sullivan  | Getty Images

JPMorgan moved to the sidelines on HP.

Analyst Samik downgraded the computing devices maker’s stock to neutral from overweight. However, Chatterjee’s $30 price target implies 6.5% upside over Tuesday’s close and is a high on Wall Street, according to LSEG.

“We see the company cycling past the favorable part of the volume and commodity cost cycle into a relatively tougher backdrop,” Samik wrote to clients.

— Alex Harring

WBD, 1-day

WBD shares were up more than 1% in morning trading Wednesday, on pace to secure a three-day win streak. The stock closed up about 11% on Tuesday after the company said it has received “unsolicited interest” from a number of parties and that it would review all options.

— Sara Salinas, Sean Conlon

Stocks began Wednesday’s session relatively unchanged.

The S&P 500 traded below the flatline just after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell by 45 points, or 0.1%.

— Sean Conlon

Beyond Meat products are shown on February 29, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Several stocks, including Beyond Meat, are making big moves in premarket trading Wednesday:

• Beyond Meat — The plant-based meat alternative company surged 90%, continuing its meme-fueled craze. The stock soared more than 140% on Tuesday, its largest ever one-day gain, after Beyond Meat signed a deal with Walmart to expand distribution. Earlier in the week, Roundhill Investments added BYND to its Meme Stock ETF (MEME).
• Krispy Kreme — The donut chain soared 37% in premarket trading as meme stock trading activity continued to ramp up. Krispy Kreme shares jumped 14% Tuesday along with other speculative names, including Beyond Meat.
• Intuitive Surgical — The maker of robotic-assisted surgery systems popped 17% on third-quarter results that beat expectations. Intuitive posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.40 on revenue of $2.51 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $1.98 per share on revenue of $2.4 billion, according to LSEG. 

Read the full list of names here.

— Liz Napolitano

A range of Volkswagen AG automobiles inside an Autostadt Delivery Tower at the VW headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. 

Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

German auto giant Volkswagen on Wednesday warned of temporary production outages citing China’s export restrictions on semiconductors made by Nexperia.

The update comes shortly after the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the country’s main car industry lobby, said the China-Netherlands dispute over Nexperia could lead to “significant production restrictions in the near future” if the supply interruption of chips cannot be swiftly resolved.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen told CNBC by email that while Nexperia is not a direct supplier of the company, some Nexperia parts are used in its vehicle components, which are supplied by Volkswagen’s direct suppliers.

“We are in close contact with all relevant stakeholders in light of the current situation to identify potential risks at an early stage and to be able to make decisions regarding any necessary measures,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said, noting that the firm’s production is currently unaffected.

“However, given the evolving circumstances, short-term effects on production cannot be ruled out,” they added.

Shares of Volkswagen traded around 2% lower at 1:15 p.m. London time (8:15 a.m. ET). Read more.

— Sam Meredith

Netflix third-quarter earnings missed expectations, and Wall Street analysts are split on the streamer’s path going forward.

Shares of Netflix shed 6% in Wednesday’s premarket trading hours after the company reported earnings per share of $5.87, missing the $6.97 analysts polled by LSEG had forecast. The streamer blamed the weaker-than-expected result on an unexpected Brazilian tax dispute.

Netflix’s third-quarter revenue rose 17% to $11.51 billion, and was in line with expectations. The company expects revenue to rise another 17% year-over-year in its fourth quarter on the back of pricing adjustments and continued membership and ad revenue growth.

For its full year, Netflix forecast that revenue could reach $45.1 billion. This would mark a 16% rise from last year’s number and is in line with previous expectations of revenue growing between 15% and 16%.

Following the report, most analysts remained split between a neutral and optimistic stance on Netflix going forward. Barclays, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs reiterated their neutral-equivalent ratings following the report. UBS, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America kept their buy-equivalent ratings.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Netflix shares declined about 7% in the premarket on Wednesday after the streaming giant’s latest earnings results missed analyst expectations.

The company reported earnings of $5.87 per share for the third quarter, below the $6.97 in earnings per share that analysts surveyed by LSEG had penciled in. Meanwhile, revenue for the quarter came in at $11.51 billion, in line with the consensus estimate.

Netflix said that a Brazilian tax dispute impacted its performance in the period.

NFLX, 1-day

Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, rings the opening bell with company executives and guests during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq Market site in New York, U.S., May 2, 2019.

Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Beyond Meat 5-day chart

Tue, Oct 21 20257:01 PM EDT

Losses on loans tied to non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) made by U.S. regional banks “may signal broader risk from this fast-growing loan segment,” even if recent cases prove fraud-related and idiosyncratic, Fitch Ratings said in a report out Monday.

“Rapid expansion of NBFI exposures increases the chance that concentrated counterparties, combined with weak underwriting, could pressure bank earnings and sentiment beyond individually affected banks,” the credit rating agency said.

Loans to NFBIs reached some $1.2 trillion as of June 30, representing 10% of total bank loans, up from 3% in 2015, Fitch said. Industry-wide, loan growth to NFBIs averaged 11% annually over the past decade but was far faster, at 35% a year among banks with assets between $10 billion and $250 billion.

Fitch said smaller banks have grown their loan books to NFBIs more quickly than their larger rivals, noting in an accompanying chart that Time Bank loans as a percentage of total assets were recently at 10.6%; Synovus Bank NFBI loans totaled 8.2% of its book; Webster Bank stood at 7%; Tristate Capital Bank at 5.6%; and Huntington National Bank at 5.0%.

— Scott Schnipper

Tue, Oct 21 20256:23 PM EDT

The Mattel logo is printed on the package of one of their toys being offered for sale on April 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading.

• Mattel — The toy maker dropped 7% after it reported weaker-than-expected results for the third quarter, driven by lower sales in its North American business. Mattel posted adjusted earnings of 89 cents per share on $1.74 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had called for $1.07 in earnings per share and $1.83 billion in revenue.
• Netflix — The streamer dropped more than 4% after it missed Wall Street’s earnings estimates. For the third quarter, Netflix reported earnings of $5.87 per share. Analysts polled by LSEG expected $6.97 per share in profit. The company’s revenue of $11.51 billion for the period matched analysts’ estimates. Netflix attributed its weaker-than-forecasted results to an ongoing dispute with Brazilian tax authorities.
• DraftKings — The gambling stock jumped about 6.7% after DraftKings said it is acquiring predictions platform Railbird.
• Western Alliance — The regional bank gained more than 3% on better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter. Western Alliance earned $2.28 per share on revenue of $938 million. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $2.09 per share on revenue of $890 million. Loss provisions did come in at $80 million, above a StreetAccount estimate of $42 million.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

Tue, Oct 21 20256:02 PM EDT