Market snapshot: investors take some money off the table

Stock prices never rise forever, and there's always the temptation to bank some profits. ii's head of markets explains weakness on Wall Street and thinking in the UK as the week draws to a close.

10th October 2025 08:11

by Richard Hunter from interactive investor

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The Nasdaq and S&P500 finished marginally lower overnight, having both hit record intraday highs, as investors took some profits from the recent breathless runs.

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Losses in the tech space were contained as NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) added 2% after a positive week, and Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) shares gained 3% after a difficult few days where there was speculation that margins on its cloud business were far lighter than those currently being pencilled in by analysts.

Meanwhile, the government shutdown continues as the political impasse rumbles on. A shortage of air traffic controllers leading to some delays to US flights has been one of the outcomes, with the Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) CEO noting that while he had seen no impact from the shutdown so far, anything more than another 10 days could change the picture. Delta also reported better than expected quarterly numbers, pointing to an acceleration of sales over the last six weeks including domestic business travel, resulting in a 4% spike in the share price.

In the absence of economic releases due to the shutdown, there is likely to be more emphasis on companies themselves updating investors on the state of the nation.

Next week, US banks enter the reporting fray en masse, with updates from Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), The Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Overarching themes will include whether the strength of the second quarter in deal making and investment banking fees has continued, how trading income has fared given market volatility and the health of the consumer in terms of borrowing, where any signs of rising bad loans would provide a red flag on deteriorating economic conditions.

In the meantime, with the main indices remaining near record highs, each remain in rude health in the year to date with gains of 9%, 14.5% and 19.2% for the Dow Jones, S&P500 and Nasdaq respectively.

The sight of a flailing domestic economy came into view once more, with the British Chambers of Commerce noting confidence and investment among businesses stuck at 2022 levels, while the British Retail Consortium reported a drop of 1.8% from a year ago in retail footfall.

With no obvious opening for the Bank of England to reduce interest rates at present due to the persistence of inflation, and with consumers increasingly fraught as a potentially damaging Budget draws closer, the economy remains stuck in neutral and in need of stimulus. The slightest glimmer of hope came in a separate report claiming that wage growth had fallen to four-year lows, albeit due to weak demand for workers alongside an oversupply of candidates.

The FTSE100 opened on the back foot with pressure coming from different angles. A pullback in the gold price to below $4,000 weighed heavily on the likes of Fresnillo and Endeavour Mining, both of which slumped by more than 4%. However, the dip does little to upset a stellar direction of travel this year which has resulted in gains of 270% for Fresnillo and 118% for Endeavour.

There was also a slight downward force on HSBC following yesterday’s decline, where the shares fell less on the strategic decision to acquire the parts of Hang Seng Bank which it did not own, but rather more on a share buyback programme which will be abandoned for three quarters as part of a capital raising exercise for the deal.

Even so, HSBC goes into a big week for the US banks and its own Q3 update on 28 October with a healthy share price gain of 50% over the last year. For the premier index as a whole, the marginal decline nonetheless leaves the FTSE100 16.3% ahead in the year so far, with some pockets of profit taking increasingly inevitable in the absence of major developments elsewhere.

These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

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