Friday Market Wrap: Dow Jones Index Aims For Best October In Its History

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied on Friday to close out its fourth straight week of gains despite some disappointing big tech earnings reports.

With one more trading day left in the month, the Dow is on track to finish its best October in its 126-year history and its second best month in the past 30 years.

Since 1945, the three-month period from October through December has historically been the best three-month stretch of the year for the S&P 500.

U.S.-listed Chinese stocks were hammered last week after Chinese leader Xi Jinping consolidated his control over China's Communist Party by appointing loyalists to several of the top political positions in China and shunned convention by maintaining his presidency for a third term. 

On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported U.S. GDP grew 2.6% in the third quarter, exceeding economist estimates of 2.3% growth. The U.S. economy started 2022 with two consecutive quarters of GDP declines, but a narrowing trade deficit and an uptick in consumer spending helped drive a GDP rebound in the third quarter.

On Friday, influential Tesla CEO Elon Musk completed a $44-billion buyout of social media platform Twitter and fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal. Twitter will now be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and Twitter shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash in exchange for each Twitter share they own.

Meta Misfires: Meta Platforms Inc META shares plunged 24% on Thursday after the social media giant reported its second straight quarter of negative revenue growth and said its Reality Labs division has lost more than $9 billion so far in 2022.

In the week ahead, third-quarter earnings season rolls on with reports from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD, BP plc BP and Pfizer Inc. PFE on Tuesday and CVS Health Corp CVS on Wednesday.

S&P 500 companies are reporting lower profit margins for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to FactSet.

Economic Numbers: Following the encouraging GDP reading, investors will get more key economic updates on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve releases its latest interest rate decision and accompanying commentary and on Friday when the U.S. Labor Department releases its October jobs report.

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