Stock Market Live October 30: S&P 500 (VOO) Falls After Fed Interest Rate Cut
Key Points
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The Federal Reserve announced a 0.25% interest rate cut to as low as 3.75% yesterday.
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President Trump has concluded a trade deal with China to lower U.S. tariffs in exchange for soybean imports and rare earth magnet exports.
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Live Updates
Alphabet Gets an 'A'
OpenAI, Open IPO
Reuters is reporting that OpenAI, which restructured its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation this week, is now “laying the groundwork for an initial public offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion.”
Reuters notes the IPO, if it happens “could be one of the biggest IPOs of all time,” and we won’t have to wait long to learn if the rumor is true. OpenAI is said to be contemplating a late 2026 IPO in which it would raise at least $60 billion from investors, and possibly even more. The stock would almost certainly become part of the S&P 500 after IPO’ing.
The Voo is currently down 0.6%.
What Does the Fox Say?
Media giant and S&P 500 component company Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA) | MA Price Prediction beat by 40 cents this morning, reporting $1.51 for its fiscal Q1 2026 profit. Revenue also beat expectations at $3.7 billion.
Fox also announced it will accelerate repurchases of up to $1.5 billion worth of its own stock, buying back perhaps $700 million in Class A shares and $800 million in Class B shares in the second half of the fiscal year.
Mastercard Charges Ahead
MasterCard (NYSE: MA) beat by six cents this morning, reporting $4.38 per share for its Q3 profit. Revenue for the quarter edged out analyst forecasts at $8.6 billion. CEO Michael Miebach noted that MasterCard delivered 17% year over year revenue growth, “or 15% on a currency-neutral basis, driven by healthy consumer and business spending.”
MasterCard stock is down nearly 2% despite the good news.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced a 0.25% reduction in its target interest rate yesterday, to a range of from 3.75% to 4% — but the stock market reacted almost not at all. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) gained less than 0.1% yesterday, and it’s down a sizeable 0.5% in early trading this morning.
This is despite some arguably good news out of Asia, where President Trump has concluded a new trade deal with Beijing that should see the threat of 100% additional tariffs removed, tariffs in punishment for China’s role in the fentanyl trade reduced to 10%, Chinese restrictions on rare earth magnet exports postponed by a year, and Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans resumed.
This sounds like good news for American companies that rely on rare earth magnets to build their products — good news too for American farmers. So why aren’t investors happier about it — especially after also getting the interest rate cut they’ve been clamoring for?
Magnificent 7 Earnings
Earnings seem part of the answer. Three of the biggest S&P 500 names involved in both tech and AI have reported profits already, but their results seem somewhat mixed.
Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) had arguably the best news. Announcing Q3 earnings last night, the tech giant “beat” by 58 cents with a $2.87 per share profit on sales of $102.4 billion — well ahead of the $99.8 billion forecast.
Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) also reported last night, beating with $51.2 billion in revenue, but reporting a big drop in profit to just $1.05 per share after taking a nearly $16 billion charge to earnings. Meta also guided to revenue not appreciably greater than the $57.3 billion Wall Street was already expecting in Q4.
Finally, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced it beat earnings by 47 cents, reporting $4.13 per share in adjusted earnings and a GAAP profit of $3.72 — up 13% year over year. Revenue also exceeded expectations at a triply-lucky $77.7 billion.
In early trading, Alphabet stock is up more than 2%, but Microsoft shares are trading down more than 2%, and Meta’s big negative earnings surprise is subtracting more than 12% from that stock.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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