Closing Bell: 10/19/26

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

At Edward Jones, we believe rich isn't about having life all figured out. It's opening yourself to all the possibilities. That's why your dedicated financial advisor provides long-term planning built around you, meeting you where you are, and helping you get closer to where you want to be. So no matter where you're starting from, you can move forward with confidence. The key to being rich is knowing what counts.

Let's find your rich. Edward Jones, member SIPC.

SPEAKER_2 (0:30)

With the Discover Cash Back card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases. Activate and earn 5% cash back at different categories each quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases. That's 5% cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas and at restaurants. It pays to discover. Terms apply. See discover.com/five for details.

Scott Wapner (0:56)

Welcome to Closing Bell. Scott Wapner live from Post9 here at the New York Stock Exchange. This Maker Breakout begins with today's tech bounce. A much needed one following the worst week since June. Let's show you the scorecard with 60 to go in regulation. There you go. We're green across the board. NASDAQ's leading the way because CoreWeave and the other so-called meal clouds are trying to bounce today, doing a pretty decent job. But the CoreWeave now has turned negative, and we'll have to watch that over the final stretch, see if that sort of bleeds through to some of these other areas of the market. Semi's, they've been under fire too.

So NVIDIA is higher, as is Micron. We'll watch the entire space. We'll have more on those moves coming up in just a minute. Elsewhere, Apple's new foldable iPhone selling out within hours, even as some question the strength of the new 18 model. We'll watch those shares closely too. Cleveland Cliffs, a big winner today off the back of its earnings report. Look at that, up 17%.

All of that takes us to our talk of the tape, the state of the AI trade. Whether there really is reason or not to worry. We'll begin there with our Seema Modi. She's tracking several names in the center of that action and the action, the price action, not looking great.

Seema Modi (2:03)

This intraday reversal, Scott, I think is notable. CoreWeave unable to hold on to its gains despite these two upgrades from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs where analysts say not every NeoCloud is built the same. So sort of trying to distinguish between CoreWeave and the rest. We have seen CoreWeave bonds come in a bit. Yields now below 15% at 14.9. That market still sees unsecured debt as a less likely option should CoreWeave decide to raise capital. In fact, I'm told, don't expect any activity in the high-yield debt market till after the midterms as there is now a higher bar for financing plus the permitting of so many data centers being a drag. This has semi-analysis put out that piece, right?

Predicting an acceleration in the pace of compute coming online despite ongoing funding concerns. That's providing some relief to chip stocks separately. Evercore ISI predicting earnings to provide further support to the long-term trade for semiconductors with expectations that Meta could now announce an equity sale when it reports on Wednesday. Two equipment names, Texas Instruments and Lamb Research will provide a crucial read on demand and the supply chain for chips on Wednesday. Both stocks, I would point out, are down sharply from their year high, but trying to bounce back today, Scott.

Scott Wapner (3:12)

All right, pretty good look there, Seema. Thank you, Seema Modi. Let's bring in now CNBC contributor, Adam Parker of Trivariate. It's good to have you on. So one of the benefits of selling the research that you do to the big hedge fund clients that you do, you get to talk to them on a regular basis. So what are they telling you about what they think is happening in the market now?

Adam Parker (3:33)

I think it's not just the hedge funds, it's the asset managers along always too. I think people think the correlation between oil and rates has been an issue.

And so I think the short term was all about if oil can come down. And today you get a weird one where Brent's down, TI's up, and the tenure isn't backing up. But I think people were focused on that because it seems like that's going to limit the price to earnings a little bit. So you need oil to kind of come in and rates come in. I think the second thing, there was definitely some more concern about midterms in the last couple of weeks and could that create an environment that's less regulatory friendly for the data to build out the AI trade. But I think when you take a step back and you really think through it, earnings growth is going to be really strong.