U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host a Halloween event at the White House in Washington, DC, October 30, 2025.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
As Halloween approaches, Wall Street is balancing trick-or-treating.
Investors were spooked by some investment plans from big tech companies, with all three major indexes falling on Thursday. Meta stock suffered its biggest one-day loss since October 2022, as skepticism over its AI spending plans overshadowed its strong results, while Microsoft lost 3%.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Amazon shares jumped more than 13% in extended trading after beating expectations and seeing strong growth in its cloud computing unit. Netflix delivered gifts to investors big and small by announcing a 10-for-1 stock split, making its shares more accessible to investors.
On the trade front, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Busan for a summit in which tariffs were slashed, soybean purchases promised and rare earth controls suspended for a year, with few deal details unclear – tricks up the sleeves of the two economic giants?
As markets weigh the Fed’s rate stance, technological exuberance and diplomatic theater, one wonders: Is this the start of a holiday miracle or a pre-Christmas nightmare?
What you need to know today
Disney removed from YouTube TV. Content from The Walt Disney Company, including channels like ABC and ESPN, was removed from Google’s YouTube TV on Thursday after the two companies failed to renew their streaming deal.
Xi speaks at APEC. Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Asia-Pacific countries to support free trade and maintain supply chain stability, saying “the more turbulent times, the more we must work together,” Xi said in a Chinese state media statement on Friday, translated by CNBC.
The crisis in China’s manufacturing sector is deepening. Chinese manufacturing activity contracted more than expected in October, falling to its lowest level in six months. The purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.0, below economists’ expectations of 49.6 in a Reuters survey.
Nikkei hits new record. Japanese stocks led gains in Asia on Friday as investors saw trade tensions ease between Washington and Beijing. US markets fell, however, with the S&P 500 down 0.99% and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.57%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.23%.
[PRO] Sectors to watch after the Trump-Xi meeting. Gold, defense and chip stocks are just some of the sectors pros say need attention for investors’ portfolios after the Trump-Xi meeting in South Korea ended with a series of deals.
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk as they leave after a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The main takeaways from the Trump-Xi meeting: What the truce covers and what remains unclear
Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached a trade truce Thursday during a high-stakes meeting in South Korea, defusing a dispute over rare earth elements that threatened to push the world’s two largest economies into a full-blown trade war.
But that doesn’t mean the agreements constitute a comprehensive deal, warned Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to China during the Biden administration.
“We are in an uneasy truce in a long and still simmering trade war,” Burns told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.
-Spencer Kimball
