Stock Market Live October 29: S&P 500 (VOO) Rises as Investors Await Fed Interest Rate Decision
Key Points
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The Federal Reserve (the FOMC) is expected to announce a new target interest rate this afternoon.
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Boeing missed earnings badly but reported stronger than expected Q3 sales.
Live Updates
Reactions to Royal Caribbean
Multiple analysts are tweaking price targets on Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL | RCL Price Prediction) after the cruise company beat earnings in its Q3 report. Bank of America lowered its price target to $325 with a neutral rating, complaining the Q3 beat was “cost-driven,” while Q4 guidance fell below Street forecasts.
Citigroup also lowered its price target, to $336, but with a buy rating, noting the weak Q4 guidance was due to factors beyond Royal Caribbean’s control (i.e. hurricanes). Finally, Barclays lowered to $342, and with an overweight rating.
Royal Caribbean stock is reacting with a 2% decline. The Voo is still up about 0.2%.
Flowserve's Overflowing
Industrial flow management equipment isn’t a sexy-sounding business, but Flowserve (NYSE: FLS) is doing its best to change that with a huge 26% gain in the industrials stock this morning.
Flowserve reported Q3 earnings last night, and GAAP profits were up nearly triple on a single-digit gain in sales. Flowserve reported a 23% increase in orders for power equipment, and analysts believe the company can keep growing earnings at more than 19% annually over the next five years.
More Planes for Boeing
In further Boeing news, the company announced that it has stabilized production levels of its 737MAX airliner at 38 units per month. Boeing further confirmed that the Federal Aviation Administration has improved a production rate increase to 42 units per month, after requiring Boeing to not exceed 38 units (since last January) while the company worked to improve product quality.
Boeing’s 737 is the company’s most popular product, and key to Boeing’s financial stability going forward. The acceleration in production is a big win for Boeing — but the huge net loss just reported is nonetheless dragging down Boeing stock by nearly 3% this morning.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
Today’s the day. Despite a lack of good government data to help it make its decision, this afternoon the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will announce the results of its latest meeting, and decide whether to raise, lower, or keep interest rates steady in its second-to-last meeting of 2025.
Investors continue to bet on a rate cut — probably sized at 0.25% — and this hope has the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) trading up about 0.25% premarket as well (although the precise size of the gain today is probably a coincidence).
This being “earnings season,” moreover, generally strong earnings reports on Wall Street are also encouraging investors. So let’s dive right into those, with a focus on S&P 500 component companies.
Earnings last night
Travel giant Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG) reported a huge earnings beat last night. Q3 profits of $99.50 per share were $4.06 better than expected, and Booking hit $9 billion in quarterly sales, about $300 million more than expected.
Gaming company Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) went the other way, reporting much worse results than analysts had forecast. Earnings were only $0.54 per share versus $1.30 expected. Sales also missed the mark by about $50 million at $1.8 billion.
Earnings this morning
Earnings continued to pour in this morning. Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) beat by $0.40 with a $4.95 Q3 profit, although its sales of $17.6 billion came just short of predictions.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) beat by two cents with a $1.21 profit. Q3 revenue of $33.8 billion fell about $400 million short of predictions. Focusing on cash profits, management reiterated its guidance that it will generate between $19.5 billion and $20.5 billion in free cash flow this year.
And the biggest news of the morning: Boeing (NYSE: BA) reported a gigantic earnings miss today, caused by a large charge to earnings for its 777X airliner program. Boeing reported $7.47 (heh) per share in “core” losses, and $7.17 per share GAAP, both numbers much worse than the mere $0.46 that Wall Street was expecting. Revenue was the bright spot at Boeing, though, coming in at a strong $23.3 billion.
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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