Earnings Keep Rally Intact, Stocks Mixed at the Open, Commodities Tick Higher, Trump Questions Tariff Sustainability

At the opening bell Friday, stocks were mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24.71 points (0.05%) to 45,976.9, while the S&P 500 slipped 14.07 (0.21%) to 6,615.0; the Nasdaq Composite fell 94.93 (0.42%) to 22,467.6, and the Russell 2000 eased 1.74 (0.71%) to 243.32. Commodities were firmer, with Crude Oil Dec ’25 at $57.05, up $0.06 (0.11%), and Gold Dec ’25 at $4,320.60, up $16.00 (0.37%) as of about 9:01 a.m. ET. Separately, President Trump said Friday that threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods were “not sustainable,” telling Fox Business, “But that’s what the number is. It’s probably not [sustainable] — you know, it could stand, but they forced me to do that.”

Earnings, Not Euphoria, Propel Stocks as Wall Street Scans Credit Bellwethers

The conversation on Wall Street remained centered on profits, the fuel behind the market’s climb to fresh highs, rather than on investors simply paying more for the same dollar of earnings. That framing comes from Horizon’s Mike Dickson, who argues that this year’s advance has been built on rising earnings expectations while overall valuations have stayed close to where they began 2025. Gains across the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 are largely mirrored by increases in expected profits, suggesting a sturdier foundation than a sentiment-driven rally.

Company results this morning underscored that theme. Ally Financial delivered a broad based beat, $1.15 in adjusted earnings per share on $2.16 billion of revenue, while the more important message for investors wary of consumer strain was on credit. Net charge-offs fell to $395 million from $517 million a year ago, retail-auto loss rates eased to 1.88%, and 30-plus-day delinquencies declined to 4.9%. Management also pointed to a sturdy funding base: $142 billion in retail deposits, 92% of which are FDIC-insured.

Balance-sheet cushions add to that picture. Ally reported a 10.1% CET1 ratio, $66.6 billion of liquidity, nearly six times uninsured deposits, and executed a $5 billion credit-risk transfer at its tightest spread on record, which the company said added roughly 20 basis points of capital efficiency. For investors parsing the consumer-credit outlook, the takeaway is stability rather than stress.

Meanwhile, American Express extended the narrative that spending by affluent consumers remains resilient. The company posted $4.14 in third-quarter EPS, up 19% from a year earlier, on $18.4 billion of revenue, up 11%. Card-member spending rose 9%, and credit remained “best-in-class,” with a 1.9% net write-off rate. “new U.S. Platinum account acquisitions doubled compared to pre-refresh levels,” CEO Stephen Squeri said of the September refresh, adding that early engagement is running ahead of plan. He later added, “We are confident in our growth prospects as we continue to execute our proven product refresh strategy and enhance our powerful Membership Model.”

The common thread appears to be profit growth is doing the heavy lifting while credit metrics at key financials look contained. If that continues, strategists argue, advances built on earnings tend to prove more durable than those driven by expanding price-to-earnings ratios. Today’s tape will ultimately hinge on incoming index levels, but the early storyline belongs to companies delivering exactly the sort of rally structure bulls prefer.