Stocks Open Mixed as Gold Extends Slide Oil Climbs and Meta AI Cuts in Focus

At the opening bell Wednesday in New York, stocks were mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 10.36 points (0.02%) to 46,935.1, the S&P 500 edged +0.62 (0.01%) to 6,735.97, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 33.44 (-0.15%) to 22,920.2; the Russell 2000 eased 0.73 (-0.30%) to 246.26. In commodities, crude oil (Dec ’25) added $1.01 (1.76%) to $58.25.

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Gold is attracting a lot of attention as gold futures fell 1.6% to $4,043.50 in early trading, extending Tuesday’s rout. The drop follows what Bloomberg called the steepest intraday decline since 2013, “Technical selling has been the main culprit,” said Suki Cooper, head of commodities research at Standard Chartered Plc. “Prices have been trading in overbought territory since the start of September,” she added, while noting momentum could return next year, according to Bloomberg.

Earnings remained in focus. GE Vernova reported a stronger than expected quarter, with orders up 55% to $14.6 billion, revenue up 12% to $10 billion, and adjusted EBITDA of $811 million versus $787 million forecast. Management reaffirmed 2025 targets and unveiled a $5.3 billion purchase of the remaining stake in Prolec GE, a move that deepens capacity in transformers, a key bottleneck as utilities and data-center operators add baseload power. The Power and Electrification units led growth while Wind narrowed losses.

In media and chips, Netflix posted 17% revenue growth to $11.5 billion, but an EPS of $5.87 missed Wall Street’s $6.97 estimate due to a $619 million Brazil tax charge that compressed operating margin to 28% from 31.5%; shares fell about 6% Tuesday afternoon even as management lifted full-year free-cash-flow guidance to $9 billion. Texas Instruments beat on Q3 revenue at $4.74 billion but guided cautiously for Q4 amid deliberate factory load cuts and softer PC/mobile demand; shares were 8% lower premarket as operating margin slipped to 35.1%.

Tesla and IBM are among the large cap companies reporting earnings after markets close. Analysts expect Tesla to report adjusted earnings around $1.9 billion. Earlier this month the EV powerhouse reported record sales of 497,099 vehicles, up 29% from the 384,122 it sold in Q2.

Consumers are feeling the energy pinch. Bank of America Institute data show household payments to electricity and gas utilities rose 3.6% year-over-year in the third quarter. BofA Global Research points to a structural driver, surging electricity demand from AI-driven data centers alongside EV adoption requiring capital-heavy grid upgrades that keep upward pressure on bills, with winter weather an additional swing factor.

In Big Tech, Axios reports Meta is cutting roughly 600 roles across legacy AI groups while continuing to hire for its new TBD Lab. In an internal memo cited by Axios, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang wrote, “By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact.” He added: “I’m really excited about the models we’re training, our compute plans and the products we’re building, and I’m confident in our path to build towards superintelligence.”