Stocks Split as Tesla Pressures and IBM Lifts

At the opening bell Thursday, U.S. stocks were mixed while safe haven metals and oil climbed: the Dow slipped 21.22 points (-0.05%) to 46,569.2, the S&P 500 edged up 2.24 (+0.03%) to 6,701.64, the Nasdaq Composite added 1.93 (+0.01%) to 22,742.3, and the Russell 2000 ticked up 0.60 (+0.25%) to 243.94. In commodities, Nymex crude (Dec) jumped to $62.08 (+6.12%) and Comex gold (Dec) advanced to $4,150.10 (+2.08%).

Framing the broader backdrop, Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo, highlights that the U.S. now accounts for “almost 50%” of global equity market capitalization, up from about 30% in 2011—an illustration of the market’s concentration and why U.S. earnings, AI investment, and corporate balance sheets loom so large over global risk appetite.

Tesla posted a solid top line but softer profitability for the third quarter. Revenue rose 12% to $28.1 billion, but EPS of $0.50 missed consensus as automotive gross margin (ex-credits) held at 15.4%. Deliveries reached ~490,000 and production 505,000, while free cash flow hit $3.99 billion and cash climbed to $41.6 billion. Management guided Q4 deliveries flat to slightly up and FY2025 revenue growth of 8%–10%. CEO Elon Musk again stressed the upcoming governance vote. “This meeting will shape the future of Tesla” and said capacity should reach 3 million units “within 24 months, maybe sooner.” He described FSD v13 as “imminent” but “very cautious” on rollout, and criticized proxy advisers’ “terrible recommendations.”

On the other side of Big Tech, IBM delivered broad-based beats and raised guidance as GenAI projects accelerate. The company reported $16.33 billion in revenue (+7% y/y in constant currency), with software at $7.21 billion, infrastructure at $3.56 billion, and consulting at $5.32 billion. Non-GAAP gross margin was 58.7% and pre-tax margin 18.6%, while free cash flow totaled $2.37 billion. Notably, IBM’s GenAI backlog increased to $9.5 billion from $7.5 billion previously. Wedbush's Dan Ives said, "“We would be buyers of any modest knee jerk weakness in the stock. We maintain our OUTPERFORM rating and our $325 price target with IBM remaining on Wedbush’s Best Ideas List and the IVES AI 30.” Wedbush believes "IBM is well-positioned to capitalize on the current demand wave for hybrid cloud and AI applications as more enterprises are looking to leverage these capabilities across organizational workflows."