Dow Jones Industrial Average rises on earnings, cheaper Crude Oil

Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks pulled the NASDAQ 100 lower on Tuesday, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose to its highest in more than five weeks on earnings and cheaper crude Oil. It climbed from the opening bell to just above 52,700. It fell to about 52,400 in one five-minute bar when a diplomat in the US-Iran talks called reports of a close deal wrong, and it ended just under 52,500.

Health care led the S&P 500's sectors, and UnitedHealth (UNH), Amazon (AMZN), IBM (IBM) and 3M (MMM) added the most points to the price-weighted Dow. 3M raised its 2026 profit forecast to $9.10-$9.15 a share and issued Amazon a warrant for up to 3.2 million shares tied to $6 billion of data centre sales. UnitedHealth, which reported on October 13, added about three times as many points as 3M.

Crude Oil fell and the 10-year Treasury yield fell with it, a week after higher yields and worries over AI debt gave US stocks their worst week since June. Korean AI firm Elice fell more than 30% in its Seoul debut. Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT) both rose anyway, so the AI selling took little off the Dow.

On the calendar

IBM reports on Wednesday with a call at 21:00 GMT, and Honeywell (HON) and Procter & Gamble (PG) report before the opening bell on Thursday, with calls at 12:30 GMT. American Express (AXP) follows before the opening bell on Friday, the fourth Dow member to report in three days.

Initial jobless claims are due on Thursday at 12:30 GMT, forecast at 200K after 199K. The flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surveys from S&P Global come out on Friday at 13:45 GMT, with services forecast at 57.9 after 58.8. Both feed the Fed's October 28 decision on whether to raise rates again.

On the charts

The Dow ended back over its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), now near 52,000, after dipping under it on Friday and Monday. It has won back nearly half of its drop from the August peak just above 54,700 to the October 1 low, which held just above the 200-day EMA near 50,500. Daily momentum is at the edge of overbought for the first time since early July.

DJIA daily chart