End-of-day recap

Oct 29 brought sharp tech drops, a cash deal and mixed index closes.

Alphabet closed at $283.82, down 12.64%. Earnings and revenue missed expectations, and Search revenue missed forecasts for a second straight quarter. CNBC tied the drop to those results and fears AI chat and agents are taking Search volumes.

ServiceNow fell 26.95% to $109.67. Adjusted EPS was $1.00 versus $1.02 expected; revenue was $4.11B, roughly in line with $4.10B expected. CNBC said the earnings miss revived AI disruption concerns. The firm raised full-year subscription revenue guidance to $15.78B-$15.79B.

ADT rose 33.20% to $9.87 after Thrive Holdings agreed to buy it for $10.00 a share in cash. The deal has a $7.6B equity value and $15.3B enterprise value. Investing.com linked the rise to the deal; closing is expected in first-quarter 2027, subject to approvals.

Crocs rose 25.54% to $150.26. Reuters linked the gain to a higher full-year forecast and a HEYDUDE recovery. Crocs now sees about 3% revenue growth in 2026, up from 1%-2%. HEYDUDE wholesale revenue grew 14% as faster inventory sales drove retailer orders.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,720.10, down 0.31%; the Nasdaq fell 1.38% to 26,184.72. The Dow lost 0.25% to 52,342.56, while the Russell 2000 rose 1.01% to 2,859.22. VIX was 17.20. AP/Yahoo cited Alphabet growth and AI payoff concerns, though most stocks rose.

Healthcare gained 2.40% and Real Estate rose 2.21%; Communication Services fell 1.87% and Technology lost 1.18%. Yahoo described a shift into healthcare, financials and real estate as Alphabet results and software outlooks raised AI fears.

Jefferies cut Instacart (CART) to Hold in an Oct 29 note. Analyst John Colantuoni set a $65.00 price target. The stock was at $57.11 when the note was posted, and market cap was $13.55B.

TD Cowen raised its Quanta Services (PWR) price target to $830.00 in an Oct 29 note. The stock was at $635.18 when the note was posted. Quanta's market cap was $95.49B.

Fortinet closed at $139.10, down 20.09%, on a day of target cuts. Scotiabank cut its target to $140.00 from $163.00; RBC Capital cut to $165.00 from $205.00; and Deutsche Bank cut to $130.00 from $160.00.

NVDA led options volume at 2.73M, with 1.74M calls and 991.71K puts. Next came GOOGL 2.36M, TSLA 1.75M, AMZN 1.41M, AAPL 1.22M, GOOG 1.19M, MU 1.03M, MSFT 0.98M, INTC 0.87M and META 0.85M. GOOGL hit 468.68% of average daily volume after Alphabet's results; NOW hit 752.37% after its EPS miss.

Amazon's after-hours report showed EPS of $1.89 versus FMP's $1.97 estimate and revenue of $201.94B versus $202.22B. CNBC said shares fell more than 7% in extended trade. Fourth-quarter revenue guidance was $240B-$247B; its midpoint was below LSEG's $244.50B consensus.

The close split across indexes, sectors and single stocks.

Not financial advice. For informational and educational purposes only.