Pre-markets Let It Ride from Friday's Gains

Monday, October 20, 2025

Following healthy half-point gains on major market indexes Friday, pre-market futures are positive and climbing at this hour. Hopefulness prevails that Q3 earnings season will continue posting strong results from the past three months. The Dow is +137 points, +0.30% currently; the S&P 500 is +28, +0.42%; the Nasdaq +130, +0.52%; and the small-cap Russell 2000 is +26 points, +1.08% in early trading.

A nod from Fed members that another 25 basis point (bps) cut will be forthcoming next week. Ongoing negotiations for a new trade deal between China and the U.S. are keeping spirits buoyant. Apple AAPL sees better traction for its iPhone 17 than prior releases, which speaks to a consumer still willing to spend on upgrades. Shares are up +2% so far this morning.
 

Cleveland-Cliffs Up +15% in Early Trading

Mining and steel-producing major Cleveland-Cliffs CLF are up +15% this morning, following its mixed Q3 results reported ahead of the bell. Loss per share of -$0.45 was a 3-cent improvement from the -$0.48 in the Zacks consensus, while revenues in the quarter came in at $4.73 billion, -3.12% from expectations. The stock had already gained +41.7% year to date.

Cleveland-Cliffs is one of the beneficiaries of U.S. tariff policy: steel imports were levied at 25-50% over the summer, improving the outlook for American companies like Cleveland-Cliffs. The company sees a “demand recovery for auto-grade steel made in the USA,” and it has upgraded full-year guidance on lower capex and Selling, General & Administration expenses. For more on CLF’s earnings, click here.
 

What to Expect from Today’s Stock Market

Thankfully, we have independent economic reports from places like The Conference Board, who today will release the latest Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) results for September. Expectations are for another drop, -0.3% to 98.3 points, from a prior-month spill of -0.5%.

A year ago or so, we saw a slight bump in LEI metrics which interrupted a years-long slide from the all-time peak mountaintop of 117.8 back in December of 2021. Currently, LEI levels are sub-Covid pandemic. Generally speaking, LEI see 7 months ahead in business cycle turning points. Depending on results, we may see another negative indicator to the U.S. economy at 10am ET today.

Zions Bancorp ZION reports earnings after the closing bell today. The stock rebounded somewhat on Friday from its -13% drop Thursday, which was the result of the news that $50 million in charges from two bad loans would be impacting the regional bank. It might also be argued that increases in loan defaults overall are another sign of a weakening business economy. Analysts expect +2.19% earnings growth in the quarter, +5.16% on revenues. ZION has averaged an earnings beat of +12% over its last 4 quarters.

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