Does the Market Have Bad Breadth?

By Mark Vickery | November 03, 2025, 6:17 PM

Monday, November 3, 2025

Market indexes started the trading week bifurcated this morning, and bifurcated they stayed through the course of the session. The Nasdaq, once again the leading index in 2025, over the last six months and most prominently over the last week or so of trading, led the way again today: +108 points, +0.46%. This is off session highs, but this was not a roller-coaster ride of trading today.

The S&P 500 was also up for the day, +11 points of +0.17%. Meanwhile, both the blue-chip Dow and the small-cap Russell 2000 provided something of a mirror image to the Nasdaq today: -0.48% (-226 points) and -0.49% (-12), respectively. These are also the worst-trading indexes of 2025 so far, each on either side of +11%. Meanwhile, the S&P — which contains a mixture of large tech and non-tech firms — is +16.5% for the year, and the Nasdaq +23.4%.

This brings us to question whether the breadth in this market, or lack thereof, is a sign of weakening trading sentiment. The AI trade continues to head up the hill, with NVIDIA NVDA up another +2% today and Amazon AMZN +4% to an all-time high, possibly at the expense of non-tech/AI names. Kimberly-Clark KMB, fresh off its deal to acquire Kenvue KVUE for $48.7 billion, dropped -14.5% on the news today, now -22% year to date.

Manufacturing PMI Split in October

Both S&P Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing reports came out earlier this morning, both for October. Results moved in opposite directions, however: while S&P numbers grew +50 basis points (bps) to 52.5 from the downwardly revised 52.0 the prior month, ISM slid further below the 50 level: 48.7% versus 49.1% reported the previous month. ISM Manufacturing has not been north of the 50% threshold since February of this year.

A Tale of Two Markets in Two Earnings Reports

After today’s close, intelligence cloud software firm Palantir PLTR posted healthy beats on both top and bottom lines in its Q3 report after the closing bell. Earnings of 21 cents per share easily surpassed the 17 cents anticipated, which itself represented +70% earnings growth year over year. Revenues of $1.18 billion outpaced the $1.09 billion analysts were projecting, and well up from the $725.5 million reported in the year-ago quarter.

Its U.S. Commercial segment grew a whopping +121% year over year to $397 million in the quarter, with U.S. Government contracts up +52% from a year ago. Operating Margin, Free Cash Flow — both up strongly. But trading at 90x revenues at more than 300x P/E, its initial +3% gain in late trading has fallen to flat at this hour. The stock is up +173% year to date.

Meanwhile, Consumer Staple mainstay Clorox CLX also outperformed expectations in its fiscal Q1 report after today’s close, with earnings of 85 cents per share bettering the 78 cents expected in the Zacks consensus. Revenues of $1.43 billion improved over the $1.38 billion anticipated, and shares are up +3.3% on the news in late trading. Then again, Clorox closed today’s regular trading session at its lowest level in more than 10 years.

What to Expect from Tomorrow’s Stock Market

Once again, we’re more than likely going to miss out on economic data like JOLTS job openings, Factory Orders and the U.S. Trade Balance. This, of course, is due to the federal government shutdown looking to complete its fifth week, with no scheduled meetings between the two sides of the aisle yet.

Earnings season continues, however, with major companies like Uber UBER, Pfizer PFE, Shopify SHOP and BP BP reporting results ahead of Tuesday’s open, and AMD AMD, Amgen AMGN and Super Micro Computer SMCI releasing numbers after the close.

Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research

Mentioned In This Article

AMD

+1.38%

Advanced Micro Devices Inc

Palantir Technologies Inc

Super Micro Computer Inc

UBER

+3.34%

Uber Technologies Inc

Latest News