Big Banks Up, Speculative AI Down in Hump Day Markets

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

It was another mixed day in the market indexes today, with the shadow of an AI overspend hanging over the tech sector. Massive capital expenditures in AI infrastructure are making it hard to see how the math works, so instead of dragging the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to new all-time closing highs, they wound down -0.25% and -0.29%, respectively, for the session.

The outlier here would undoubtedly be AMD AMD, which gained another +9% today. Yesterday, CEO Lisa Su said the chipmaking major expected to grow revenues +35% each year for the next three to five years, tamping down on the general fears of overspending in the AI space. Even still, so far more than $380 billion has been spent so far to build out AI infrastructure.

The more speculative plays in the AI space, such as the quantum computers like D-Wave QBTS and IonQ IONQ, down -8.9% and -6.8% today, respectively. They were somewhat feeling the gravitational pull from Rigetti Computing RGTI, which is down -9.9% for the session following a revenue miss in its Q3 report yesterday.

Meanwhile, the blue-chip Dow closed at 48K for the first time ever: +322 points (+0.67%) to an all-time high close of 48,249. Big banks were big beneficiaries today, with Goldman Sachs GS gaining +3.5% on its $110 billion move to take Electronic Arts private. Morgan Stanley MS and Citigroup C both gained +2% on the day.

Cisco Reports Routine Beat in Q1

As always, Cisco Systems CSCO modestly outperformed estimates this afternoon, in its fiscal Q1 report released after the bell. Earnings of $1.00 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus by 2 cents (and an improvement over the year-ago earnings of 91 cents per share). Revenues of $14.88 billion in the quarter beat the estimated $14.78 billion — and more than $1 billion higher year over year.

Cisco has a remarkable decade-plus earnings beat streak, but almost never with blowout numbers. The trailing 4-quarter average earnings beat was by +3.86%. Guidance for both earnings and revenues — for both next quarter and the ful fiscal year — were raised across the board. Shares are up +6% in late trading on the news. 

What to Expect from the Market Tomorrow

While Congress does vote on whether to reopen the federal government later today, we don’t expect we’ll see Weekly Jobless Claims or Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers ahead of the open. Over time, we do expect all the government economic reports to eventually hit the tape, but likely with spotty data here and there. Future revisions will likely tell the more accurate story down the road.

Both Disney DIS and Applied Materials AMAT are expected to post fiscal Q4 results Thursday, with Disney’s earnings expected to come down -9.65% on +1.37% revenue growth. Chip services major AMAT is slated to come in -9% on earnings and -4.93% on its top line. Both companies are looking to keep their earnings beat streaks alive.

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

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