Stocks Post Second Weekly Loss as Oil Hits Four-Year High and Fed Looms

The S&P 500 closed out its second straight losing week on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, slipping 0.5 percent to 7,623.68 as Brent crude settled at $116.72 a barrel, its highest level since June 2022, and investors braced for a Federal Reserve meeting next week that is expected to hold rates steady but keep a December increase on the table.

Friday’s close and the week’s damage

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 652.82 points, or 1.2 percent, to 52,215.16 on Friday, while the Nasdaq composite gave back a small early gain to finish down 53.52 points, or 0.2 percent, at 25,955.34, according to the Associated Press. Nearly three of every four stocks in the S&P 500 declined.

Financial and industrial names led the way down. American Express dropped 3.7 percent despite reporting a quarterly profit that beat analyst forecasts, after it also announced its first major job cuts in roughly a decade. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup each lost 1.5 percent, Capital One fell 1 percent and Caterpillar slid 2.4 percent. Energy producers moved the other way with crude: ConocoPhillips rose 3.6 percent and Chevron 2.9 percent.

Chip stocks, which had taken the brunt of Thursday’s selling, found buyers. Micron added 2.5 percent, and Advanced Micro Devices and Intel each gained 1.7 percent. Microsoft rose 0.7 percent.

Thursday’s slide set the tone

The week’s sharpest move came a day earlier. On Thursday, Oct. 22, the S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent, or 93.74 points, to 7,663.43, its worst day since July, while the Nasdaq tumbled 2.6 percent, or 694 points, to 26,008.86, the AP reported. The Dow was essentially flat, up 11.89 points to 52,867.98. In an unusual twist, two of every three stocks in the S&P 500 actually rose on Thursday; the index was dragged down by the heavy weighting of a handful of technology giants.

Lam Research lost 11.8 percent after the midpoint of its profit forecast came in slightly below expectations, even though its latest results beat estimates. Nvidia, the largest company on Wall Street, fell 4.4 percent and was the single biggest weight on the S&P 500. CoreWeave sank 10.1 percent amid concern about its debt load.

Earnings from two of the market’s most watched names did not help. Meta Platforms fell 7 percent after revenue beat expectations but profit fell short, and the company said it plans a new class of stock to help fund its artificial intelligence spending. Tesla dropped 3.1 percent after profit exceeded forecasts but revenue did not; Yahoo Finance put revenue at $28.05 billion against the $28.13 billion analysts expected, with adjusted earnings of 48 cents a share versus 44 cents.

Not every report disappointed. Procter & Gamble gained 5.6 percent after beating profit expectations and standing by its full-year forecasts despite what chief executive Shailesh Jejurikar called “geopolitical and economic challenges,” according to the AP. Lockheed Martin and CSX also topped estimates, and Blackstone jumped more than 8 percent on an upbeat outlook.

Oil, war and a four-year high

The common thread running through the week was energy. Brent crude rose 4 percent on Thursday to $113.17 and another 3.1 percent on Friday to $116.72. It began October below $97. The AP attributed the climb to supply disruptions from the U.S. war with Iran and uncertainty about when the energy industry can return to normal operations. Yahoo Finance noted Brent is up more than 50 percent since the conflict began in late February, and reported that West Texas Intermediate reached about $100 a barrel on Thursday.

The selling rippled abroad. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.5 percent on Thursday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 3 percent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.7 percent, while France’s CAC 40 fell 1.4 percent as French bond yields rose on budget worries.

Bonds rally, then settle

Treasurys offered a measure of relief. The 10-year yield fell sharply on Thursday, dropping to about 4.97 percent from 5.13 percent the previous evening and from above 5.30 percent earlier in the month, as investors shifted into government bonds. On Friday the yield edged back up to 4.99 percent from 4.96 percent late Thursday, the AP reported, leaving it just under the 5 percent mark that has defined the autumn.

The Fed’s turn

The Federal Open Market Committee concludes its two-day meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The central bank, led by Chair Kevin Warsh, raised its benchmark rate by a quarter point to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent at its last meeting in September. Futures markets price roughly an 8-in-10 chance of no change next week, according to CME FedWatch data cited by Forbes, but Wall Street leans heavily toward another increase at the Dec. 9 meeting. Inflation remains above 3 percent, and the September reading of the Fed’s preferred PCE index, due next week, is expected to show a 3.7 percent annual rate, well above the 2 percent target, the AP reported.

“Investors appear increasingly focused on the economics of AI,” Angelo Kourkafas, senior global strategist at Edward Jones, wrote in a note cited by the AP, pointing to the high upfront cost of AI infrastructure and uncertain timing of returns. Matt Miskin of Manulife John Hancock put it more bluntly on Yahoo Finance: “Every index on the planet is basically an AI index.”

The Massachusetts name in the headlines

The week’s single most dramatic stock move belonged to a Cambridge company. Moderna shares fell roughly 25 percent on Thursday after detailed results from its personalized melanoma vaccine trial with Merck appeared online ahead of a scheduled scientific presentation, BioPharma Dive reported. The data showed a 42 percent reduction in the risk of recurrence or death, within the range Wall Street expected but below the most optimistic hopes for a stock that had more than quadrupled since August. Moderna’s weight in the major indexes is small, but the episode was a reminder of how much of this year’s biotech rally rests on a handful of binary readouts.

The Boston Made Take

Two weekly losses in a row do not make a correction, and the S&P 500 is still above 7,600. What has changed is the mix of worries. For most of 2026 the market’s anxiety was about whether AI spending would pay off; this week added a four-year high in oil and a Fed that has already hiked once and is signaling more. That combination, higher energy costs plus higher borrowing costs, is harder on Main Street than on the megacaps that dominate the indexes, which is why the breadth numbers matter: on Thursday most stocks rose even as the index fell, and on Friday most stocks fell even as chips bounced. For Boston-area investors, the practical read is that the next two weeks carry three dates that can move portfolios, the Fed decision on Oct. 28, the PCE inflation report the same week, and the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

What it means for you

• Mortgage and auto loan rates track the 10-year Treasury, which spent the week just under 5 percent; anyone shopping for a home loan in Greater Boston should not expect relief before the Fed’s December meeting.
• Heating oil and gasoline follow Brent with a lag. With crude at a four-year high and New England heading into heating season, lock in oil delivery pricing where contracts allow.
• Savers continue to benefit from the Fed’s 3.75-to-4 percent benchmark range, with another increase likely in December.
• Investors heavy in a few large technology names should note that the index’s recent moves have been driven by a narrow group of stocks; diversification did its job this week.