Wall Street wrapped up October 2025 with a surge, driven by the powerhouse performance of Amazon and a string of upbeat earnings reports from other tech giants. The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all posted gains on Friday, October 31, 2025, capping off their longest monthly winning streaks in years and signaling renewed investor confidence despite lingering concerns about the cost of artificial intelligence investments and global economic uncertainties.
Amazon took center stage, with its shares soaring between 9.6% and 11.6%—depending on the reporting source—after the company delivered quarterly profits that far exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. According to CNBC and AP News, the retail and cloud-computing behemoth’s forecast for future sales also beat analysts’ estimates, sending its stock to an all-time high and boosting the entire consumer discretionary sector by 4%, its largest one-day gain since May 2025. CEO Andy Jassy attributed the stellar results to a dramatic rebound in Amazon’s cloud-computing division, saying growth had “reaccelerated back to a pace it hasn’t seen since 2022.”
Given Amazon’s massive market capitalization—estimated at roughly $2.4 trillion—its stock movements carry disproportionate weight on the S&P 500. In fact, Amazon and Apple together account for over 10% of the index’s total value despite making up less than half a percent of its membership. This means even modest swings in these tech titans can move the entire market, a reality that was on full display as Amazon’s rally helped erase much of the previous day’s losses and nudged the S&P 500 closer to its all-time high set just days earlier.
Apple, for its part, also reported profits that topped expectations, though its stock performance was more subdued—fluctuating between a 0.3% gain and a slight dip, according to AP News and Reuters. CEO Tim Cook pointed to robust revenue from the iPhone lineup and the company’s services segment, which includes the App Store. Looking ahead, Cook forecasted strong holiday-quarter iPhone sales, but he did caution investors about potential supply constraints. While Apple’s earnings were positive, they didn’t quite match the market-moving impact of Amazon’s blowout quarter.
Other notable tech names contributed to the upbeat mood. Reddit’s shares rebounded sharply, rising between 14.7% and 16% after the company posted stronger-than-expected profit and revenue for the quarter. Coinbase Global, the cryptocurrency exchange, also impressed, with its stock climbing between 3.2% and 9.1% after beating profit forecasts. Netflix announced a 10-for-1 stock split, aiming to make its shares more accessible to a broader range of investors. The move was well received, with Netflix shares ticking up between 1.9% and 3.8% following the news.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index closed at 6,840.20 points on October 31, 2025—up 0.26% for the day—while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by as much as 111 points (0.23%) and the Nasdaq Composite led the charge with a 1.2% gain, according to MT Newswires and Reuters. Futures markets echoed the optimism, with the S&P 500 Mini, Nasdaq Mini, and Dow Mini all showing continued gains into the weekend, as reported by CNBC.
These gains capped a remarkable run for U.S. equities. The S&P 500 was up 2.6% for October, marking its sixth consecutive monthly advance—the longest such streak since August 2021. The Nasdaq Composite notched a 4.7% gain for the month, extending its own winning streak to seven months, the best since early 2018. The Dow posted a 2.5% monthly gain, also its sixth straight, matching a record last seen in January 2018.
Such sustained rallies have sparked debate among analysts about whether the market is becoming overheated. With stock prices climbing sharply since April and many companies now trading at lofty valuations, the pressure is on for continued earnings growth. “Criticism has been growing that the stock market has become too expensive,” AP News noted, highlighting the need for companies to keep delivering robust profit numbers to justify their elevated prices.
Friday’s gains also helped Wall Street recover from a sharp selloff the previous day, when the S&P 500 dropped 1% amid concerns about rising spending on artificial intelligence by giants like Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Both companies have announced significant increases in AI-related investments, which has some investors worried about profitability and the sustainability of the tech rally. Additional declines of 1.1% for Microsoft and 1.3% for Meta on Friday weighed on the broader market, but the Amazon-led surge more than offset these losses.
Elsewhere, Warner Bros Discovery shares rose 3.5% after reports that Netflix was exploring a bid for its studio and streaming business. Nvidia, which recently became the first publicly listed firm to surpass $5 trillion in market value, gained 1.6% following CEO Jensen Huang’s comments about the company’s advanced Blackwell chips and their potential in China. Other notable movers included Getty Images, up 14% after a major licensing deal, and Western Digital, which jumped 7.3% after a strong earnings forecast.
Internationally, the picture was more mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.4%, and Shanghai dropped 0.8% after data showed Chinese factory activity contracted for the seventh consecutive month, and at the fastest pace in six months. In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.1% to a new record high, buoyed by a better-than-expected 2.2% rise in industrial production in September.
In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields eased slightly after spiking midweek. The 10-year yield dipped to 4.08% from 4.11% on Thursday, but remained above the 3.99% level seen before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s warning that another rate cut in December “is not a foregone conclusion—far from it.” Bank of America economists suggested that the current easing cycle in developed economies may be drawing to a close.
Despite the positive headlines, some clouds lingered on the horizon. Skepticism persisted about whether President Donald Trump’s trade truce with China would truly resolve ongoing tensions. On the corporate side, Amazon’s strong quarter came against the backdrop of significant layoffs, with over 14,000 employees let go in the week ending October 31, 2025.
All told, Wall Street ended October on a high note, powered by Amazon’s resurgence and a wave of better-than-expected earnings. With major indexes notching historic streaks and investors keeping a wary eye on interest rates and global growth, the market’s next moves are sure to be closely watched.
