U.S. stock markets sprang back to life on October 31, 2025, as investors cheered robust earnings from two of the world’s tech giants: Apple and Amazon. After a bruising session that saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite log their sharpest drops in over three weeks—largely due to anxiety over Big Tech’s escalating artificial intelligence (AI) spending—the upbeat quarterly reports from these companies injected a much-needed dose of optimism into Wall Street.
According to Eurasia Business News, futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 all climbed, with Nasdaq futures leading the charge. The turnaround was driven by a powerful rally in Apple and Amazon shares, both buoyed by quarterly results that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations and signaled resilience in the face of economic uncertainty and tech sector volatility.
Amazon’s stock soared an eye-popping 11.5% in premarket trading after the company forecasted fourth quarter sales between $206 billion and $213 billion—well above market consensus. The real star of Amazon’s earnings, as reported by Yahoo Finance, was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which posted a 20% year-over-year revenue increase in the third quarter, its fastest growth since 2022. This surge in cloud revenue allayed investor fears that Amazon might be losing ground in the AI race, especially as AI workloads have become a major driver of cloud demand.
“We continue to see strong momentum and growth across Amazon as AI drives meaningful improvements in every corner of our business,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in the company’s earnings release. “AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022, re-accelerating to 20.2% YoY.” Jassy also addressed recent headlines about layoffs, emphasizing during the earnings call that the cuts of 14,000 corporate jobs were not “financially driven, and it’s not even really AI driven—not right now, at least. It’s culture.” He added, “We are committed to operating like the world’s largest startup, and that means removing layers.”
Beyond the cloud, Amazon’s retail segment grew 11% year-over-year, and advertising sales jumped 24% to $17.7 billion, further fueling the company’s performance. The combination of cloud, retail, and advertising strength restored investor confidence and powered Amazon’s shares to one of their best single-day gains in recent memory.
Apple, meanwhile, saw its shares rise about 2.3% on October 31, 2025, following the release of its fiscal fourth-quarter results. The company reported earnings per share of $1.85, beating analyst estimates of $1.77, and revenue of $102.47 billion—slightly above the expected $102.25 billion. While iPhone revenue fell just short of consensus, CEO Tim Cook struck an optimistic note on the company’s earnings call, forecasting that the December quarter would deliver “the best ever for the company and the best ever for iPhone.”
Cook acknowledged that the iPhone 17 was facing supply constraints due to “off the chart” demand, but he remained upbeat about Apple’s prospects. The company’s Services division, which includes high-margin offerings like Apple Music, iCloud, and the App Store, hit an all-time record with 15% growth in the fourth quarter. This robust performance in services is increasingly important for Apple, as it provides a steady stream of high-margin revenue that helps offset fluctuations in hardware sales.
As Yahoo Finance noted, Apple’s results came amid a busy week for third quarter earnings, with 29% of S&P 500 companies having reported as of October 24. Analysts expect a 9.2% jump in earnings per share for the quarter, which would mark the ninth consecutive quarter of positive earnings growth, though it represents a slowdown from the 12% growth reported in the previous quarter. The so-called “Magnificent Seven” tech companies—Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and Amazon—have been in the spotlight, accounting for about a quarter of the S&P 500’s market cap.
Elsewhere in the markets, gold continued its remarkable bull run, trading at approximately $4,042.50 per ounce on October 31, 2025, according to Eurasia Business News. Over the past year, gold prices have surged nearly 47%, climbing from around $2,700 per ounce in early October 2024 to surpass $4,000 per ounce in October 2025. The precious metal even hit an all-time high of about $4,379 per ounce on October 17. The rapid ascent from $3,500 to $4,000 per ounce took just 36 days, underscoring the intensity of the rally.
This extraordinary performance, the strongest for gold since 1979, has been fueled by a confluence of factors: heightened geopolitical tensions, a weaker U.S. dollar, expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, and a surge in safe-haven buying amid risks in the equity and bond markets. Central banks have also stepped up their gold purchases, adding to the momentum. For investors wary of market volatility, gold’s appeal as a store of value has rarely been stronger.
Other companies making headlines this earnings season include Coinbase, which reported a jump in third quarter profit thanks to crypto market volatility, and Strategy (formerly Microstrategy), which saw its revenue rise nearly 11% year over year as it continued to hold massive bitcoin reserves. Bitcoin itself traded at around $107,489 per token on October 30, 2025.
Meanwhile, Cigna warned of margin pressures in its Pharmacy Benefit Services segment due to financial strains in government programs, while Altria signaled that earnings growth would moderate in the fourth quarter as cigarette volumes decline. Crocs, the footwear maker, targeted $100 million in cost savings after a 6.2% year-over-year revenue drop in the third quarter, and Hershey reported earnings that beat expectations but projected a significant decrease in earnings per share for 2025.
Across the board, companies are grappling with a complex backdrop: persistent inflation, shifting consumer habits, and the ever-present specter of geopolitical uncertainty. Yet, as demonstrated by the standout performances of Apple and Amazon, innovation and adaptability remain potent antidotes to market anxiety. As the year draws to a close, all eyes will be on how these giants—and the broader market—navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.
With tech titans leading the charge and gold shining as a safe haven, the final months of 2025 promise to be anything but dull for investors and market watchers alike.
