Market Close: Stocks Mostly Higher, Netflix Beats Estimates, Housing Slump 10-20-2026

0:02I'm Peter Schacknow, CNBC. With oil prices pulling back and some strong corporate earnings in the mix, Wall Street was able to conclude a mostly positive day. The Dow jumped 530 points to close at 52 ,496. The S &P 500 was 22 points higher, or three-tenths of a percent. The Nasdaq wiped out an early 1 % drop to go positive, but finished lower by 6 points. And though oil prices were lower today, investors could be hearing more during the course of earnings season about the impact of higher energy prices on the bottom line. Surat Sethi is Portfolio Manager at DCLA. I think you're going to see that coming through, and I think they're going to come down.

0:42And companies are going to have to be cautious, especially those that are using inputs like energy commodities that are all priced in dollars. I think, you know, this is something that's already been discounted on a lot of stock prices. but you might see some companies, you know, especially those in manufacturing, industrial, global transport kind of talk down earnings. Two sets of weak housing market numbers out today. Housing starts unexpectedly fell 5.2 percent and pending home sales tumbled 7.3 percent to a record low. You started September with rates around 6.8 percent on the 30 year fix.

1:15And throughout the month, you were up around seven and a half. We saw it in the home builder sentiment numbers yesterday. They dropped to a 14-year low with builders citing that mortgage rate hike. And on the permit side, which is an indicator of future construction, again, you're not going to see them saying, OK, we're going to put holes in the ground if we're seeing these 7.5 % rates. That's CNBC's Diana Olek. Netflix just out with earnings after the closing bell. Netflix earned$0.87 per share for its latest quarter,$0.05 above estimates. 3M was the biggest gainer in the Dow today after better-than-expected earnings, jumping nearly 6%.

1:50Credit Bureau Equifax, meanwhile, led the S &P 500 with a more than 11 % gain after it raised its earnings forecast despite trimming its revenue outlook. Peter Schachnow, CNBC. Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus, the next generation of advanced trading from Fidelity. Customize your tools and charts and access them seamlessly across desktop, web, and mobile. for faster trades anywhere you go. Try the all-new Fidelity Trader Plus. Learn more about our most powerful trading platform yet at fidelity.com slash trader plus. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC.

2:29Member NYSE SIPC.