Markets Week in Review: SpaceX Rattles Telecom, Banks Open Earnings Season (October 10, 2026)

Markets Week in Review: SpaceX Rattles Telecom, Banks Open Earnings Season

Stocks closed out a volatile week at fresh highs after Thursday's AI-driven selloff fully reversed on Friday, helped by easing oil prices and a Trump pledge not to strike Iran before the midterms. The loudest story of the week, though, was telecom: SpaceX's spectrum buy sent AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to their worst single-day drops in years. Monday opens a loaded week — Q3 bank earnings kick off Tuesday and September CPI lands Wednesday, the last major print before the Fed's Oct. 27-28 meeting.

The Week's Index Levels

Market Setup Into Monday

Key Levels (Dealer Gamma)

SPY (spot ~779): call wall 779 (then 783), put wall 777 (then 773). QQQ (spot ~751): call wall 753 (then 755), put wall 751 (then 747). Call walls mark strikes where dealer hedging may slow rallies, while put walls mark strikes where hedging may cushion dips — these are positioning estimates from Friday's close, not guarantees.

What Matters This Week

1. AI jitters hit, then faded. A Financial Times report that OpenAI's annualized revenue is nearer $50B than the previously circulated $70B figure wiped about $169B off Nvidia's market cap Thursday and dropped the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 3.4%, before stocks fully reversed Friday.
2. SpaceX's spectrum deal gutted telecom. SpaceX agreed to buy an 800MHz spectrum portfolio from Grain Management for roughly $8B to advance Starlink Mobile, sending AT&T -9.8%, Verizon -8.75% and T-Mobile -13.27% — each carrier's worst single day in over a decade.
3. Yields near 24-year highs, oil eases. The 10-year Treasury yield sits near multi-decade highs even as WTI crude slid after Trump said the U.S. would not strike Iran before the midterms; Real Estate and Healthcare led S&P sectors Friday.
4. Bank earnings season opens Tuesday. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and UnitedHealth report before Tuesday's open, right after Delta missed Wall Street's EPS estimate for the first time in two years and slashed its 2026 profit outlook on a $6B fuel-cost surge.
5. CPI Wednesday is the real test. September CPI lands Wednesday at 8:30am ET, followed by PPI and retail sales Thursday, as the last major data before the Fed's Oct. 27-28 meeting, currently priced at roughly 81-82% odds of a hold.

Notable Options Flow

• SPX $7900C 11/20 — repeated ask-side sweeps, melt-up hedge, $8.4M total premium
• SPX $7800P 11/20 — matching protective-put flow, $9.7M bid-side
• QQQ $760C 10/30 — bullish tech sweep into month-end, $1.3M ask-side
• CRWV $72-76P 10/30 — bearish bets tied to AI-capex jitters, roughly $3.0M ask-side
• TLT $77.5C 10/16 — rate-cut / bond-rally sweep, $1.4M ask-side
• NVDA $230P 1/15/27 — downside hedge pre-earnings, $727K ask-side

What to Watch

Tuesday's bank-earnings kickoff (JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, UnitedHealth) sets the tone for financials, while Wednesday's CPI print is this week's single biggest catalyst for rate expectations heading into the Fed's Oct. 27-28 meeting. Watch telecom (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) for any FCC commentary on SpaceX's spectrum deal, and keep an eye on AI-linked chip names (Nvidia, AMD, Micron) for signs the OpenAI revenue story has further to run. Alcoa, Interactive Brokers and J.B. Hunt round out Thursday's post-close earnings slate with notable options-implied expected moves.

Sign-Off

That's the week in review and the setup for what's ahead. Markets reopen Monday at 9:30am ET — see you then.