Market Briefing, Oct 29, 2026: Alphabet missed. Nasdaq futures are sliding.

Market Briefing, Thursday, October 29, 2026

Overnight, tech futures fell while the rest of the market held up. Alphabet was down 10.38% in premarket trading after it missed expectations on adjusted earnings per share and revenue in the third quarter. The Google parent posted negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion. Meanwhile, Fed policymakers voted 10-2 to leave the federal funds rate at its target range of 3.75% to 4% , and both dissenters voted in favor of hiking interest rates by 25 basis points. Today depends on the 8:30 AM inflation and GDP data and on Amazon and Intel after the close. Oil is also lower this morning after prospects of renewed peace negotiations eased fears of supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Market setup

S&P 500 futures	7,768.00 (-0.20%)
Nasdaq 100 futures	29,719.75 (-0.87%)
Dow futures	52,685.00 (-0.02%)
Russell 2000 futures	2,853.10 (+0.48%)
10-year Treasury yield	5.05% (+5 bp)
WTI crude (lower on reports that U.S.–Iran peace talks may restart)	$100.66 (-2.06%)
Bitcoin	$80,065
Gold	$4,041.80 (-0.24%)

Key levels (dealer gamma)

SPY (spot ~771)	Call wall 780 · Put wall 760
QQQ (spot ~724)	Call wall 730 · Put wall 720

Call walls mark strikes where dealer hedging may slow a rally, and put walls mark strikes where hedging may cushion a dip. These levels come from a Wednesday-morning snapshot (Oct 28, 10:15 AM ET). Second-tier walls weren't available. In that snapshot, both SPY and QQQ were in negative gamma (amplified vol) . With Nasdaq futures down this morning, QQQ may open near its 720 put wall. These are estimates of positioning, not guaranteed support or resistance.

Today's market calendar (ET)

8:30 AM · Core PCE price index, Y/Y (prior 3.0%)	3.1% est.
8:30 AM · Core PCE price index, M/M (prior 0.2%)	0.3% est.
8:30 AM · Headline PCE price index, Y/Y (prior 3.4%)	3.7% est.
8:30 AM · Headline PCE price index, M/M (prior 0.3%)	0.5% est.
8:30 AM · Personal income, M/M (prior 0.2%)	0.3% est.
8:30 AM · Consumer spending, M/M (prior 0.9%)	0.6% est.
8:30 AM · Weekly jobless claims (prior 194K)	200K est.
8:30 AM · US Q3 GDP (forecast +3.0%)	+3.0% est.
9:15 AM · ECB rate decision: a hold at 2.50% is expected, with a December hike about 84% priced in	2.50% hold est.
After 4:00 PM · Amazon, Intel and Rivian earnings (see below)	AMC

Notable earnings

Already reported: Microsoft beat on both revenue and earnings, with adjusted earnings at $4.89 per share versus the $4.73 consensus, and revenue of $92.28 billion against the $90.69 billion expected . The stock gained about 4% after hours. Alphabet missed on revenue and earnings, and the company kept its full-year capital expenditures forecast at $195 billion to $205 billion.

Still ahead before the open: These are the options-implied moves for today's pre-market reports. Eli Lilly ±6.3% , Caterpillar ±6.8% and Mastercard ±3.5% . Merck is also on today's pre-market calendar.

After the close: Amazon ±7.7% , Intel ±9.4% and Rivian ±11.9% . For Amazon, consensus estimates call for AWS revenue growth of 37.8% year over year . For Intel, analysts expect an EPS of $0.40 on revenue of $16.5 billion. Apple is not expected tonight even though some calendars list Oct 29. Apple's own listing says November 2.

Congress corner

• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), spouse: sell GOOGL, $100K–250K , traded Oct 2, 2026
• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), spouse: sell AMZN, $100K–250K , traded Oct 2, 2026
• Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA): buy TSM, $1,001 - $15,000 , traded Oct 9, 2026
• Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA): sell NVDA, $1,001 - $15,000 , traded Oct 1, 2026. A same-day NVDA purchase in the same range was also disclosed.
• Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), joint: partial sell MU, $1K – $15K , traded Sep 24, 2026

These are delayed disclosures, not real-time trades. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade , so positions may have changed since the dates shown.

Social-media trends

We don't have social-media trend data today. Options flow is the closest substitute, and it shows memory and chip names attracting money while megacaps see put buying. MU led net call premium at $97.4M, followed by SMH at $23.5M, TSM at $23.1M and SNDK at $20.5M. META (-$44.1M), NVDA (-$40.3M) and TSLA (-$24.4M) led on the put side. For the whole market, net call premium was $94.3M against -$80.1M in net put premium.

What matters today

1. Alphabet Miss Hits the AI Trade. Alphabet plunged 9% after missing third-quarter earnings and revenue estimates and reporting negative free cash flow of $9.07 billion , and maintained its full-year capital expenditure forecast of $195 billion to $205 billion. Microsoft went the other way, gaining after Azure cloud growth hit 48% and revenue beat forecasts. Premarket, Dow futures rose 0.3%, S&P 500 futures slid 0.4%, and Nasdaq-100 futures fell 1.3% , which ends a week where tech led every session. Trading impact: expect a split open, with megacap tech under pressure while the Dow and small caps hold up better.
2. PCE and GDP at 8:30 AM ET. Forecasts call for core PCE of +0.3% m/m and 3.1% y/y (prior 0.2% and 3.0%), headline PCE of +0.5% m/m and 3.7% y/y (prior 0.3% and 3.4%), and consumer spending of +0.6%. Third-quarter GDP prints at the same time, with consensus at 3.2% from 2.2%. These numbers land the morning after Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented, both wanting a quarter-point hike , and with the 10-year yield at 5.05 . Trading impact: a hot core reading would raise the odds of a December hike and hit rate-sensitive groups hardest.
3. Software Splits on Guidance. ServiceNow closed the regular session at $150.13, down 3%, then dropped 17.11% after hours to $124.45 , because an expected slowdown in Q4 cRPO growth to 18.5% outweighed a revenue beat. That reverses Wednesday's mood, when Oracle jumped nearly 11% after it provided a fiscal 2030 revenue outlook of $225 billion . Options flow matched the split: ORCL saw +$19.4M net premium and NOW saw -$12.1M. Trading impact: expect wide gaps and fast moves in enterprise software names this morning.
4. Memory Flow Meets a Samsung Check. MU led yesterday's options flow at +$97.4M net premium, with SMH (+$23.5M), TSM (+$23.1M) and SNDK (+$20.5M) behind it, while NVDA (-$40.3M) and META (-$44.1M) were the biggest bearish weights. Market-wide, net call premium was $94.3M and net put premium was -$80.1M. Overnight, though, Samsung sank 4.1% despite strong quarterly results , and Nvidia, AMD and Micron fell premarket. Dealer positioning data is unavailable today. Trading impact: watch whether the call buying in chips holds up against the weak open.
5. Amazon Tonight, ECB and Oil Today. Mastercard, Eli Lilly, and Caterpillar report before the open; Amazon and Intel report after the close. The ECB also meets today, and Brent crude was down 1.28% at $113.84 per barrel, with WTI down 1.55% at $101.19. The VIX is at 17.12, up 1.24% , so volatility is still contained heading into the last hyperscaler report of the week. Trading impact: expect AMZN option premiums to stay high into the close, and if you use copy trading, review your position sizing before the overnight earnings risk.

Options flow

GOOGL $360 C 1/15 — On Tuesday, ahead of earnings, it looked like a single trader bought around $18.5 million of calls across eight transactions of 2,850 contracts each . Now the bet faces a reversal: Alphabet fell about 10% after hours on its first revenue and profit miss in nearly four years .	~$18.5M bought
EQIX $950 P 1/15 — A new protective position on a rally day. Someone bought a 2,240 contract block on the January 2027 950.00 put for $45.03 when the bid/ask spread was $40.70 x $46.70 (open interest is 5) .	~$10.1M above mid
CBRE $135 C 12/18 — Volume on this contract is 3,325 versus open interest of 25, so it's likely that nearly all the volume represents fresh positioning . Most of it was bought at various times at or near the ask price of $2.35 each .	~$0.78M near ask
SPY $755 P 10/30 — Traders closed out short-dated hedges after the Fed held rates. Open interest in this put dropped 95,908 to 40,146 - closing $0.27; November $750 puts held 144,704 .	-55.8K OI closed
MU (all strikes) — MU had the largest net premium of any name and led the call side of the tape. No strike or expiry data is available for its biggest trades today.	+$97.4M net
META (all strikes) — META had the heaviest net bearish premium of any name, with NVDA close behind at -$40.3M. No strike or expiry data is available for its biggest trades today.	-$44.1M net

Alertsify is copy trading software for options and stocks, not an RIA or broker-dealer. This post is for information only and is not investment advice.