US Today.zip Nov 3: Chip Rebound Lifts Nasdaq as Apple Drags the Dow

U.S. Daily Brief
US Today.zip daily briefing for November 3 2026
US Today.zip cover for November 3 2026 listing four stories

Wall Street split again on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, as Americans voted in the midterm elections. A rebound in chip stocks lifted the Nasdaq Composite 0.83%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.38% as Apple fell. September job openings came in above expectations, Apple's record quarter was overshadowed by a softer margin outlook, and Palantir reported that revenue nearly doubled from a year earlier.

This briefing walks through the market close, the jobs data and the two company reports, with the numbers explained and what to watch next.

Stocks: chips bounce back on Election Day

Nasdaq up 0.83 percent, S&P 500 up 0.36 percent and Dow down 0.38 percent on November 3

The Nasdaq Composite closed at 25,372.01, up 207.65 points. The S&P 500 gained 27.52 points, or 0.36%, to 7,568.92. The Dow fell 197.26 points, or 0.38%, to 51,786.72.

Chip stocks had sold off hard the previous session, and many of them recovered on Tuesday. Because the Nasdaq Composite is heavily weighted toward technology companies, it tends to move most when semiconductors and software swing. Market reports said Apple was the main weight on the Dow.

Why can the indexes move in opposite directions? The Dow is a price-weighted index of 30 large companies, so a stock with a high share price has a bigger effect on its moves. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are weighted by market value and include many more companies. On a day when chips rally and one large Dow member falls, the three can easily diverge.

Price-weighted index: an index in which each stock's influence depends on its share price rather than the company's total market value. The Dow is the best-known example.

Tuesday was also Election Day for the US midterms. Results were still being counted after the close, and investors will be watching which party controls Congress, since that could shape policy on artificial intelligence, data centers and trade.

Jobs: openings beat forecasts

US job openings rose to 7.52 million in September 2026

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said job openings totaled 7.523 million at the end of September, up 333,000 from a revised 7.19 million in August. That was above the roughly 7.1 million to 7.2 million that economists had expected, according to market reports. The job openings rate was 4.5%.

Hires were about 5.4 million and total separations about 5.3 million. The biggest move was in quits, which rose to 3.4 million, while layoffs and discharges were little changed at 1.6 million. More people quitting on their own usually signals that workers feel confident they can find another job.

Still, the BLS described openings, hires and total separations as little changed, meaning the shifts were not large enough to count as a clear change in trend.

Job openings: the number of positions that employers are actively trying to fill on the last business day of the month. Economists use it to gauge how strong demand for workers is.

Apple: record quarter, lower margin outlook

Apple September-quarter revenue rose 12 percent to 114.5 billion dollars while margin guidance fell to 45 to 46 percent

Apple reported revenue of $114.5 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 26, up 12% from a year earlier and a record for a September quarter. Diluted earnings per share rose 14% to $2.10. Gross margin was 47.9%, including about one percentage point of benefit from tariff refunds.

The outlook was the problem. Apple guided gross margin for the December quarter to 45% to 46%, below the September quarter. Executives pointed mainly to rising memory chip costs and also to spending tied to the rollout of new AI features in Siri. Apple expects December-quarter revenue to grow 7% to 10%, according to reports of the earnings call.

Gross margin is the share of revenue left after subtracting the direct cost of making products and delivering services. A drop of one or two percentage points matters a lot for a company of Apple's size. Apple shares closed down 1.9% at $331.90 on Tuesday.

Palantir: revenue up 96%

Palantir third-quarter revenue rose 96 percent and full-year guidance was raised

Palantir, which sells data analysis software to governments and businesses, said third-quarter revenue rose 96% to $2.31 billion, the first time quarterly sales topped $2 billion. Revenue from US commercial customers jumped 148% to $984 million and passed US government revenue of $953 million for the first time. Net income was about $1.13 billion.

The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $8.530 billion and $8.534 billion, about 91% growth, and guided fourth-quarter revenue to $2.649 billion to $2.653 billion. The key shift is that a company long known for government work is now growing fastest with private-sector clients.

What to watch

First, the midterm results: control of Congress could change expectations for AI, data center and trade policy. Second, whether the chip rebound holds after Monday's sharp drop, as more chipmakers report earnings this week. Third, whether rising memory prices squeeze margins at other device makers the way they are squeezing Apple's.

Key takeaway

On Nov 3, a chip rebound pushed the Nasdaq up 0.83% while Apple pulled the Dow down 0.38%. September job openings rose to 7.52 million, Apple expects a lower margin next quarter despite a record quarter, and Palantir's revenue jumped 96% with a higher full-year outlook.

Sources: Apple, Palantir, US Bureau of Labor Statistics

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