Nasdaq Halts Etoiles Capital Group Corporate, Ltd

Wall Street ended higher on Friday as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump's latest remarks on China, while quarterly results from regional banks eased concerns about credit risks.

Trump said his proposed 100% tariff on goods from China would not be sustainable, but blamed Beijing for the latest impasse in trade talks that began with Chinese authorities tightening control over rare earth exports. Trump unveiled the new tariffs a week ago, along with new export controls on "any and all critical software," to go into effect on November 1.

"The market doesn't really know what to take when Donald Trump speaks," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. "There's just a lot of back-and-forth comments with regards to China and trade tariffs and pretty much everything else."

Regional bank stocks rebounded following a selloff on Thursday, when Zions Bancorporation disclosed losses tied to two commercial and industrial loans and Western Alliance revealed it had initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by Cantor Group V, LLC.

"There's a lot more bark than bite on the credit fears," said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital. "Looking through all the big banks' results, credit is very good. Overall, there are very few pockets of weakness."

Truist Financial gained 3.7% after the bank reported higher third-quarter profit. Fifth Third Bancorp rose 1.3%, Zions shares rebounded from losses the day before to close 5.8% higher, and Western Alliance advanced 3.1%.

The S&P Composite 1500 Regional Banks index climbed 1.8% after tumbling almost 6% the day before.

The S&P 500 financial sector index, which includes the largest U.S. banks, rose 0.8%.

Robust earnings from JPMorgan (JPM.N), opens new tab and other big banks this week helped get the third-quarter earnings season off to an upbeat start. Analysts on average see S&P 500 earnings climbing 9.3% in the third quarter, an improvement from expectations of 8.8% at the start of October, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.

Following a rally of nearly 14% in 2025, the S&P 500 is valued at 23 times expected earnings, its priciest level in five years.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.53% to end the session at 6,664.01 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.52% to 22,679.98 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.52% to 46,190.61 points.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by consumer staples, up 1.23%.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, the Nasdaq rose 2.1% and the Dow climbed 1.6%.

The CBOE volatility index, investors' fear gauge, dropped to 21.5 points after hitting its highest level in nearly six months at 28.99 earlier in the day.

Wall Street's most valuable companies were mixed, with Tesla rising 2.5%, Apple adding almost 2% and Amazon falling 0.7%.

Eli Lilly fell 2% after Trump said he would bring down prices of weight-loss drugs.

State Street dropped 1.4% after the bank's third-quarter net interest income missed estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 2.6-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 7 new highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 114 new lows.Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light, with 19.6 billion shares traded, compared with an average of 20.7 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Nasdaq, Inc. NDAQ is expected to register an improvement in its top and bottom lines when it reports third-quarter 2025 results on Oct. 21, before the opening bell.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NDAQ’s third-quarter revenues is pegged at $1.29 billion, indicating 12.5% growth from the year-ago reported figure. The consensus estimate for earnings is pegged at 84 cents per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NDAQ’s third-quarter earnings has moved up 2.4% in the past 30 days. The estimate suggests a year-over-year increase of 13.5%.

What Our Quantitative Model States

Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Nasdaq this time around. This is because the stock has the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold).

Earnings ESP: Nasdaq has an Earnings ESP of +1.53% at present. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate of 85 cents is pegged higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 84 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Nasdaq, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Nasdaq, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Nasdaq, Inc. Quote

Zacks Rank: Nasdaq currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Factors to Consider

Continued organic revenue growth, new sales, and an increase in Financial Crime Management Technology revenues are likely to have aided Nasdaq’s third-quarter performance.

Non-trading revenues are likely to have benefited from improved results in Capital Access Platforms, Financial Technology and Market Services businesses.

Higher subscription revenues from new sales and price increases to existing clients and revenues from new clients are likely to have aided the Financial Crime Management Technology business. 

Higher subscription revenues from new sales and price increases to existing clients, and revenues from new clients across all businesses and higher market technology professional services revenues are likely to have aided the Capital Markets Technology business. We expect Capital Markets Technology revenues to increase 7.4% to $251.4 million.

Higher sales, increased usage and pricing in the data business, higher average AUM in exchange-traded products linked to Nasdaq indices and growth in trading volume on futures contracts related to the Nasdaq-100 Index are expected to have aided performance at the Capital Access Platforms division. An increase in analytics revenues, largely driven by eVestment, is also likely to have benefited this division. 

An increase in professional & contract services expenses, as well as technology and communication infrastructure, marketing and advertising, depreciation and amortization and regulatory, merger and strategic initiatives is expected to have increased total expenses for the to-be-reported quarter. We expect non-GAAP operating expenses to increase 7.1% year over year.

Nevertheless, share buybacks in the to-be-reported quarter are anticipated to have provided a boost to the bottom line.

Q3 Volumes

Nasdaq reported impressive volumes for the third quarter of 2025. The U.S. equity options volume increased 18.6% year over year to 1 billion contracts. European options and futures volume increased 7.8% year over year to 15.2 million contracts.

Revenues per contract for the U.S. equity options declined 7.6% year over year to 12 cents, while the same for European options and futures increased 14.8% to 54 cents.

Under its cash equities, Nasdaq’s U.S. matched equity volume in the third quarter grossed 158.5 billion shares, up 34.1% from the prior-year quarter’s level. European equity volume increased 9.6% year over year to $215 billion. 

In the third quarter, there were 4,492 listed companies on the Nasdaq compared with 4,513 in the year-ago period. Total listings increased 5.1% year over year to 5,492.

We expect data and listing services revenues to increase 2.9% to $195.6 million in the to-be-reported quarter.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are three finance stocks you may want to consider, as our model shows that these also have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. CBOE has an Earnings ESP of +4.67% and carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at $2.42, indicating a year-over-year increase of 9%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

CBOE’s earnings beat estimates in three of the last four reported quarters while missing in one.

Arch Capital Group Ltd. ACGL has an Earnings ESP of +2.00% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at $2.10, indicating a year-over-year increase of 5.5%. 

ACGL’s earnings beat estimates in each of the last four reported quarters.

Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. KNSL has an Earnings ESP of +1.53% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2025 earnings is pegged at $4.79, indicating a year-over-year increase of 14%.

KNSL’s earnings beat estimates in each of the last four reported quarters.

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research