A big sell-off collides with more Big Tech earnings and a midterm election: What to watch this week

Key Points:

• The tech sector experienced a sharp sell-off following disappointing earnings reports from Alphabet, Amazon, and Intel, despite growth in cloud and AI segments, reflecting heightened investor expectations rather than poor fundamentals.
• Binance suffered the largest cryptocurrency hack in history, with $6.3 billion stolen, leading to a temporary suspension of withdrawals and a significant drop in major crypto asset prices; the incident raises concerns about cybersecurity and regulatory frameworks in the crypto industry.
• The upcoming US midterm elections, involving all House seats and 35 Senate seats, are expected to influence political control, economic policies, and data center development, while Friday's October nonfarm payrolls report will provide critical labor market insights.
• A busy week of economic data and earnings reports is underway, with key releases including Apple's and Palantir's earnings on Monday, AMD and Marathon Petroleum on Tuesday, and major companies like Toyota, Arm Holdings, and McDonald's later in the week.
• Economists anticipate the October nonfarm payrolls report to show modest job growth of 55,000, primarily in the private sector, which will be closely watched for signals on the Federal Reserve’s future interest rate decisions amid ongoing economic uncertainties.