A home-improvement heavyweight just missed earnings again and cut its outlook as big projects get shelved and housing stays frozen. We’ll walk through whether this pullback is a slow-burn chance to build a position for the next housing turn or a sign to leave your cash in the toolbox a little longer.
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Futures at a Glance📈
Futures are limping lower as the AI darlings take another breather and traders brace for Nvidia’s big report. Mega-cap tech is getting trimmed, and the feeling this morning is more de-risk and rethink than buy every dip.
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What to Watch
Premarket Earnings:
Home Depot [HD]
PDD Holdings [PDD]
Medtronic [MDT]
Baidu [BIDU]
Klarna Group [KLAR]
Futu Holdings [FUTU]
Economic Reports:
Import price index (Oct): 8:30 am*
Import price index ex-fuel (Oct): 8:30 am*
Industrial production (Oct): 9:15 am*
Capacity utilization (Oct): 9:15 am*
Factory orders [delayed report] (Aug): 10:00 am
Home builder confidence index (Nov): 10:00 am
Fed speakers: Barr (10:30 am)
*Data subject to delay due to government shutdown.
Real Estate
Zillow Tries To Be The Landlord Of The Entire Housing Conversation
Zillow Group Inc (NASDAQ: Z) has turned house hunting into doomscrolling, with nearly every home in America just a thumb swipe away.
Between Zestimates, rental listings, and mortgage ads, it’s basically the gateway app for anyone even vaguely thinking about moving, renovating, or snooping on their ex’s home value. That kind of traffic is why agents tolerate the steep referral fees.
The flip side is the heat it’s drawing. Rivals and regulators are pushing back on how much power one platform should have over listings and rental ads.
When you’re the default starting point for buyers and renters, you also become the default target for lawsuits and antitrust questions. That’s not an immediate business-killer, but it can cap how aggressive the model can get.
For you, this is a classic awesome product with a messy rules story. The user habit is gold, but the more Zillow leans into being the tollbooth of housing, the more it has to tiptoe around regulators and partners.
My Take For You: If you’re interested, think of this as a long-game platform bet. Start small, add only if it proves it can grow under tighter rules instead of fighting them every quarter.
My Verdict: Watch-list or modest position. Great brand, but headline risk and legal noise mean you don’t want this to be your biggest key in the portfolio.
Consumer Tech
Apple Finds A Second Wind Where It Matters Most
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) just reminded everyone it’s still a status symbol in China, grabbing a quarter of all phones sold there in October thanks to the iPhone 17.
When one in four new phones is wearing a half-eaten fruit logo, that’s not just demand, that’s dominance. It also hints at a spicy holiday quarter if that momentum holds.
The good news here is people are clearly willing to pay up for the latest model again, not just nurse older phones forever. That helps both sales and the whole ecosystem of apps, services, and accessories. The risk is that China is still a competitive circus, with local brands and Huawei waiting to pounce the moment Apple stumbles.
So this isn’t a problem solved forever moment, but it does cool down the Apple’s lost it in China narrative and buys time for the next wave of gadgets and services to land.
My Take For You: If you’ve been underweight, this kind of proof-of-life in a key market can justify a starter or add-on buy, eased in over time instead of chasing any single big up day.
My Verdict: Core holding territory. Not drama-free, but still one of the cleaner ways to ride global premium spending and the phone-plus-services machine.
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Retail
Home Depot Learns You Can’t Renovate Consumer Mood On Command
Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) just admitted what a lot of homeowners are feeling: the big-ticket projects are on pause. Earnings missed again, the outlook got cut, and the we’ll remodel later feeling is spreading from your group chat straight into their sales numbers.
It turns out higher mortgage rates plus a soft housing market is not the recipe for fresh kitchens. The company is still solid, as pros keep coming and online orders are growing, but the easy tailwinds are gone.
Fewer moves mean fewer fix-it-up-before-we-sell projects, and cautious consumers don’t love swiping cards for big renovations when headlines scream about layoffs and shutdowns. Management basically said they don’t see any obvious near-term catalyst to snap demand back.
For investors, this looks more like a slow patch than a broken business, but a slow patch can stick around longer than your patience if you buy too aggressively. The brand, footprint, and dividend are all real; the timing, less so.
My Take For You: If you like the name, think dollar-cost-averaging rather than one big plunge. Let the stock work through a few more quarters of meh demand and watch what happens to housing activity and rates.
My Verdict: Quality retailer in a funk. Fine as a patient, income-friendly hold, but don’t expect instant gratification.
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Movers and Shakers
Amazon.com Inc [AMZN]: Premarket Move: -1%
Amazon’s firing up a $15 billion bond sale to feed its AI habit, basically adding a new limit to the corporate credit card so AWS can bulk up.
It’s a vote of confidence in growth, but also a reminder that the AI tab is getting very real, very fast.
My Take: If you’re long, this is fine. Treat real pullbacks as add-on chances, not every tiny dip. If you’re new, wait for a better sale tag instead of calling today’s red a screaming bargain.
Amer Sports Inc [AS]: Premarket Move: +8%
Arc’teryx jackets and Salomon sneakers are still flying off shelves, and Amer just dropped a big revenue beat with a guidance hike to match, so the stock’s sprinting at the open.
That’s what happens when you sell aspirational outdoorsy to people who mostly hike from the couch to the coffee shop.
My Take: Fun growth story, but the valuation already wears a premium price tag. Keep position sizes small, ride the strength, and don’t be shy about taking profits if the post-earnings high starts to fade.
Molina Healthcare Inc [MOH]: Premarket Move: +4%
Molina’s raising $850 million in new notes at 6.5%, tidying up its debt stack after a rough year for the stock, like someone finally organizing the junk drawer.
It’s a grown-up move that buys time, but it doesn’t erase all the margin and policy worries baked into that huge drawdown.
My Take: Traders can ride the relief bounce with tight stops, but longer-term investors may want to wait for clearer signs that earnings and guidance have actually turned the corner before calling this cheap instead of danger zone.
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Everything Else
Dell and HPE got slapped with fresh Morgan Stanley downgrades, reminding everyone that soaring memory costs can deflate even the buzziest AI hardware story.
Fed governor Chris Waller is openly backing a December rate cut, arguing a softer labor market needs a little extra cushioning from lower borrowing costs.
Berkshire’s surprise stake in Alphabet has investors revisiting this cash-rich AI heavyweight as a “Buffett-approved” way to play the next leg of the tech cycle.
China’s Alibaba rolled out its upgraded Qwen AI chatbot to the masses, stepping harder into consumer AI and nudging the U.S.–China rivalry into your app drawer.
Bitcoin’s slide back below $90,000 is flashing a mood check for risk assets, as traders rethink how far and fast the Fed will actually cut next year.
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback, please reply to this email.
Best Regards,
— Adam Garcia
Elite Trade Club
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