The PrimeFlow Desk · Thursday, October 22, 2026 · Late-Morning Edition
Tesla and Meta both beat Wall Street’s profit forecasts after the close on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. By 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, the Nasdaq was down 2.3% and Meta’s shares 6.7%. The market isn’t arguing with the profits. It’s arguing with the bill.
Where the market closed on Wednesday, October 21
- S&P 500: 7,757.17, up 0.58%
- Dow: 52,856.09, up 0.69%
- Nasdaq: 26,702.86, up 1.05%
- 10-year Treasury yield: 5.13%, up from 5.12%
Wednesday was a good day, led by the Nasdaq. By 11 a.m. Thursday it had all been given back and more: the S&P 500 was down 1.4%, the Nasdaq 2.3% and the Dow 0.5%.
Meta and Tesla third-quarter results: good numbers, nervous money
Meta’s sales rose 26% last quarter to $64.6 billion, ahead of forecasts. It also expects to spend $135 billion to $145 billion this year on data centers and equipment, and its board approved a new class of publicly listed shares with no voting rights, to be handed to existing shareholders.
Tesla beat on profit too, at 48 cents a share after adjustments. Tesla also cut this year’s spending plan to about $20 billion, from more than $25 billion, and its shares were roughly flat by late morning. Meta’s were not.
The selling spread to Asia’s chip makers overnight. Samsung fell more than 4% in Seoul and Tokyo Electron almost 6% in Tokyo.
My view: the market is pricing the spending, not the profits. When one company plans to spend up to $145 billion in a year, every chip maker gets judged on whether that pace can last. This morning the first hour gave its answer: buyers didn’t step in. I’d want to see the chip makers stop falling before I’d call this a bottom, and a morning like this one is exactly when managing risk matters more than picking a direction.
This morning the first hour decided how much of the overnight drop would stick. The 40 Minutes That Matter is what our desk teaches every new trader first: a workshop and two one-page cheat sheets, The Level Map and The Session Clock, so you know where the morning’s key prices sit before the bell. It normally sells for $49. You can have it for one payment of $7.
See How Our Desk Reads the First Hour, $7 →
Oil hits a five-month high
Brent crude, the world’s benchmark, was up about 2.3% at $111.30 a barrel by late morning, its highest since May.
Jobless claims fall to 194,000
First-time claims for unemployment fell to 194,000 last week, the lowest in three months, the Labor Department said at 8:30 a.m.
On the calendar for Friday, October 23 (ET)
- 9:45 AM: the first October surveys of America’s factories and service companies
The record
Three alerts closed on Wednesday, all wins. The largest, FDMT, went in at $12.63 on October 19 and came out at $13.39 on October 21, a gain of 6.02%. As of 22 October 2026 the public trade log shows 493 closed alerts: 472 wins, 17 losses and 4 breakeven. See every closed alert on the public log.
Until the bell,
Christopher
Editor, PrimeFlow Trades
PrimeFlow Trades publishes market commentary and trade alerts for education. Nothing here is personal investment advice. Trading stocks involves risk, including the loss of money. Past results, including those on our public trade log, do not guarantee future results.
