Markets
Markets Today: Dow rises alone as tech slides and Bitcoin slips below $77,000 (November 2, 2026)
Wall Street split on November 2, 2026: the Dow rose while tech fell, oil plunged on Iran diplomacy hopes, and Bitcoin slipped below $77,000.
Wall Street split on Monday: the Dow rose while tech stocks fell for a third straight day, giving back an early rebound as doubts about AI stocks lingered. Oil plunged on hopes for diplomatic efforts to end the U.S.-Iran conflict, and crypto slipped late in the day as Binance customers pulled billions after withdrawals reopened following last week's record hack. Stock closes as of 4 p.m. ET; crypto as of early evening ET (21:17 UTC), November 2, 2026. This is not financial advice.
Crypto snapshot
| Asset | Price | 24h change |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $76,732 | -1.9% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,248 | -1.1% |
| Total crypto market cap | $2.59 trillion (Nov. 1 close) | +0.3% |
The early-evening figures come from The Motley Fool's crypto market report, which put Solana at $91.56, down 3.1%. Bitcoin had steadied near $78,000 earlier in the session before sliding, and Reuters reported it hit a six-week low on Friday, in its dollar-and-crypto report. The total market-cap figure is the November 1 close from BasisDesk.
Stock market snapshot
| Index | Close | Daily change |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | 7,541.40 | -0.51% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 25,164.32 | -1.07% |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 51,983.98 | +0.41% |
The closing levels come from Reuters' market wrap, which noted the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained early in the session before fading, and match Investopedia's markets roundup. It was the Nasdaq's third straight day of steep declines, after October brought its biggest one-month drop since March 2025.
Today's winners and losers
Stocks
- Winners: IDEXX Laboratories jumped about 16.5% after reporting earnings before the open. Consumer discretionary was the S&P 500's best sector, up 2.25%, led by DoorDash after last week's earnings and its announced plan to acquire Instacart for $17 billion, with homebuilders PulteGroup, NVR and Lennar also among the top performers as long-dated Treasury yields slipped, according to TipRanks' S&P 500 movers roundup.
- Losers: Advanced Micro Devices fell 7.0% in afternoon trading ahead of its earnings report on Tuesday, and Apple slipped 1.7% ahead of its own results due after Monday's close, per The Motley Fool's week-ahead preview. Energy was the worst sector, down about 3.9%, as oil prices plunged.
Crypto
- Winners (Nov. 1 close, top 50): OKB rose 3.1%, TRON gained 3.0% and Uniswap added 2.0%, in a session where only 17 of the 50 largest assets rose, according to BasisDesk.
- Losers (Nov. 1 close, top 50): Morpho fell 5.7%, NEAR Protocol dropped 3.3% and Ethena lost 3.2%, as the broader crypto market stayed under pressure from the Binance fallout.
What's driving the moves
- Oil plunged on diplomacy hopes. U.S. crude fell about 8% to $95.80 a barrel and Brent dropped more than 7% as talks between the U.S. and Iran continued in Doha, easing fears that energy costs would keep inflation high, per Investopedia. The drop hit energy stocks but gave the broader market an early lift.
- Tech's October hangover continued. The Nasdaq's October slide — its worst month since March 2025 — followed disappointing earnings from Alphabet, Amazon and Intel, and investors sold into Monday's early bounce, pushing the S&P 500's technology index down 2.7%.
- The Binance hack kept weighing on crypto. Binance processed $4.65 billion of withdrawals against $1.01 billion of deposits, a net outflow of $3.64 billion, after reopening withdrawals in phases, CoinDesk reported. Reuters noted the FBI has blamed North Korea for the $6.3 billion breach. Social chatter about the outflows was split between distrust of the exchange and arguments that the withdrawals show the system working.
- Institutional crypto demand weakened. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643.3 million in net outflows on October 30, and U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs lost a record $1.61 billion across October, leaving Ether's rebound fragile even as it briefly retook $2,300 during the day.
- Yields eased and gold bounced. The 10-year Treasury yield sat near 4.92%, after touching 4.87% intraday — its lowest since early September — while gold futures rose 1.5% to $3,955 an ounce after falling below $3,900 on Friday. Markets still priced roughly a 70% chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December, according to The Economics Desk's morning briefing, with the Fed having held rates at 3.75%-4.00% on October 28.
What investors are watching next
The week is packed. The U.S. midterm elections land Tuesday, November 3, with investors watching whether Democrats take the House and what that means for crypto regulation. Apple and Palantir report after Monday's close, AMD follows on Tuesday, and the October jobs report arrives Friday, November 6 — consensus is for about 65,000 new jobs after September's 29,000. The Bank of England decides rates on Thursday, and the Treasury's quarterly refunding announcement comes Wednesday. On the rate path, Morningstar noted markets have scaled back how many Fed hikes they expect through mid-2027 even while still pricing a December move. Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson told Bloomberg that election, AI and liquidity stresses could pull the S&P 500 toward 7,100 before it recovers toward 8,000 — his view, not ToolPilot's, and a reminder of how wide the range of outcomes still is.
Bottom line: Monday was a day of two markets: the Dow held up, while the AI-led tech trade and crypto kept sliding under the weight of earnings doubts and the Binance shock. Cheaper oil bought some breathing room, but with midterms, Apple earnings and the jobs report all landing within days, the market's next direction is up for grabs. Nothing here is a recommendation.