A Record Week Behind Them, Investors Face the Week That Matters: Inflation Data and Bank Earnings

Wall Street closed out another record-setting week on Friday, but the numbers on the scoreboard were only half the story. The real drama played out in the stock moves — and the week ahead promises even bigger tests.

Records at the top, tension underneath

The S&P 500 set an all-time high on Tuesday, October 6, and finished the week at 7,811.54 after a Friday gain of 0.6%, according to a week-ahead recap published by American News Group via Yahoo Finance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 51,654.95 and the Nasdaq Composite at 27,366.17, with all three major indexes ending the week higher.

The backdrop is anything but relaxed: the 10-year Treasury yield recently reached its highest level since 2002 and closed Friday at 5.24%, the same recap reported. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate in September for the first time in more than three years, crude oil has traded above $90 a barrel, and consumers now expect 4.7% inflation over the coming year — up from 4.6% a month earlier, per the University of Michigan's preliminary October survey.

The week's loudest move: spectrum shock

The most dramatic single move of the week arrived late Thursday, when SpaceX agreed to acquire a nationwide portfolio of 800 MHz low-band spectrum licenses from the investment firm Grain Management — a deal that remains subject to Federal Communications Commission approval and would support SpaceX's Starlink Mobile service, according to the Yahoo Finance recap, which attributed the detail to the Associated Press.

The deal would give Starlink Mobile up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum prized for its ability to travel long distances and penetrate buildings — exactly the frequencies that would let satellite-to-phone service work indoors on most existing handsets, according to reporting by the Digital Watch Observatory and Broadband Communities.

Investors took it as a declaration of war on the wireless industry. On Friday, T-Mobile US fell 13.3%, AT&T fell 9.8%, and Verizon fell 8.7%, per the Yahoo Finance piece — a rout that Inside Towers reported as average double-digit losses for the carriers by Friday night's close. Tower operators moved the opposite way on expectations SpaceX will need terrestrial infrastructure: Crown Castle rose 15.6% and American Tower rose 9.3%.

What to watch this week

The calendar gives the bond market Monday off for Columbus Day while stocks trade normally, the recap noted. Then comes the main event: the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases September's Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, October 14, at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the Producer Price Index on Thursday.

Tuesday kicks off third-quarter earnings season with the largest U.S. banks and two of the biggest healthcare companies in the market. Friday's Medicare-driven pop in Humana — up 11.6% after the company said 95% of its Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated 4 stars or above under final 2027 ratings released October 8 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, while affirming 2026 adjusted earnings guidance of at least $9.00 per share — offered an early hint that this earnings season will be about guidance, not just results.

Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.