October 24 Market Report: Dow Falls 1.23% on Surging Oil Prices
A Middle East-driven spike in oil prices weighed on New York markets, with semiconductor and platform megacaps closing broadly lower by slim margins of around 0.1%.
According to Yonhap News, on the 23rd (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 52,215.16, down 652.82 points (1.23%) from the previous session at the New York Stock Exchange, while the S&P 500 fell 39.75 points (0.52%) to 7,623.68. International oil prices hit a six-month high, stoking inflation jitters and pushing investor sentiment toward safe-haven assets. A defining feature of the session was that individual megacaps fell less than the index.
Shallower Declines Than the Index... Megacaps Show Relative Resilience
Looking at the price moves of 29 major stocks, declines ranged from just -0.00% to -0.08%. Compared with the Dow's 1.23% plunge, individual megacups were essentially flat. In fact, Apple (+0.01%), Berkshire Hathaway B (+0.01%), Eli Lilly (+0.03%), Johnson & Johnson (+0.04%), Visa (+0.02%), and Mastercard (+0.02%) edged higher, offsetting the index decline.
| Stock | Price | Change | Market Cap | P/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | 212.21 | -0.04% | KRW 5.12tn | 26.8 |
| Apple | 348.22 | +0.01% | KRW 5.08tn | 39.9 |
| Alphabet A | 324.22 | -0.03% | KRW 3.97tn | 16.3 |
| Microsoft | 521.08 | -0.02% | KRW 3.87tn | 29.0 |
| Amazon | 250.38 | -0.05% | KRW 2.70tn | 20.1 |
| TSMC | 412.35 | -0.05% | KRW 2.14tn | 26.7 |
| Meta | 648.85 | -0.07% | KRW 1.65tn | 22.1 |
| AMD | 507.93 | -0.08% | KRW 0.83tn | 129.6 |
| Intel | 85.49 | -0.08% | KRW 0.45tn | - |
| Micron | 856.49 | -0.06% | KRW 0.97tn | 11.5 |
As the table shows, even the biggest decliners — AMD and Intel, along with Meta (-0.07%) and ASML (-0.07%) — stayed below 0.1%. The fact that growth stocks central to the semiconductor value chain fell less than the index indicates the selling stemmed from an external variable — oil prices — rather than from corporate earnings. Had confidence in earnings been shaken, high-beta growth stocks would typically have outpaced the index's decline.
Valuation Divide... Micron at 11.5x vs. Tesla at 411.6x
Even within the same semiconductor sector, valuation gaps are stark. Micron trades at a P/E of 11.5x, the lowest among the stocks surveyed — roughly half of NVIDIA's 26.8x and TSMC's 26.7x. By contrast, Tesla (411.6x), Palantir (173.6x), and AMD (129.6x) all command triple-digit multiples. In between sit undervalued names such as Alphabet at 16.3x, Berkshire Hathaway at 13.8x, and JPMorgan at 14.1x.
These gaps mean the market is pricing the quality of earnings differently even within the same industry. Micron could be interpreted as a stock whose earnings improvement from the memory boom has yet to be fully reflected in its share price. Tesla and Meta, with EPS growth rates of -4,709.0% and -256.0% respectively, may find their high P/Es a burden. Meta in particular fell -0.07% this session, the weakest among large platforms.
Safe Havens Lead... Consumer, Healthcare, and Payments Show Defensive Strength
The list of gainers reflects classic defensive-stock logic. Healthcare represented by Eli Lilly and AbbVie, consumer staples via Walmart (+0.03%) and Costco (+0.02%), and payment infrastructure from Visa and Mastercard formed a sector group resilient to the oil shock. Johnson & Johnson rose +0.04%, buoyed by a stunning EPS growth rate of 8,887.0%, securing buying interest despite a relatively elevated P/E of 40.6x. Exxon Mobil and Chevron holding flat (+0.00%, -0.00%) is also interpreted as reflecting expectations of gains from higher oil prices.
Outlook... A Shift from Short-Term Selling to Earnings Season
Next week's market direction is more likely to be set by earnings than by oil. A Yonhap report that the Korean market will look for direction based on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix earnings announcements and further shareholder return plans applies equally to U.S. semiconductor stocks. Earnings guidance from the semiconductor value chain — TSMC, Micron, AMD, and Intel — could provide the catalyst to reverse this modest pullback.
The investment takeaways are twofold. First, the negligible declines of under 0.1% signal that the market's resilience to external shocks remains strong, so stock-specific valuation checks are more useful than reflexive selling. Second, in a structure where Micron at an 11.5x P/E coexists with triple-digit P/E names like Tesla and Palantir, a strategy of picking stocks backed by earnings looks more favorable than betting on the sector as a whole. As Hunter S. Thompson might put it, the truth rarely speaks during regular trading hours — but this session's numbers spoke with unusual candor. The next direction will come from earnings, not oil.
