The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was leading the stock market higher on Friday, with all three indexes looking at big monthly gains in October. The Nasdaq was up nearly 0.9% in early action, while the S&P 500 was 0.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major stock indexes held solid gains Friday as Wall Street reacted to strong earnings results from AmazonAMZN and AppleAAPL. Meanwhile, Palantir TechnologiesPLTR and NvidiaNVDA were winners on the stock market today.

For two consecutive years, September has brought sweeping changes to the microcap IPO landscape. In 2024, the NYSE adopted a $10 million minimum gross proceeds requirement for microcap IPOs. And in 2025, Nasdaq has gone even further, completely rewriting the rulebook for emerging growth companies.

U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday to cap off a pretty resilient October despite hesitations around future Federal Reserve rate cuts and a lack of U.S. government data during what could easily become the longest shutdown on record.

Wall Street digested a wave of Big Tech earnings alongside the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate move, while waiting for President Trump's long-awaited summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Despite another Federal Reserve rate cut in December now in doubt, the major U.S. stock indexes were on pace to score at least a sixth straight month of gains as October draws to a close, according to Dow Jones Market Data.