Top Pros' Top Picks 10/15/25

Market Minute ⏱️ 10/15/25: AI, Finance Giants Unite on $40 BLN Buy

Mike Larson | Editor-in-Chief

Stocks are rallying back after a mixed day yesterday. Gold and silver are surging again, while the dollar and Treasuries are flattish. Crude oil is up a bit, though still trading below $60 a barrel in the US this morning.

We have another MASSIVE deal in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) world to talk about. BlackRock Inc. (BLK), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) teamed up to buy Aligned Data Centers for $40 billion. The firms call their deal consortium the “Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Partnership” – and it also draws funding from the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore and Kuwait. Dallas-based Aligned has a portfolio of 50 campuses and five gigawatts of capacity online or in development.

BLK, NVDA, MSFT (YTD % Change)

Meanwhile, Wall Street made it rain in the third quarter – and Morgan Stanley (MS) got a big share of the profits! Stock-trading revenue at the firm surged 35% in Q3, while investment banking fees jumped 44%. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) also reported solid investment banking and investment advisory fee revenue, plus a better-than-expected rise in net interest income. Shares of both firms rose in early trading.

Lastly, why is China pushing through new trade restrictions? According to the Wall Street Journal, because China’s leader Xi Jinping thinks he can outmaneuver President Trump. Specifically, Xi believes that Trump will back down from punitive policies if the stock market swoons like it did earlier this year.

That calculus is leading to tit-for-tat moves by China and the US, fueling market volatility. Now, markets are focusing on an upcoming gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders later this month – and whether Trump and Xi will meet there to advance deal negotiations.

Empower’s Norton: With the Fed Flying BLIND, Here’s How Investors Should Adapt

• Stocks: It's Always About Earnings. Always.
  👉️ TICKER: SPY
  Time and time again over the past year, I found myself falling back on TKer Stock Market Truth No. 5: Earnings drive stock prices. Any long-term move in a stock can ultimately be explained by the underlying company’s earnings, and estimates for future earnings have been moving higher, notes Sam Ro, editor of Tker.co.

• Earnings: Will Financials, Techs Deliver on Q3 Profit Front?
  👉️ TICKER: SPX, WFC, XLK, JPM
  Yesterday marked the start of earnings season, as big banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) kicked things off. Last quarter was supposed to mark an earnings trough for the S&P 500 Index (^SPX), but instead, it churned out 8.7% growth, observes Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro.

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