Top Pros' Top Picks 10/21/25

Market Minute ⏱️ 10/21/25: GM Pops, While Coinbase Seals Another Deal

Mike Larson | Editor-in-Chief

After ripping yesterday, stocks are muted this morning while gold and silver are giving up ground. Crude oil is modestly higher along with the dollar, while Treasuries are flat.  

From escalating tariff costs to slumping Electric Vehicle (EV) subsidies, General Motors Co. (GM) has a lot on its plate – and it showed in the firm’s latest earnings report. Net income plunged to $1.3 billion, or $1.35 per share, from $3.1 billion, or $2.68 per share, in the year-ago period. But the stock actually traded higher initially as revenue and adjusted EPS topped forecasts. GM also lowered its forecast for full-year tariff costs, in part because President Trump just extended a relief program on Friday. 

GM, COIN (YTD % Change)

Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) continued its acquisition spree in the cryptocurrency space, buying Echo for $375 million in cash and stock. Echo runs the Sonar platform, which allows investors to buy into private and public tokens. Coinbase and other firms are looking to boost investor access to tokenized securities and assets, and this deal could advance those efforts.

Are “short squeezes” helping propel this market higher? Possibly. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) index of the most heavily shorted stocks has soared 16% so far in October – putting it on pace for the best October EVER. Short-sellers borrow shares, then sell them to profit from declines. But when stocks rally instead, they have to buy back those shares to cover their positions – causing “squeezes” that can ironically lead to even-stronger stock market gains. Gensler.

CTU’s Pugliese: Trading Volatile Markets and Mitigating Weekend RISK

• Market Volatility: October is Living Up to its Reputation
  👉️ TICKERS: KRE, SPX
  October is living up to its reputation as the most volatile month of the year. Indeed, since 1945, the standard deviation of monthly returns for the S&P 500 Index (^SPX) has been 33% greater than the average for the other 11 months of the year, writes Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

• NDSN: An Industrial Play with a Long History of Hiking Dividends

  👉️ TICKER: NDSN
  Nordson Corp. (NDSN) was founded in 1954 in Ohio, but the company can trace its roots back to 1909 with the US Automatic Company. Today, it has operations in over 35 countries and engineers, manufactures, and markets products used for dispensing adhesives, coatings, sealants, biomaterials, plastics, and other materials, advises Ben Reynolds, editor of Sure Passive Income.

🌏 📈 The S&P 500 has reversed all of its losses from the tariff sell off. The bull market once again shrugged off the start-and-stop trade war. (Opening Bell Daily)