US Market Recap: SpaceX Moves Into Telecom as Carriers Fall and Tower Stocks Rally

1. The three indices: broad gains and a higher weekly close

2. Sectors: both extremes were narrow, one intra-industry reallocation

3. Mega-cap tech: the Magnificent Seven retraced only half

4. Semiconductors and equipment: the SOX -0.41%, down 4.30% on the week

5. Memory & storage: memory gave back a little, HDDs stopped falling

6. Optical networking and AI hardware: the day's most concentrated rebound

7. China ADRs: the Golden Dragon +2.69%, almost no large-cap decliners

8. Notable movers: towers and telecoms, two ends of one balance sheet

9. Key events of the day

• SpaceX buys nationwide 800MHz spectrum, repricing telecoms and towers in opposite directions

  SpaceX said on October 8 that it had agreed to buy a nationwide portfolio of low-band spectrum licences from Grain Management, a digital infrastructure investor, covering up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800MHz band; the deal still needs Federal Communications Commission approval. The company said the low-band resource fills a key technical gap and paves the way for Starlink Mobile to become a mainstream US carrier. A day earlier the FCC said it would vote on auctioning 25MHz of prime spectrum to support satellite-to-phone service and would seek comment on October 29 on releasing an additional 482MHz. Last week T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon had just announced a satellite-to-phone joint venture that SpaceX did not join.
• Apple cuts iPhone 18 Pro component output as memory prices rise

  Media reports said that because sharply higher memory-chip costs have pushed up retail prices and weakened demand, Apple has told some suppliers to cut component output for the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple closed 1.11% lower at 336.64 dollars, the worst of the Magnificent Seven. The story reaches beyond Apple: it is the first time the chain running from AI servers taking memory capacity to higher handset costs has fed through to end demand.
• Michigan sentiment hits a five-month low and the current conditions index a record low

  The University of Michigan's preliminary October survey showed the consumer sentiment index falling from 48.1 in September to 46.3, below the 47.6 expected and the lowest since May; the current economic conditions index dropped sharply from 50.9 to 44.7, a record low for the monthly survey; and the expectations index rose from 46.3 to 47.3, the first increase since July. The one-year inflation expectation rose from 4.6% to 4.7% and the five-to-ten-year expectation from 3.4% to 3.5%, both the highest since May. The survey director said confidence fell most among lower-income consumers and those holding less stock.
• Trump says there will be no attack on Iran before the midterms; oil eased off its intraday high

  Trump said the US and Iran were in productive talks and that there would be no attack on Iran at any point before the November 3 midterms. Crude gave back most of its gain on the news: November light sweet crude settled at 91.85 dollars a barrel (+0.39%) and December London Brent at 104.72 dollars (+0.42%), after both had been up more than 5% intraday. The same supports remain: frequent shipping attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, lower US Gulf of Mexico output after a hurricane, and US sanctions on 17 vessels carrying Iranian crude.
• Micron raises its buyback ceiling past 35 billion dollars and a broker lifts its target to 3,000 dollars

  In its 10-K filing Micron disclosed that the board approved raising the maximum amount of common stock it may repurchase at its discretion, effective December 9, 2026, to 35.16 billion dollars (from 10 billion, of which about 2.2 billion remained available). The same day D.A. Davidson raised its Micron target from 2,100 to 3,000 dollars, the highest on Wall Street. Micron closed 0.66% lower at 1,029.00 dollars, with turnover of 20.4 billion dollars the largest in the market.
• Moderna joins the Nasdaq 100 and closes 14.21% higher

  Moderna was added to the Nasdaq 100 index before the open on October 9, replacing Warner Bros. Discovery. Inclusion forces index-tracking passive funds to buy, adding incremental demand. The company had said on August 19 that a phase III study of its individualised neoantigen therapy intismeran autogene combined with Merck's Keytruda in adjuvant melanoma met its goals, and on October 7 expanded sample collection and sequencing work with Merck and Tempus. The shares closed 14.21% higher at 225.00 dollars, the highest since December 2022.
• Delta Air Lines cuts its 2026 guidance sharply, with fuel the main driver

  Delta cut its 2026 adjusted earnings per share guidance from the 6.50 to 7.50 dollar range given in July to 5.10 to 5.60 dollars, with fourth-quarter guidance also below analyst estimates and full-year free cash flow guidance lowered from as much as 4 billion to 2.5 billion dollars. The chief executive said that as airlines pass on about 6 billion dollars of extra fuel cost this year fares keep rising, yet bookings remain strong. Delta opened about 3% lower and recovered to close roughly flat.

10. Cross-asset: gold and silver jumped, long yields barely moved

11. What we take away

• The same news sent carriers lower and tower owners higher
  One piece of news repriced both the landlord and the tenant: the three tower REITs swept the top of the gainers list (+15.60%, +9.30%, +7.36%) while the three big carriers filled the top of the decliners (-13.27%, -9.7%, -8.75%). Both inferences are defensible: the wider satellite coverage reaches, the more ground stations are needed to carry urban capacity; and the more satellites bypass conventional base stations, the thinner the incumbents' pricing power. What matters is that the spectrum deal still needs regulatory approval and no tower has signed a lease, so what moved on the day was valuation, not cash flow.
• The divergence between inflation data and rates is narrowing, but not in a good way
  The Michigan current conditions index fell to 44.7, a record low, and the one-year inflation expectation rose to 4.7%, yet the 10-year yield moved just 2 basis points. The market is no longer pricing the long end off the strength of demand but off the policy path plus oil. The day's only policy variable was Trump's comment on not attacking Iran, which held down both oil and yields. The calm in the long end comes from oil being pinned down, and the inflation risk itself has not gone away. Next Wednesday's September CPI will test that assumption immediately.
• The negative correlation between China ADRs and US tech has now held for two days
  On Thursday the Nasdaq fell 1.25% while the Golden Dragon fell just 0.62%; on Friday the Nasdaq rose 0.64% and the Golden Dragon jumped 2.69%, up 4.25% on the week. That is more than simple Hong Kong tracking can explain; it looks more like China ADRs absorbing some flows as a low-correlation position during the AI hardware deleveraging. When an asset class beats the index in both directions for two straight sessions, it is worth upgrading it from a sentiment proxy to an allocation candidate.
• Next week's pricing keyword shifts from AI revenue to bank credit
  Friday was the third day of this AI narrative correction and the market handled it typically: software and internet rebounded (Amazon +3.29%, Snowflake +7.42%, Palantir +5.17%) while semiconductors kept grinding lower (the SOX -0.41%, and -4.30% for the week). Next week Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley report third-quarter results, with analysts expecting about 30.6% earnings growth for the S&P 500 (energy +123%, technology +66.5%). Together with Wednesday's September CPI, those two sets of hard data will decide how much longer the current "defensives and growth up together" pattern can last.