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The World in a Week: How Major Markets Moved
United States | Stocks slipped as US-China trade tensions flared and shutdown worries grew. The S&P 500 fell 2.7% and the Nasdaq 3.1%, despite early AI optimism after AMD’s OpenAI deal. Gold crossed $4,000/oz for the first time, reflecting flight to safety.
Europe | The STOXX 600 dropped 1.1% as profit-taking and trade fears hit sentiment. Germany’s factory output fell 4.3%, sparking recession concerns, while France’s CAC 40 and DAX each lost over 2% amid political and economic headwinds, while the UK’s FTSE 100 eased 0.7% amid weaker housing data.
Asia | Japan’s Nikkei jumped 3.1% on stimulus hopes after Sanae Takaichi’s LDP win, while the yen weakened to 152.8 per dollar. In China, the Shanghai Composite rose 1.49%, even as Golden Week spending (a key holiday consumption indicator) lagged.
India | The Sensex and Nifty 50 each gained around 1.5% as pharma and financial stocks rallied. Divi’s Labs rose 6% and Natco Pharma 4% after the Biosecure Act passed in the US, while PSU banks climbed after the Cabinet cleared private-sector hiring at SBI.
Stock market closing data for the week of Oct 6 to Oct 10, 2025
Index information: STOXX 600 (tracks 600 large, mid & small-cap EU firms), DAX (top 40 German blue chips), CAC 40 (leading French stocks),Nikkei 225 (225 top Japanese stocks), CSI 300 & SSEC (mainland China A-shares), and Hang Seng (large-cap Hong Kong-listed firms). For these indices, we track 1-week returns to capture how global sentiment is shifting.
News Summaries
Tesla’s China Shipments Tick Up as EV Demand Stabilizes
Tesla shipped 90,812 cars from its Shanghai factory in September, up 2.8% from last year, as China’s auto market entered its peak festive season. The increase breaks a months-long decline, with production from the plant having fallen in seven of the past nine months.
The rebound helped Tesla deliver a record global quarter, driven by US buyers rushing to claim tax credits before expiry. In China, the launch of a six-seat Model Y also drew interest from family buyers ahead of the Golden Week holidays.
Rival BYD saw its first year-on-year drop in over 18 months, with Q3 deliveries down 1.3%, even as it maintained its lead over Tesla in the pure EV segment.
China’s broader EV and hybrid market stayed strong, with 1.5 million units sold in September, up 22% year-on-year. Regulators continue to warn automakers against aggressive price cuts as competition intensifies across the industry.
DoorDash Turns to Sidewalk Robots for Autonomous Deliveries
DoorDash has partnered with Serve Robotics for autonomous food deliveries across the US, starting in Los Angeles. The multiyear deal allows Serve’s sidewalk robots to handle short-distance orders while DoorDash focuses its human couriers on complex, higher-paying routes.
Serve’s robots have already completed tens of thousands of deliveries in cities like Miami, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta. The company’s shares jumped 29% after the partnership was announced. Serve also works with Uber Eats, giving it flexibility to take orders from multiple apps and improve efficiency.
DoorDash has been steadily expanding its automation efforts. It recently unveiled Dot, its in-house delivery robot for suburban routes, and is also testing drone deliveries with Flytrex and Alphabet’s Wing. The goal is to use a mix of humans, bots and drones to speed up service and reduce costs.
Serve plans to double its fleet to 2,000 robots by year-end. Its deliveries average under a mile and take about 18 minutes, ideal for dense city neighborhoods. The company aims to extend beyond food delivery to sectors like groceries, medicine and retail logistics, as it scales operations.
US Earnings Growth Seen Slowing as Tariff Costs and AI Spending Weigh on Outlook
US companies are expected to post 8.8% earnings growth for the third quarter, down from over 13% in the first half of 2025, as tariffs and heavy AI investments begin to impact profits, according to LSEG estimates.
Despite ongoing trade pressures, most corporations have continued to beat forecasts since the first round of tariffs was announced in April. Analysts, however, caution that rising customs duties that is now up 33% quarter-on-quarter to $93 billion could squeeze margins in coming quarters.
Investors are watching whether massive AI-related capital spending is starting to yield returns. Earnings from the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants are expected to stay strong, but high valuations as the S&P 500 trades at 23x forward earnings, above its 10-year average of 18.7 make markets vulnerable to disappointment.
The broader US economy remains resilient despite weak labor data and a recent rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Goldman Sachs expects firms to have maintained profit margins and predicts earnings will slightly exceed expectations.
An expected rebound in investment banking is also likely to lift major US banks this quarter, as investors shift focus from tariff risks to the sustainability of AI-driven growth.
Infographic of the Week
$2.2 billion.
That is the number Nvidia reported as “other income” in its Q2 FY2026 results.
At first, this looks like a small number compared to how Nvidia operates (roughly 7 per cent of its operating income). But a closer look reveals something interesting.
Nvidia has been placing bets on the AI ecosystem through equity investments. Its 13F filings with the SEC show holdings in:
- Applied Digital Corp
- Arm Holdings Plc
- Nebius Group N.V.
- CoreWeave Inc
- Recursion Pharmaceuticals
- WeRide Inc
One investment seemingly stands out. CoreWeave, a cloud startup, has surged nearly 150 percent in the last six months. Most likely this jump has added serious weight to Nvidia’s “other income” line item.
Essentially, Nvidia seems to be actively backing the very companies building on top of its technology.
Introducing Global Mutual Funds on Vested
After enabling lakhs of Indian investors to invest in US stocks and ETFs, Vested is now opening the next frontier with Global Mutual Funds.
The new offering gives investors access to 50+ international funds managed by global leaders such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and PIMCO, helping them diversify across regions and asset classes through simple, SEBI-compliant routes.
As part of this launch, Vested is also introducing GIFT City–domiciled global mutual funds, starting with the DSP Global Equity Fund, an actively managed portfolio investing in leading global companies across the US, Europe, and Asia.
With INR-based investing, simplified taxes, and no US inheritance tax, Global Mutual Funds make global diversification as seamless as investing in India now on a platform built for global investors by India’s global investing specialist.
From the World of Crypto
S&P Launches Hybrid Index Blending Crypto and Wall Street Stocks
S&P Global has unveiled the Digital Markets 50 Index, a new benchmark that combines 15 major cryptocurrencies with 35 publicly listed crypto-linked companies marking the first time the index provider has merged digital assets and equities into one investable metric.
Developed with Dinari, a US-based tokenization firm, the index will be available on-chain through Dinari’s dShares platform, allowing investors to gain exposure directly via blockchain. The tokenized version is expected to go live by year-end.
Each component in the index will be capped at 5% weight, with eligibility thresholds of $100 million in market cap for stocks and $300 million for cryptocurrencies. It will follow S&P’s regular quarterly rebalancing framework to maintain liquidity and diversification.
S&P executives said the move reflects how digital assets are becoming part of mainstream portfolios, while Dinari’s leadership called it proof of how tokenization can make traditional benchmarks more accessible and efficient.
The launch comes as crypto-linked companies such as Coinbase and Robinhood gain traction in US markets, and Bitcoin trades near record highs. By bridging both on-chain and traditional markets, S&P’s new index signals a growing convergence between Wall Street and the digital asset economy.
Key Headlines of the Week
$1 Trillion AI Flywheel Spins Up | OpenAI, Nvidia, AMD, and Oracle have created what looks like the biggest feedback loop in tech. OpenAI spends billions on chips and cloud; the others supply and reinvest right back sending their stocks soaring and adding nearly $1 trillion in market cap. We discussed this at length in our latest deep dive on how belief, bandwidth, and capital are feeding the AI boom.
SoftBank Eyes $5B AI Loan | SoftBank is in talks to borrow $5 billion against its Arm Holdings stake, lifting total margin loans to $18.5 billion. Founder Masayoshi Son plans to use the funds for new OpenAI investments, deepening the firm’s AI exposure.
Apple Reshuffles Leadership | Apple is reorganizing as COO Jeff Williams prepares to exit. Eddy Cue will oversee health and fitness, including a new Health+ service, while Craig Federighi takes charge of the Watch OS, aligning Apple’s wellness efforts under one team.
