Stocks Open Higher; U.S. Leads G7 in Growth as AI Building Surges - Monday, October 26, 2026 - Vote Watch

3:18 • no narration • every clip credited on screen

The market at the open

At 7:00 a.m. PT, half an hour after the opening bell, the Dow was up 175.11 points (0.34%) at 52,390.27, the S&P 500 was up 0.40% at 7,654.45 and the Nasdaq was up 0.24% at 26,016.87, as oil prices eased after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq’s second straight losing week (prices: Yahoo Finance market data; AP; Yahoo Finance).
At the same time, Nvidia was up 1.8% at $214.75, Intel up 0.4% at $87.29, IBM down 0.2% at $253.05, Apple down 1.3% at $343.24 and SpaceX down 1.7% at $144.99. SpaceX has traded on Nasdaq as SPCX since its June 12, 2026 IPO at $135 a share (Nasdaq).
Movers. Tesla rose 5.5% after Barclays analyst Dan Levy upgraded it to overweight, citing a possible SpaceX merger (CNBC). U.S.-listed Brazilian stocks plunged after President Lula da Silva’s surprise re-election: XP down about 50% and Petrobras down about 16% at 7 a.m. PT (WSJ; Investing.com). SpaceX slipped after Elon Musk said late Sunday it had arranged $40 billion in debt financing to buy AI chips (Investing.com).
AI company Anthropic publicly filed to sell shares for the first time, just before the opening bell (Yahoo Finance; Yahoo Finance video). The Federal Reserve announces its interest-rate decision Wednesday, and Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Intel report earnings this week (Barron’s; AP).

At his rally in Perry, Ga., on Saturday, President Trump announced “a massive auto manufacturing investment in the great state of Georgia.” Audi and Gov. Brian Kemp say it is a $4 billion first U.S. plant near Macon with about 4,500 jobs, reaching full production in 2031. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner called it “a fantastic opportunity for Audi, for the Audi team and for America” (13WMAZ video; RSBN video).

The economy grew at a 2.2% annual rate in April–June (BEA; the next report is Thursday). Employers added 29,000 jobs in September and unemployment was 4.2% (BLS).
The IMF’s Oct. 13 forecast has the U.S. growing 2.3% in 2026, the fastest in the G7, behind only China (4.5%) among the economies compared (IMF World Economic Outlook).
The catch: prices. Consumer prices rose 3.7% in a year and the gasoline index 34.2%, while average pay rose 3.0% (BLS). The Fed raised rates to 3.75%–4% on Sept. 16 (Federal Reserve), regular gas averaged $4.28 a gallon the week of Oct. 19 (EIA), and the IMF’s 3.6% inflation forecast for the U.S. is the highest among the economies compared.

Nvidia: up to $500 billion in U.S.-built AI systems; the Wistron plant in Fort Worth, Texas, is $700 million with 500+ jobs, 1,000 by year-end (Nvidia; NVIDIA video).
Apple: a $600 billion U.S. pledge; Houston is shipping AI servers, with Mac mini production coming. John Ternus has been Apple’s CEO since Sept. 1; Tim Cook is executive chairman (Apple; CBS Mornings video).
Intel: $28 billion+ for Ohio fabs with 3,000 jobs, now targeted for 2030–31; Arizona’s Fab 52 makes its most advanced 18A chips (Intel; CNBC video; Intel video).
IBM: $150 billion over five years; a $2.5 billion quantum plant is planned in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (IBM; Dutchess County IDA; IBM Research video).
SpaceX: a $506 million Gigabay at Starbase, Texas, with 500 new jobs, and at least $1.8 billion for Starship in Florida with 600 jobs (Texas Tribune; Reuters; SciNews video).

Data-center construction hit a record $85 billion annual pace in August, up 73% in a year (U.S. Census Bureau).
Fort Worth City Manager Jay Chapa said data centers are “going to be key to providing the tax base of the future” (FOX 4 video). In Ohio, a training center says it brings in 60 to 100 electrician apprentices a month (Fox video); the BLS projects about 81,000 electrician openings a year through 2034.
Meta’s data center in Richland Parish, La., is $50 billion+, with 7,500 construction jobs at peak and 1,000 permanent jobs (Louisiana Economic Development; Louisiana First News video).

Clips used under fair use for news commentary; sources are credited in the video.