Wall Street Closes Higher as Tech Leads Before Earnings and Fed Decision

Wall Street closed higher on Monday, October 26, 2026, with technology shares leading the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 146.42 points, or 0.28 percent, to close at 52,361.58. The S&P 500 gained 53.10 points, or 0.70 percent, to finish at 7,676.78. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 214.04 points, or 0.82 percent, to end the day at 26,169.38. Investopedia reported the same closes in rounded form, with the Nasdaq up 0.8 percent, the S&P 500 up 0.7 percent and the Dow up 0.3 percent, and it said tech shares led the session.

The closing numbers

Monday's gains put all three main indexes above their Friday levels. The Nasdaq recorded the largest percentage rise of the three, followed by the S&P 500, while the Dow added the smallest percentage gain. The point gains told the same story in a different order: the Nasdaq rose 214.04 points, the Dow rose 146.42 points and the S&P 500 rose 53.10 points. Markets closed at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, and the first exact closing figures were reported minutes after the bell, with the point and level figures matching across the early reports.

Tech gets a lift from the Anthropic filing

Tech shares got a boost after Anthropic filed its S-1 paperwork to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT, Investopedia reported. The filing disclosed a loss of $80.7 billion in the six months through June. Investopedia linked the strength in technology shares to the filing, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq finished with the strongest gain of the three main indexes on the day.

Earnings and the Fed fill the week ahead

The higher close opened a busy week for investors. Alphabet and Microsoft report earnings after the close on Wednesday, and Amazon reports on Thursday. The Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on Wednesday, and markets were pricing about a 90 percent chance of a hold. The earnings reports and the Fed decision land within two days of each other, which gives traders two large tests in the middle of the week after a calm Monday close.

A partial recovery from Friday

Monday's rise followed a lower close on Friday, October 23. The Dow fell 652.82 points, or 1.2 percent, to 52,215.16 on Friday. The S&P 500 shed 0.5 percent to 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq slid 0.2 percent to 25,955.34. Even after that fall, the Dow ended last week up 0.4 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished the week lower, according to Zacks. Monday's Dow gain recovered part of Friday's loss, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed above the levels where they ended the prior week session on Friday.