Ray: Good morning, this is Biscuits and Tickers for Tuesday, October thirteenth. I'm Ray.

Nora: And I'm Nora. Big banks kick off earnings season this morning, a chip sell-off that started in Asia is weighing on tech, and stock futures are pulling in two directions.

Ray: Here's the setup. On Monday the S and P 500 slipped less than a tenth of a percent to close at 7,807. The Nasdaq 100 fell about seven tenths of a percent as chip stocks sold off, while the Dow edged higher and small caps dipped. This morning, futures are split. Dow futures are up about half a percent, helped by Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth. S and P futures are roughly flat, and Nasdaq 100 futures are down about half a percent.

Nora: Treasury yields are back in focus after Monday's bond-market holiday. The 10-year yield is trading around 5.2 percent, a touch lower. Benzinga puts the 2-year near 4.76 percent. The dollar index is down about a quarter of a percent near 102. Oil is easing, with West Texas crude down roughly 2 percent to about 92 dollars and Brent near 104 dollars. Gold is up a bit near 4,200 dollars an ounce, and bitcoin is little changed around 83 to 84 thousand dollars. The VIX is near 15, a calm reading.

Ray: On today's calendar: the NFIB small business optimism index came out at six a.m. Eastern. Existing home sales for September are due at ten. The monthly Treasury budget statement follows at two p.m. Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin and Boston Fed President Susan Collins are all scheduled to speak.

Nora: Earnings before the open came from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Johnson and Johnson, UnitedHealth, Domino's and Albertsons. Tomorrow brings the September consumer price index, plus Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock and the chip-equipment maker ASML. CME FedWatch, cited by Benzinga, shows about a 19 percent chance of a rate hike at the Fed's October meeting.

Ray: Our top story: bank earnings. Goldman Sachs, ticker G S, is the standout. It reported earnings of 17 dollars and one cent a share, far above the roughly 13 dollars Wall Street expected, on net revenue of 18.7 billion dollars. Goldman says that's its second-highest quarterly revenue ever and a record for the year to date. The stock is up more than 3 percent before the bell.

Nora: JPMorgan Chase, ticker J P M, had a mixed quarter. Net income rose 6 percent to 15.3 billion dollars. Excluding a 658 million dollar loss on securities, it earned 5 dollars and 75 cents a share, short of the roughly 5 dollars and 94 cents analysts expected. Revenue rose 8 percent. According to Quartz, equities trading jumped 49 percent from a year ago, while fixed income trading slipped 4 percent. The bank also cut its buybacks.

Nora: Jamie Dimon said the economy is being fueled by strong business investment and consumer spending, but he flagged fiscal deficits, sticky inflation and geopolitics as shifting under the surface. The stock is slightly lower premarket.

Ray: Wells Fargo, ticker W F C, earned 1 dollar and 87 cents a share, a bit above estimates, but revenue of 21.9 billion dollars came in below expectations, according to the Wall Street Journal. Shares are down about 2 percent. Citigroup, ticker C, beat estimates with earnings of 2 dollars and 85 cents a share, but its stock is slightly lower too.

Nora: Our second story: a chip sell-off that started with a claim out of China. Over the weekend, the president of Chinese memory maker C X M T told a Shanghai conference the company had made a breakthrough in a new memory-chip design for data-center servers. He gave few details, and the Edge Malaysia called it an unsubstantiated claim.

Ray: Markets reacted anyway. South Korea's Kospi fell roughly 6 percent on Tuesday, according to Yahoo Finance, with Samsung and S K Hynix each down 7 to 8 percent. In the U.S. on Monday, Micron, ticker M U, fell about 4 percent. Adding to the mood, Broadcom's CEO Hock Tan called much of today's AI investing a casino.

Nora: Analysts quoted by the Edge were skeptical. Morningstar's Jing Jie Yu said there could be a big gap between unveiling the product and producing it at viable yields. Union Bancaire Privee's Vey-Sern Ling said investors appear to be looking for reasons to take profits in memory stocks, which have been big winners this year. C X M T's share of the DRAM market has risen to about 10 percent, according to Counterpoint Research.

Ray: Our third story: two health care giants. UnitedHealth Group, ticker U N H, beat third-quarter estimates, earning 4 dollars and 69 cents a share against about 4 dollars and 14 cents expected, and raised its full-year profit outlook to at least 20 dollars and 50 cents a share. CNBC says the insurer is managing high medical costs better. The stock is up between 1 and 3 percent premarket.

Nora: Johnson and Johnson, ticker J N J, also beat, with adjusted earnings of 2 dollars and 59 cents a share on sales of 25.4 billion dollars, up about 6 percent. It nudged up its full-year guidance. But reported earnings fell about 96 percent, mostly because of a one-time charge for its proposed talc litigation settlement. Shares are down about 2 percent before the bell.

Ray: More movers. Applied Materials, ticker A M A T, is down about 2 percent with the chip group, even after announcing a 5 billion dollar research center in Silicon Valley. Domino's Pizza, ticker D P Z, is down about 1.5 percent despite an earnings beat. Albertsons, ticker A C I, is down about 2 percent after missing estimates. Chipotle, ticker C M G, is steady after Monday's drop, when Starbucks denied reports it was considering buying the chain.

Nora: On sectors, the theme is rotation. Semiconductors and AI-linked tech are under pressure for a second day, while financials and health care are leading premarket. That's why the Dow is outperforming the Nasdaq this morning. Energy may stay soft with oil easing, and European stocks are mostly higher.

Ray: What to watch today. First, how bank stocks trade after the opening bell, especially Goldman and Wells Fargo. Second, whether the chip sell-off deepens or stabilizes. Third, existing home sales at ten a.m., with mortgage rates near 7.5 percent. Fourth, comments from Fed speakers Waller, Barkin and Collins ahead of tomorrow's inflation report.

Nora: And keep an eye on oil and the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has extended the shutdown of Riyadh's main airport through Saturday after Houthi attacks, and President Trump says he's considering joining Saudi-led strikes. Any escalation could move crude and yields quickly.

Ray: That's Biscuits and Tickers for Tuesday, October thirteenth. This is news and information, not investment advice. I'm Ray.

Nora: And I'm Nora. See you tomorrow, when C P I and more bank earnings arrive.