Ray: Good morning, this is Biscuits and Tickers for Friday, October 30. I'm Ray.

Nora: And I'm Nora. Big Tech earnings are hitting the Nasdaq hard again this morning. Amazon and Intel are both sharply lower before the bell, a record crypto hack at Binance is weighing on bitcoin, and oil is climbing on Iran tensions. Here's what you need to know before the open.

Ray: Start with futures. As of about seven fifteen Eastern, Reuters had Nasdaq 100 futures down about 2.4 percent, S and P 500 futures down about 1 percent, and Dow futures roughly flat to slightly higher. Russell 2000 futures were down about half a percent, per Yahoo Finance.

Ray: That follows a down day Thursday. The S and P 500 fell 0.3 percent to about 7,720, and the Nasdaq 100 lost about 1.4 percent to near 29,400, as Alphabet had its worst session in more than 20 years. Reuters says the Nasdaq is on track to snap a two month winning streak in October.

Nora: Volatility is picking up. The VIX closed Thursday at 17.2 and was trading near 18.7 early this morning. The 10-year Treasury yield eased about 5 basis points to just under 5 percent, per Yahoo Finance. In currencies, the yen firmed to about 157 per dollar after the Bank of Japan held its policy rate at 1.25 percent.

Nora: Commodities are split. Brent crude is around 113 dollars and West Texas Intermediate near 104 dollars, both up about 2 percent. Gold slipped below 4,000 dollars an ounce. And bitcoin is near 77 to 78 thousand dollars, down roughly 3 percent, a six week low according to TradingKey.

Ray: On today's calendar: at 8:30 Eastern, the third quarter Employment Cost Index, a key wage gauge for the Fed. Yahoo Finance says economists expect a 0.8 percent rise, after 0.9 percent last quarter. At 9:45, the Chicago purchasing managers index for October, expected at 54.6, down from 58.8.

Nora: Remember the backdrop from Thursday's data. Third quarter GDP grew at a 3.4 percent annualized rate, above forecasts, while core PCE inflation ran at 3.1 percent year over year, per TheStreet. Reuters notes futures markets now price more than 50 basis points of Fed hikes by mid 2027.

Nora: Earnings this morning include Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which both beat estimates on stronger refining margins, plus AbbVie, AstraZeneca, BP, Sanofi and General Dynamics. Looking ahead, Apple reports on Monday, November 2, according to AppleInsider.

Ray: Our first top story: Amazon, ticker A M Z N, is down about 6 and a half percent pre-market after its third quarter report. Sales rose 12 percent to about 202 billion dollars, and Amazon Web Services grew about 39 percent to 46 billion dollars, with operating profit up more than 50 percent.

Ray: But earnings per share of 1 dollar 89 cents came in below the roughly 1 dollar 96 cents expected, according to TradingKey. The bigger issue is cash. Yahoo Finance reports trailing 12 month free cash flow was an outflow of more than 42 billion dollars, the deepest in Amazon's history.

Nora: Quarterly capital spending hit about 77 billion dollars, more than double a year ago. Amazon pegged 2026 capex near 220 billion dollars and signaled more increases in 2027. Fourth quarter sales guidance of 240 to 247 billion dollars brackets the consensus. A Swissquote strategist told Reuters the big four cloud players spent more than 200 billion dollars in the third quarter alone.

Nora: Next, Intel, ticker I N T C, is down about 25 percent pre-market. Third quarter revenue rose 21 percent to 16.5 billion dollars, and adjusted earnings of 52 cents beat estimates, per TradingKey.

Nora: The problem is the outlook. Intel guided fourth quarter revenue to 15 to 16 billion dollars and adjusted earnings to 25 cents, both below expectations. Reuters reports Intel warned it would burn cash this year, citing weak PC demand, manufacturing bottlenecks and expansion spending. Intel said PC weakness may last into the first half of 2027.

Ray: That PC warning is spreading. TradingKey reports Dell down more than 10 percent and HP down more than 8 percent pre-market, with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro off more than 5 percent. Reuters estimates Amazon and Intel together could shed about 300 billion dollars in market value if losses hold.

Ray: Turning to crypto. Binance disclosed Thursday evening that an attacker made unauthorized withdrawals after compromising a DevOps engineer's laptop. Binance puts the impact at about 6.3 billion dollars, which Yahoo Finance and CNBC describe as the largest crypto theft on record.

Nora: Binance suspended withdrawals and expects them to resume within 48 hours. It says no private keys were exposed, about 3 billion dollars has been frozen with partners' help, and it will cover losses from its own funds. Tether and Circle say they froze about 2.4 billion dollars in stablecoins combined. Crypto-linked stocks including Coinbase and Strategy were down about 5 percent pre-market, per Yahoo Finance.

Ray: And oil. Brent is up about 2 percent near 113 dollars, after touching a six month high, and is up about 12 percent in October, according to Yahoo Finance. The move comes on signs the United States may resume strikes on Iran, per Bloomberg reporting cited by Yahoo. Energy names are the bright spot pre-market.

Nora: Other movers, with prices from Robinhood market data. Reddit, ticker R D D T, is down about 21 percent after its CEO warned daily visitors could fall by a low double digit percentage in the fourth quarter. Stryker is down about 11 percent after a third quarter revenue miss, per Investing.com.

Nora: Memory chips are weak: Sandisk is down about 9 percent and Micron about 6 percent. Nvidia is down about 3 percent and Reuters has A M D off nearly 9 percent. Apple is down about 2 percent ahead of Monday's report.

Ray: On the upside, Mondelez is up about 6 percent after a third quarter earnings beat. Rivian is up about 6 percent after raising its 2026 delivery outlook to 67,000 to 70,000 vehicles. Exxon is up about 2 percent and Chevron about 1.5 percent. The sector picture: tech and semiconductors under pressure, energy higher, and the Dow holding up better than the Nasdaq.

Ray: What to watch today. At 8:30, the Employment Cost Index for a read on wage pressure. At 9:45, the Chicago PMI. Whether Nasdaq losses deepen or narrow after the open, given Amazon and Intel's weight. Crypto markets and Binance's withdrawal status. Oil and any Iran headlines. And it is month end, which can bring rebalancing flows into the close.

Nora: That's Biscuits and Tickers for Friday, October 30. This briefing is information, not investment advice. I'm Nora.

Ray: And I'm Ray. Have a good weekend.