Business Report: Oil Plunges 7% on Iran Talk Hopes as Tech Stocks Slide, Nov. 2, 2026

This business report for November 2, 2026 covers a Monday when oil had its worst day since July and tech stocks gave back early gains, one day before the U.S. midterm elections. Crude fell more than 7% on hopes for U.S.-Iran diplomacy. After the bell, Apple and Palantir reported results, and Anthropic opened its books further ahead of its stock market debut.

Oil Sinks More Than 7% on Hopes for U.S.-Iran Talks

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $96.46 a barrel, and Brent, the global benchmark, closed at $104.77 after a 7.63% drop, CNBC reported. It was the biggest one-day loss for U.S. crude since July 27. President Donald Trump told reporters that Iran wants to “make a deal and that could happen,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump “hasn’t made a decision” on new strikes and would “prefer to do it peacefully.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said a deal is possible if Washington “demonstrates goodwill,” according to the state news agency IRNA !Unverified claim, IRNA (Iranian state media). Oil had climbed more than 10% in October as traders priced in the risk of escalation after the elections. Ryan McKay of TD Securities told CNBC that as long as tanker and Houthi attacks continue, diplomacy headlines alone will not erase that risk premium. For drivers, the Financial Times reported that petrol prices were set to hit a record high under Trump on the eve of the vote.

Tech Slides as Investors Rotate Into Old-Economy Stocks

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.51% to 7,541.40 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.07% to 25,164.32, even though both had been up more than 1% earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 213.67 points, or 0.41%, to 51,983.98, lifted by Sherwin-Williams, up almost 6%, and Home Depot, up 3.6%.

Oracle fell about 8% after filing to sell $10 billion in stock and $10 billion in bonds to pay for its AI buildout. Marvell dropped almost 13% and Lumentum 18% after Marvell agreed to buy Lumentum in a $115 billion chip deal. CNBC noted that the equal-weighted S&P 500 jumped 4.9% in October while the regular index fell 0.9%, the average stock’s best month against the benchmark since April 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

Apple, Palantir and Anthropic Report Big Numbers

Apple beat revenue forecasts in Chief Executive John Ternus’ first report since he took over on Sept. 1. Revenue rose 12% from $102.5 billion a year earlier, iPhone sales jumped more than 17%, and Mac revenue surged nearly 24% to $10.79 billion. iPad sales fell more than 10% to $6.22 billion, and services grew less than 10%, the slowest pace since 2022. The stock was little changed after hours.

Palantir’s revenue topped $2 billion for the first time, and net income more than doubled to $1.13 billion. Its U.S. commercial business, at $984 million, passed U.S. government revenue of $953 million for the first time. Separately, Anthropic said in an amended filing that it brought in about $17 billion in third-quarter revenue and posted a $23.29 billion net loss for the quarter. Its purchase and lease commitments now total about $895.4 billion, almost all for computing power. We covered the filing in our Anthropic IPO report.

Economy: Construction Drops While Factories Grow

The Commerce Department said construction spending fell 1.9% in September, the biggest monthly drop since April 2020, while economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected a 0.4% gain. Home building led the decline, with residential spending down 5.5%. Factories looked healthier: the ISM manufacturing index rose a full point to 55.5, above the 54.5 forecast. Follow the trend on our U.S. economy tracker.

Midterm Money: Corporate Welfare on the Ballot in Texas

The American Prospect reports that Democrat Gina Hinojosa, challenging Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas, has built her campaign around cutting corporate subsidies. She has promised to end sales-tax breaks for large data centers and to review incentives, including property-tax savings estimated at $1.6 billion tied to Elon Musk’s Terafab project. “I’m running to be the governor for the people of Texas, not the billionaire CEOs,” she told the Prospect. Polls still narrowly favor Abbott, the magazine notes. An FT poll found a big majority of U.S. voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation; follow every race on our midterm elections tracker.

The Massachusetts Angle: Judge Tosses Harvard Records Case

In Boston, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to force Harvard University to hand over applicant-level admissions data. Joun wrote that the government sued without taking the required steps to seek Harvard’s voluntary compliance first, and he stressed the ruling was procedural, so the department could try again. For the Cambridge school it is another court win after earlier rulings blocked the termination of more than $2 billion in federal grants.

By the Numbers: What the Data Shows

By TBR calculations from CNBC’s figures, U.S. crude fell about $7.66 a barrel on Monday and Brent about $8.65. Monday’s oil drop was roughly seven times the size of the Nasdaq’s loss in percentage terms.

Palantir’s growth rates also tell a story. Working back from the reported growth, U.S. commercial revenue was about $397 million a year ago and government revenue about $486 million, so the commercial side went from roughly $89 million behind to $31 million ahead in one year (TBR calculations). At Anthropic, 47% quarter-over-quarter growth implies second-quarter revenue of roughly $11.6 billion (TBR calculation), and growth has slowed from 144% in the second quarter.

What It Means for Your Money

Cheaper crude, if it lasts, would ease pressure on gasoline and heating bills, but traders have seen these rallies on peace hopes reverse before. In stocks, money is moving away from the biggest AI names and toward the rest of the market. Tuesday’s election and this week’s jobs data are the next tests. Elsewhere, The Economist reported on Nov. 2 that the quest for immortality has become serious business.

Sources

• CNBC: Stock market today, Nov. 2, 2026
• CNBC: Crude oil prices sell off more than 7% on Iran peace talk hopes
• CNBC: The average stock is having its best relative performance in decades
• CNBC: Oracle files to sell $20 billion in new stock, bonds
• CNBC: Apple fourth-quarter earnings
• CNBC: Palantir third-quarter earnings
• CNBC: Anthropic reports $17 billion in Q3 revenue in revised S-1
• CNBC: U.S. judge dismisses Harvard admissions probe case
• The American Prospect: Will ‘Gina’ Break Texas’s Corporate Welfare Consensus?
• Financial Times: Petrol prices set to hit record high under Trump on eve of US elections
• Financial Times: Big majority of US voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of inflation
• The Economist: The quest for immortality has become serious business