Stocks closed lower on Friday, but mixed for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 were both down for the week, while the Dow, small-cap Russell 2000 and mid-cap S&P 400 were up for the week.

Crude oil was up for the week, gaining 1.83%. Reports that the U.S. and Israel have drawn up plans of possible renewed attacks on Iran after the midterms is keeping energy markets on edge. But it's important to remember that currently, more oil is coming out of the Middle East now (roughly 24 million barrels a day as of last week), than before the war began.

Treasury yields were down last week. The 10-year closed at 4.988%, which is down -11 basis points from the previous week's close of 5.098%. And it's down -35 basis points from the high of 5.349% made the week prior.

The FOMC Announcement comes out this week on Wednesday, 10/28. At the moment, the odds are at 90.6% that the Fed keeps rates unchanged. Especially with midterms less than 2 weeks away. That means the Fed's next decision on rates after this week's meeting will come at the 12/9 meeting. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see if there are any dissents, and what narrative comes out of the announcement. And, of course, what Fed Chair Kevin Warsh says at his Press Conference that will follow.

Last week's headlines attributed the selloff, which was focused on tech, to continued concerns over AI spending and if it'll generate profits quick enough to justify current valuations.

Last week's earnings by Meta reminded people of that. While they positively surprised on both top and bottom lines, and grew earnings and sales, not to mention upped guidance, they did produce a negative free cash flow of -$2.12 billion, which was their first negative print since 2012.

This week we'll hear from three other Magnificent 7 stocks, with Alphabet and Microsoft reporting on Wednesday, and Amazon going on Thursday.

But there's more than just tech on the earnings calendar this week. All in all, we'll hear from as many as 984 stocks on deck to report this week, including non-tech marquee names like Nucor today, Coca-Cola and Boeing tomorrow, ServiceNow and ADP on Wednesday, Eli Lilly and Mastercard on Thursday, and ExxonMobile and AbbVie on Friday.

Not much on the economic report docket today other than the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index.

The main event this week, aside from the FOMC Announcement, will be earnings. And they are great. With S&P earnings expected to show another stellar gain with a 24.8% EPS growth rate, that bodes well for stocks. And since stocks typically go up during earnings season, that too bodes well.

I also want to remind, that while October has struggled so far, October is typically the best month for stocks in midterm years, which we are in. The gain averages 3.0%. (And November is close behind with 2.7%. And both have win ratios of greater than 70%, with October up 73.7% of the time and November up 78.9% of the time.)

Additionally, the fourth quarter is historically the best quarter of the year. Since 1950, the S&P has gone up 79% of the time, with an average gain of 4.1%. So, there's that.

Still expecting a big end-of-year rally to come. So, be ready. And make sure you take full advantage of it.

See you tomorrow,