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Nasdaq and S&P Hold Weekly Gains as Small Caps and Dow Slip Midweek

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PITTSBURGH, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Stock Preachers Market Commentary – Major averages split this week as the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 held onto gains while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 turned lower. The Nasdaq rose 1.05% for the week to 27,475.93, and the S&P 500 added 0.92% to 7,793.85, even as both indices fell on the latest session. The Dow slipped 0.06% for the week to 51,145.98, and the Russell 2000 dropped 1.42% to 2,792.80, underscoring a market where large-cap tech and biotech names are carrying the tape while smaller companies lag. Active Companies from around the markets with current developments this week include: RTX (NYSE: RTX), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), SAP SE (NYSE: SAP), International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), and Canadian National Railway Company (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI).

The Nasdaq Composite closed at 27,475.93, down 0.45% on the day but still up 1.05% for the week, with an RSI14 of 64.5 signaling a market near overbought territory. The index traded as high as 27,722.75 this week, matching its 52-week high, while support sits at 27,288.79 and 27,167.06. The S&P 500 closed at 7,793.85, down 0.32% on the day, with RSI14 at 59.4 and resistance at its 52-week high of 7,844.52.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.73% on the day to 51,145.98, pushing its weekly change to negative 0.06%, with an RSI14 of 40.4 reflecting the index’s relative weakness. The Russell 2000 posted the week’s sharpest decline, down 1.32% on the day and 1.42% for the week to 2,792.80, with an RSI14 of 34.5 as small caps underperform large caps.

Volatility ticked higher with the VIX at 15.33, up 0.32 on the day though down 0.19 for the week, while the Nasdaq-100 volatility gauge (VXN) rose to 21.45. In commodities, gold fell 1.25% on the day to $4,134.90 per ounce and silver dropped 1.51% to $60.24, while WTI crude slipped to $88.89 a barrel. Natural gas jumped 3.82% on the day, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 5.32%.

The full report includes a detailed levels ladder for each index, a broader look at sector sentiment, and a preview of what to watch in the week ahead.

CONTINUED… Read this and more news from around this sector and may more at: Stock Preachers Market Commentary

In other industry developments and happenings in the market this week include:

RTX (NYSE: RTX) Raytheon, an RTX business, has secured a five-year contract with two additional option years, valued up to $24.4 billion, for Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) interceptors, boosting availability of the munition for offensive strikes and missile defense missions for the U.S. Navy.

“SM-6’s multi-mission capability is vital to our customer, and Raytheon is intensely focused on meeting the demand,” said Phil Jasper, Raytheon President. “By continuously investing in our operations and facilities, we are removing constraints and boosting capacity to ensure we deliver this critical capability our sailors depend on.”

SM-6 is described as the only combat-proven weapon able to perform anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and ballistic missile defense, and has been fired from various U.S. Navy ship-based platforms and land-based launchers.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) The U.S. FDA has approved an additional indication for Jaypirca (pirtobrutinib), a non-covalent BTK inhibitor, for adult patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma without a known 17p deletion, allowing its use as a first-line treatment for appropriate patients.

The approval is based on the BRUIN CLL-313 trial, where at a median follow-up of 28 months, progression-free survival was significantly improved with pirtobrutinib compared to bendamustine plus rituximab (HR=0.20; p<0.0001), with median PFS not yet reached for pirtobrutinib versus 33.5 months for the comparator arm. Overall response rate was 94% for pirtobrutinib versus 81% for the comparator.

“This milestone underscores Jaypirca’s versatility in the CLL continuum of care, from the first-line setting for appropriate patients to its valuable role in the relapsed or refractory post-covalent BTK inhibitor setting,” said Jacob Van Naarden, executive vice president and president of Lilly Oncology.

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) SAP SE and TechWolf have entered into an agreement for SAP to acquire TechWolf, provider of an AI work intelligence platform that gives enterprises a continuously updated view of the work their people do and the skills they have. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval, with terms not disclosed.

“TechWolf’s proprietary context graph for skills and work provides an excellent grounding layer for agent queries regarding work and skills planning and talent management,” said Manoj Swaminathan, president and chief product officer for SAP Autonomous Suite and member of the Extended Board of SAP SE.

“We have spent eight years building the evidence layer to answer those questions,” said Andreas De Neve, CEO and co-founder of TechWolf, who added the company plans to “build a world-class AI company” following the acquisition. TechWolf is expected to remain an independent entity under De Neve in its Ghent headquarters.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) Hagens Berman is investigating potential securities law violations by IBM after CEO Arvind Krishna previewed disastrous Q2 2026 results on July 14, 2026, a disclosure that sent IBM shares down 25% in one day, erasing over $68 billion in market capitalization.

On April 22, 2026, IBM had reported Infrastructure, Hybrid Infrastructure, and IBM Z revenues up 15%, 28% and 51% respectively, with management projecting constant currency revenue growth of 5-plus percent for 2026. By July, total revenue growth had slowed to 1% and Infrastructure revenue declined 7%.

CEO Krishna said “[w]hat played out was worse than our expectations, driven by a shortfall in our Z performance and the associated software stack, primarily in Transaction Processing,” adding “numerous large deals failed to close.” “Based in part on the abruptness of the bad news, we are looking into whether and when the Company may have had information raising the probability that large deals were unlikely to timely close during IBM’s second quarter,” said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

Canadian National Railway Company (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) CN announced it set a new quarterly record for grain movement, moving 7.94 million metric tonnes of grain from Western Canada in its third quarter, surpassing the previous record of 7.48 million metric tonnes set in 2020.

The company attributed the performance to robust customer demand, close collaboration across the grain supply chain and consistent execution of its operating plan, and said it remains focused on sustaining momentum through winter.

CN recently published its 2026-2027 Winter Plan outlining proactive solutions across its network to support safe and reliable service, and will report third-quarter 2026 financial and operating results before markets open on October 30, 2026.

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Acuity Analytics expands US data and technology capabilities with acquisition of Continuus

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Transaction strengthens Acuity’s financial services data and AI consulting expertise, adds Snowflake Premier status, and deepens Acuity Microsoft tier 1 expertise to meet ever increasing demand for modern data and AI platforms like Microsoft Fabric and Databricks.

LONDON, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Acuity Analytics has acquired Continuus, a US-based data consultancy specializing in financial services. The acquisition adds 37 specialists and expands Acuity Analytics’ capabilities across data strategy, governance, engineering and cloud data platforms.

Continuus works primarily with asset managers and other financial institutions, helping clients develop enterprise data strategies, establish governance frameworks and deliver large scale cloud data transformation and engineering programs.

The acquisition strengthens Acuity Analytics’ presence in the United States, its largest market, and adds an experienced onshore team to complement the company’s global delivery network.

The deal comes at a time when financial institutions are increasing investment in modern data infrastructure to support regulatory requirements, improve decision making and enable the wider deployment of AI. As organizations move beyond experimentation and scale AI across the enterprise, the quality, governance and accessibility of data have become increasingly important.

By combining Continuus’s specialist expertise with Acuity Analytics’ broader technology capabilities, the group will provide an end-to-end offering spanning data strategy, governance, analytics, operations and AI enabled business workflows.

Rob King, Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Analytics, said:

“What attracted us to Continuus was its deep understanding of financial services and its ability to turn data strategy into practical business outcomes for clients.

“As organizations modernize their data environments and scale AI initiatives, they need partners who can combine technical expertise with strong governance and delivery capabilities. Continuus brings exactly that.

“The acquisition strengthens our presence in the US and further enhances our ability to help clients unlock value from their data while adopting new technologies with confidence.”

In addition to its technical capabilities, Continuus brings expertise in program delivery and data governance, both of which are becoming increasingly important as financial institutions move complex data and AI programs into production environments.

Stewart Smythe, Chief Delivery Officer, AI, Data & Digital said:

“Clients are making significant investments in cloud data platforms, but technology alone is not enough. Success depends on having the right operating model, governance framework and delivery expertise in place.

“Continuus has built an excellent reputation helping financial institutions address those challenges. Together, we can offer clients a broader range of capabilities, from strategic advisory services through to implementation, analytics and AI-enabled transformation.”

The acquisition forms part of Acuity Analytics’ continued investment in AI, digital and data, supporting its evolution from a financial services research and analytics business into a technology led organization that combines industry expertise with advanced digital capabilities.

In 2024, Acuity Analytics acquired PPA Group, adding technology enabled data capabilities and machine learning expertise within commercial lending. In 2025, the company acquired Ascent, an AI led digital transformation specialist, significantly expanding its Data and Technology Services division across Europe. The addition of Continuus further strengthens these capabilities and broadens the group’s ability to support financial institutions globally.

Today, Acuity Analytics’ proposition centers on applying technology and people to real business challenges, combining trusted data, specialist AI expertise and digital delivery to create measurable outcomes for its clients.

Matt Moeser, Chief Executive Officer of Continuus, said:

“Since Continuus was founded, our focus has been helping financial institutions get more value from their data and technology investments.

Joining Acuity gives our team access to broader capabilities, deeper sector expertise and a global platform from which to grow. We are excited about what this means for our people and our clients, and we look forward to the opportunities we can create together.”

Notes for Editors

Continuus employees joining Acuity: 37Snowflake partner status: Premier Services PartnerPrimary sectors served: Asset management and financial servicesTransaction completion date: 1st OctoberTerms of the transaction were not disclosed.Envoy Capital Advisors served as the exclusive sell-side advisor to Continuus.

About Acuity Analytics

Acuity Analytics is the trading name of Acuity Knowledge Partners, a global, data-driven technology and analytics company serving financial institutions and corporates.

With more than 7,800 analysts, data specialists and technologists across 28 locations, Acuity combines deep financial-services expertise with engineering, digital, data and AI capabilities. The company supports more than 850 organizations in improving efficiency, gaining better insight and making better decisions.

Acuity was established as a separate business from Moody’s Corporation in 2019 following its acquisition by Equistone Partners Europe. In January 2023, funds advised by global private equity firm Permira acquired a majority stake, with Equistone remaining invested as a minority shareholder.

For more information, visit acuityanalytics.com. 

Media enquiries

Gill Galassi
Director of Brand and Communications
Gill.Galassi@acuityanalytics.com
+44 (0)7961 244215

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IBM Advances to Stage C of DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative

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IBM moves to third phase of DARPA’s rigorous evaluation of approaches to building a fault-tolerant quantum computer

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has been selected for Stage C, the third phase of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) led by DARPA, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This phase will advance IBM through DARPA’s verification process, in which independent experts extensively test and measure quantum hardware, technology, systems engineering, and architectures to determine if a company can build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

“Advancing to the third stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative validates the strength of IBM’s path to building a fault-tolerant quantum computer,” said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. “IBM expects to deliver the first fault-tolerant system in 2029, and we plan to scale the value of quantum computing well beyond that timeline. We look forward to working with DARPA’s team of experts as they advance their review of approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computing into the testing phase.”

As an independent research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, DARPA launched the QBI in 2024 to determine whether an industrially useful fault-tolerant quantum computer can be built by 2033. The program defines such a system as one whose computational value will exceed its cost. IBM has successfully progressed through the QBI’s assessment process, including the first two stages that analyzed comprehensive R&D plans and risk mitigation approaches.

IBM has built the strongest quantum foundation in the industry, anchored by the largest fleet of quantum computers across the globe and Qiskit, the world’s most popular quantum software. IBM’s quantum computers are already being used today as scientific tools by a network of more than 340 organizations across financial services, healthcare, materials science, academia, and government as they build industrial applications and pursue algorithms to unlock the full potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Last year, IBM laid out its plans to deliver the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer, IBM Quantum Starling. Starling will combine advances in error correction, processor design, systems engineering, and more. Since then, IBM’s progression has remained on course, including the demonstration of core hardware components for fault tolerance and breakthroughs in efficient error correction decoding.

Advancing to Stage C

Each successful QBI performer has progressed through three stages of the program thus far:

Stage A required organizations to submit an initial technical concept of a cost-effective, fault-tolerant quantum computer that has a plausible path to realization in the near term. Several Stage A performers were announced in April 2025.Stage B called for a comprehensive research and development plan from each company detailing how to realize such a quantum computer, as well as the risks associated with this plan and mitigation approaches.Announced today, those selected for Stage C will move beyond conceptual plans and progress to evaluation by DARPA’s QBI independent verification and validation (IV&V) team as they test the companies’ hardware.

Alongside its participation in QBI, IBM continues to collaborate with partners across industry, government, and academia to accelerate the timeline toward fault-tolerant quantum computing.

For more information about the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, visit the DARPA website.

About IBM

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

For more information, visit https://research.ibm.com.

Media contacts:

Erin Angelini
IBM
edlehr@us.ibm.com

Chris Nay
IBM
cnay@us.ibm.com
 

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FouAnalytics and fraud0 Partner to Bring Automated Google Ads Refunds to the World’s Largest Advertisers

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Longtime partners in independent ad-quality measurement add an AI agent that automatically recovers wasted Google Ads spend for brand advertisers, globally.

NEW YORK and MUNICH, Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — FouAnalytics, the independent analytics platform for digital ads, websites and mobile apps, today announced a deeper partnership with fraud0 to bring their world-first AI agent for automated ad refunds to the world’s largest advertisers.

FouAnalytics and fraud0 have been providing independent traffic and ad quality analytics to advertisers for their websites and programmatic ads, respectively. But Google Ads remained a black box, because Google’s policies prohibited all third party measurement instrumentation on their platforms – e.g. search ads, YouTube ads, PMax, etc. Other legacy verification vendors, that claimed to do measurement on these platforms, were just given data on invalid traffic, viewability, and brand safety by Google, without actually having javascript tags instrumented on the platforms to collect data themselves.

“This partnership marks a milestone in advancing greater transparency and accountability in Google Ads, enabling advertisers to recover losses from invalid traffic, false clicks, out-of-compliance ads, billing errors and platform overcharges,” said Dr. Augustine Fou. “fraud0’s AI for Google Ads Refunds makes this easy for advertisers to activate, and is the first to recover advertisers’ refunds at scale.”

“Pharmaceutical company Uriach used fraud0 AI for Google Ads Refunds to recover $28,000 in Google Ads spend in just three months.”

Large advertisers spend billions of dollars every year on Google Ads. A portion of that investment is known to be lost to invalid clicks. Identifying these losses is one challenge. Recovering them is another. fraud0’s AI for Google Ads Refunds has already audited more than $2 billion in digital advertising spend and is trusted by businesses across every industry, including leading advertisers such as HelloFresh, Condor, ABOUT YOU and the Otto Group. As a Google-certified Click Tracker, fraud0 works closely with Google’s Click Quality team to investigate suspicious activity and resolve refund claims, while its AI agent builds the required evidence and manages the process from start to finish.

To activate, advertisers simply add a JavaScript tag to their website and connect their Google Ads account. The fraud0 AI for Google Ads Refunds runs continuously in the background, monitoring traffic and handling the refund workflow automatically. Beyond recovery, fraud0 helps advertisers prevent future waste through placement blocking, audience exclusions and the continuous identification of recurring invalid traffic sources.

“Such a pleasure to be working with Dr. Augustine Fou, who has been on the frontlines of fraud detection for decades. We’re excited to roll out this new capability to even more customers globally.” said Tilman Pfeiffer, CEO of fraud0.

Advertisers interested in activating Google Ads refunds can contact FouAnalytics or fraud0 at the address below.

About FouAnalytics
Created by Dr. Augustine Fou, FouAnalytics is the most trusted, and the only truly independent analytics platform for digital ads, websites, and mobile apps. The platform provides detailed analytical data so practitioners can “see Fou themselves”™ why something is “high humanness,” and troubleshoot what is not good quality. Today FouAnalytics is used globally by advertisers like Microsoft, Inuvo, Viant, Beiersdorf and Georgia Pacific, independent agencies and every agency holding company on behalf of clients, as well as more than 10,000 SMBs and site owners. More details at www.fouanalytics.com.

About fraud0
fraud0 is a leading bot detection and invalid traffic (IVT) prevention platform, trusted by some of Europe’s largest banks, insurance companies, e-commerce businesses, and leading brands. Its privacy-friendly technology helps companies eliminate fraudulent traffic, protect ad spend, and improve marketing performance. More details at www.fraud0.com.

Media Contacts
Dr. Augustine Fou, CEO, FouAnalytics
augustine.fou@fouanalytics.com

Tilman Pfeiffer, CEO, fraud0
tp@fraud0.com

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