On Monday, Eastern Time, the three major indices showed mixed performance, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both declining, while only the Nasdaq Composite closed slightly higher.

As of the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.80%, to 42,931.60 points; the S&P 500 fell by 0.18%, to 5,853.98 points; and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.27%, to 18,540.01 points.

Both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 reached all-time highs last Friday and achieved a six-week winning streak.

Nvidia's stock price increased by over 4%, setting a new historical high, with its market value surpassing $3.5 trillion for the first time.

This week's earnings reports will be crucial, as about one-fifth of the S&P 500 companies will announce their financial results, including industry giants like Tesla and Coca-Cola.

Data from FactSet shows that approximately 14% of the S&P 500 companies have already released their Q3 financial reports, with 75% of them beating expectations. Recently, analysts have significantly lowered their profit forecasts for the third quarter.

Nevertheless, investors generally remain optimistic about the potential for further stock market gains, but they also note that high valuations could imply increased market volatility against the backdrop of the upcoming U.S. presidential election and rising geopolitical risks.

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Performance of Popular Stocks

Most large-cap tech stocks rose, with Apple up by 0.63%, Microsoft up by 0.15%, Nvidia up by 4.14%, Google up by 0.40%, Amazon up by 0.04%, Meta down by 0.23%, and Tesla down by 0.84%.

Most popular Chinese concept stocks fell, with the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index down by 0.80%, Alibaba down by 1.48%, JD.com down by 0.75%, Pinduoduo up by 0.19%, NIO Inc. down by 1.53%, XPeng Inc. up by 3.15%, Li Auto up by 0.04%, Bilibili up by 0.35%, Baidu down by 2.93%, NetEase down by 1.37%, Tencent Music down by 0.93%, and iQIYI down by 0.41%.Company News

**Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 8 Elite Chip: Equipped with Oryon Cores, Performance Increased by 45% Compared to Previous Generation**

On Monday (October 21st), local time, Qualcomm unveiled its new flagship mobile processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, at the Snapdragon Summit. This processor is said to bring laptop-level functionality to smartphones.

According to Qualcomm, the latest version of the Snapdragon series will include its self-developed Oryon processor design, which will offer a 45% performance increase compared to previous models, while consuming less energy.

**Maersk Raises Full-Year 2024 Guidance**

On October 21st, Maersk announced that, based on unaudited preliminary data, the company's revenue for the third quarter of 2024 was $15.8 billion, with an underlying EBITDA of $4.8 billion and an underlying EBIT of $3.3 billion.

Due to strong third-quarter performance, coupled with robust demand in the container market and the ongoing situation in the Red Sea, Maersk currently expects its full-year 2024 underlying EBITDA to be between $11 billion and $11.5 billion, and its underlying EBIT to be between $5.2 billion and $5.7 billion (previously $9 billion to $11 billion and $3 billion to $5 billion, respectively), with free cash flow of at least $3 billion (previously at least $2 billion). Maersk has revised its full-year 2024 global container cargo volume growth outlook to around 6%, previously between 4% and 6%.

**U.S. SpaceX "Crew-8" Return Mission May Be Delayed to the 22nd**

On October 21st, local time, NASA stated that the weather conditions near several potential splashdown sites in Florida remain unfavorable for the return mission of SpaceX's "Crew-8." The statement mentioned that if weather conditions improve, NASA and SpaceX plan to conduct the "Crew-8" undocking from the International Space Station as early as 9:05 PM Eastern Time on October 22nd.

"Crew-8" is the codename for SpaceX's eighth manned spaceflight mission. On the evening of March 3rd, local time, SpaceX's "Dragon" spacecraft launched from Florida, carrying four American and Russian astronauts to the International Space Station. This marked the eighth rotation of astronauts to the International Space Station by the manned "Dragon" spacecraft.Mercedes-Benz Launches Battery Recycling Plant in Germany with Initial Annual Capacity of 2,500 Tons

According to Mercedes-Benz, on October 21, the company inaugurated its first battery recycling plant in Europe that employs an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process, making it the first automotive manufacturer globally to achieve closed-loop battery recycling with its own factory. Unlike traditional processes currently used in Europe, this recycling plant located in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, utilizes a mechanical-hydrometallurgical process, with an expected recovery rate of over 96%. The initial annual capacity of Mercedes-Benz's battery recycling plant is 2,500 tons. The recovered materials can be used for the production of over 50,000 new electric vehicle battery modules for Mercedes-Benz.