The Dow's top 5 stocks, week of 2 to 6 Nov 2026

My dad has discovered that the family group chat is a good place to read out the news. On Thursday morning, while I was on the North East Line, he posted: "American market up 1,500 points. Because of election." On Friday morning, about the same time: "Down 1,800 points. Also because of election." A few minutes later my mum replied with the only question that mattered. "So up or down?"

Down, I wrote, once we were out of the tunnel. For the whole week, about 0.9%. My dad took a while. "All that shouting, for 0.9%?"

Yes. That's the week. Here's the long version of our Monday carousel: the five Dow stocks that rose the most between Friday 30 October and Friday 6 November 2026, what each company does, why it moved where a reason was reported, and what US$1,000 held for the week would have become. No predictions, no tips.

A very loud week that ended 0.9% lower

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tracks 30 large American companies. It went from 51,770.31 to 51,285.73, so US$1,000 spread like the index would have become about US$990.64, before fees and currency moves.

To find the top five, we compare each stock's closing price on the two Fridays, using Yahoo Finance, and rank all 30 ourselves. There were no US market holidays that week.

Two days did most of the talking

• Wednesday, up 3.0%. Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, and US crude fell more than 8%. CNBC called it the Dow's best day since April 2025, and reported that the result removed political uncertainty hanging over the market.
• Thursday, down 3.4%. Chip stocks and others tied to data centres fell for a second day, as investors worried the same election result could slow the building of data centres, CNBC reported. The selling spread. It was the Dow's worst day since April 2025.

Over the week the S&P 500 fell 2.7% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 3.4%, CNBC reported, so the Dow held up best of the three. At the bottom of the 30 were Caterpillar (down 10.3%), Cisco (10.2%, after Morgan Stanley cut its rating on 5 November) and Chevron (9.7%). Energy was the worst sector of the S&P 500, as US crude fell 12% over the week.

Points are not percentages

"Down 1,800 points" sounds alarming because the Dow is a big number. On Thursday, 1,833.06 points was 3.44%. The same percentage on a smaller index is far fewer points, which is why I find points close to useless on their own.

The Dow also counts differently from most indexes. It's price-weighted: a US$1 move in any of its stocks moves the index the same amount, whatever the size of the company. Goldman Sachs closed at US$865.82 and Nike at US$38.59, so a 1% move in Goldman is about 22 times as many dollars as a 1% move in Nike.

What this means for you: for one week, the percentage matters more than the points. And a very loud day can be mostly undone the next.

Amazon rose 7.9%, with commentary but no single reason

Amazon sells things online and runs Amazon Web Services, the cloud business that rents out computing power. It rose 6.1% on Wednesday, then fell 2.2% on Thursday, when The Motley Fool, writing on Yahoo Finance, reported its early gains faded in the tech selling.

The same outlet's explanation for Wednesday was a reassessment of its late-October results after the election, including that a slower data-centre build-out could favour the largest cloud companies. I'd treat that as a view, not a reported fact. I couldn't find a report from a news desk giving one company reason.

The arithmetic

• US$1,000 of Amazon shares would have become about US$1,078.84.
• One share, which is all you need to buy in the US: US$18.95 more.

What this means for you: nothing about Amazon's results changed that week. The price can still move when people change their minds about old news.

McDonald's rose 7.1% on mixed results

On 4 November McDonald's reported third-quarter results, and CNBC reported the numbers: adjusted profit of US$3.57 a share against US$3.38 expected, and revenue of US$7.16 billion against US$7.29 billion expected. The shares rose 6.5% that day.

Same-store sales

The number the market watches at a chain is same-store sales: sales at restaurants open a year or more, so new outlets don't flatter the figure. In the US they fell 0.2%. That's a fall, and the stock went up, because analysts had expected a 0.5% fall.

Here's the part beginners find strange. Markets react to the gap between results and expectations, not to whether the news sounds good. A decline smaller than expected can read as a good day.

The arithmetic

• US$1,000 of McDonald's shares would have become about US$1,071.28.
• One share: US$18.40 more.

What this means for you: when a headline says profit rose or fell, the next question is "compared with what people expected?"

3M rose 6.2% after settling a long legal overhang

3M makes Post-it notes, Scotch tape and a very long list of industrial products. After the market closed on 3 November it agreed to pay US$7.35 billion over nine years to settle personal injury claims over firefighting foam, without admitting liability, Reuters reported. A UBS analyst told Reuters investors had expected about US$10 billion and that the deal removes a "meaningful overhang". The shares rose 9.5% on Wednesday, then fell 3.2% on Thursday with the market.

Why US$7.35 billion is also US$5.8 billion

3M plans a pre-tax charge of US$5.8 billion, which Reuters describes as the present value of the future payments. Present value is what money paid later is worth today, because a dollar you hold now can earn something in the meantime. Spread evenly, US$7.35 billion over nine years would be about US$817 million a year (the company said most of it is paid between 2028 and 2033, so it isn't actually even). The settlement can still fall through if too few claimants accept, though 3M said it doesn't expect that.

An overhang is a known problem of unknown size. A large bill can lift a share price if the bill was smaller than people feared.

The arithmetic

• US$1,000 of 3M shares would have become about US$1,062.01.
• One share: US$10.81 more.

What this means for you: "company agrees to pay billions" and "shares rise" can both be true. Again, it's about what was already expected.

Disney rose 5.2%, with no company reason reported

Disney runs theme parks, film studios, ESPN and Disney+. Its biggest move was 4.2% on Wednesday, when CNBC reported communication stocks were having their best day since April 2025. No report gave a Disney reason, so I'm not going to invent one. Its results are due on 17 November, which means this rise came before the company reported anything.

The arithmetic

• US$1,000 of Disney shares would have become about US$1,052.37.
• One share: US$5.81 more.

What this means for you: a stock can move because its whole group moves. Check whether others in the same sector rose before looking for a company story.

Home Depot rose 4.3% on hopes about housing

Home Depot sells tools, timber and paint to American homeowners and builders. On Wednesday housing-related stocks jumped. Yahoo Finance reported the election result was fuelling anticipation of action on housing affordability and the potential for lower mortgage rates.

Look at how much of that survived. Yahoo Finance reported the shares soared more than 17% at one point on Wednesday before paring their gains. They closed up 6.5% that day, then gave back about 3.4% over Thursday and Friday, to end the week up 4.3%.

The arithmetic

• US$1,000 of Home Depot shares would have become about US$1,043.35.
• One share: US$14.27 more.

What this means for you: a price move on a hope is not the thing hoped for. No housing law changed that week, only what people expect.

The week in one table

All before fees, dividends and currency moves. For someone in Singapore, what the US dollar did that week matters as well. One week tells you what happened, and nothing about what comes next.

If you only remember three things

1. Look at percentages, not points. 1,800 points sounds like a lot more than 3.4%.
2. Markets react to the gap between news and expectations, so a fall in sales or a multi-billion settlement can lift a share.
3. A loud day is not a loud week. Up 3.0% and down 3.4% ended up as 0.9% lower.

How I keep track of this

I used to check my portfolio daily, and all I got was worse sleep. In a week like this one, that habit would have meant being pleased on Thursday morning and upset on Friday morning, about nothing I'd done.

What helps is seeing US shares next to everything else, so a week like this sits in proportion with savings, CPF and the flat. In Sum, stocks sit inside your net worth beside your bank accounts, CPF and property. Stocks are on the Essential plan; live prices, profit and loss, and dividends are on Pro.

I sent my dad this post. He replied in the family chat: "Monday I check again." My mum's reply was the same as last time. "So up or down?"

Talk soon, Brandon