US equity markets retreated ahead of the key inflation figures for October tonight AEST, and as the midterm elections provided no clear answers and with control of Congress still hanging in the balance - Dow fell -647-points or -1.95%, Walt Disney Co slumped -13.15% after the entertainment giant posted lower-than-expected earnings per share (US$0.30c versus consensus US$0.55c) and revenue (US$20.15B versus consensus US$21.24B) for the fiscal fourth quarter after the closing bell of the previous session. The broader S&P500 dropped -2.08%, with Energy (down -4.88%), Consumer Discretionary (-3.12%) and Information Technology (-2.65%) leading all eleven primary sectors lower. Tesla Inc fell -7.17% following news that Chief Executive Elon Musk sold ~US$3.95B worth of shares a week after closing his ~US44B acquisition of Twitter Inc. The Nasdaq shed -2.46%. Meta Platforms Inc rose +5.22% after the technology giant confirmed it was planning to lay off over >11,000 employees, or ~13% of the company’s workforce. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg observed that “Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” adding “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.” In addition to the layoffs, Meta confirmed its forecast for fourth-quarter revenue of US$30B to US $32.5B. Meta said the outlook for 2022 expenses it provided on the call to discuss its latest earnings already contemplated the newly announced cuts, and remains unchanged at US$85B to US$87B. However, the company also said it now sees 2023 expenses of US$94B to US$100B, which compares with a previous forecast of $96 billion to $101 billion, reflecting reduced hiring plans for next year. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -2.34%.