Stock market indexes are hoping to pare steep October losses
U.S. stocks look ready for another strong showing, with the major indexes set to chip away at steep October losses. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), S&P 500 Index (SPX), and Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) are trading far above fair value, getting a boost from the latest round of corporate earnings. The tech sector is poised to rise alongside Facebook (FB), following the company's earnings beat, while a huge post-earnings move for General Motors (GM) is also adding to the risk-on atmosphere. Meanwhile, the ADP employment report for October blew past expectations, with private-sector employers adding 227,000 jobs for the month, compared to just 189,000 expected.
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5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 1.12 million call contracts traded on Tuesday, compared to 774,001 put contracts. The single-session equity put/call ratio dipped to 0.69, and the 21-day moving average edged up to 0.68.
- FB is set to gain 5.5% at the open, as investors focus on the company's substantial earnings beat versus its slight revenue miss for the third quarter. The social media giant also posted slower user growth for the period, but it forecast margins would stop shrinking after 2019. Regardless, the pre-market move is a positive for Facebook options traders.
- FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) is gaining 5.5% in pre-market trading, thanks to better-than-expected third-quarter results. Several positive analyst notes have come through as a result, including a price-target increase to $23 from $22 at Baird. FEYE stock could now take aim at the $18 level that capped its upside earlier this month.
- Video game stock Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) is set to extend its recent weakness, down 3% before the bell, despite a fiscal second-quarter earnings beat. Causing the drop is the company's tepid holiday-quarter forecast, and several analysts have slashed their outlooks, putting EA stock in danger of revisiting its recent lows near $90.
- Today will prove to be a busy day for both the economic calendar and quarterly earnings. The employment cost index, the Chicago purchasing managers manufacturing index (PMI), and the weekly crude inventories report are all slated for release. Allstate (ALL), Anthem (ANTM), Clorox (CLX), Fitbit (FIT), Garmin (GRMN), Hanesbrands (HBI), Kellogg (K), Qorvo (QRVO), Sprint (S), and Yum Brands (YUM) will report earnings.
Stocks In Asia, Europe Rise
Asian stock markets were uniformly higher on the final trading day of October, despite an official manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) out of Beijing that showed the slowest pace of industrial growth since July 2016. The reading of 50.2 was just barely in expansion territory, and fell short of economists' expectations -- though October's data was impacted by the week-long national holiday that started the month. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan held interest rates steady, as expected. By the close, Japan's Nikkei jumped 2.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.6%, China's Shanghai Composite added 1.4%, and South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.7%.
European bourses are also on positive footing at midday, led by post-earnings rallies from French consumer goods giant L'Oreal and British financial services firm Standard Chartered. At last check, France's CAC 40 has climbed 2%, the German DAX is up 1.4%, and London's FTSE 100 is 1.3% higher.