Dow Futures Up Over 300 Points as Earnings Season Rolls In

October's wild trading is bleeding into this week, with stock futures attempting to reclaim the steep losses suffered by the end of the day on Friday. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) are looking at a roughly 344-point pop, while the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are also headed higher.

Investors are keeping their eyes peeled for the slew of third-quarter earnings reports, with several bank names including Bank of New York Mellon (BK) and Bank of America (BAC) posting better-than-expected quarterly results this morning. 

Continue reading for more on today's market, including:

• Can Gap stock reclaim double-digit territory?
• Everything you need to know about Kroger's huge acquisition. 
• Plus, BAC gets earnings boost; AAPL is a "top pick" at Morgan Stanley; and Meta isn't meeting subscriber goals.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.42 million call contracts and 890,509 put contracts traded on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.63, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.68.
2. Bank of American Corp (NYSE:BAC) is up 2.8% this morning, after the finance company posted third-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations. BAC noted an increase in net interest income for the beat. The stock has shed 31.4% this year, though it's staged a sharp bounce off last week's annual low of $29.31. 
3. Morgan Stanley named Apple Inc (NASDAQ:BAC) a "top pick," citing the tech giant's resilience as the economy suffers. Apple stock is up 1.7% ahead of the bell as it tries to chip away at its near 24% year-to-date deficit. 
4. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) is up 1.4% ahead of the bell as it brushes off a Wall Street Journal report saying that the company's key metaverse product "Horizon Worlds" isn't reaching its goals. According to internal documents, the product has less than 200,000 monthly active users, falling short of its initial goal of 500,000 and its revised goal of 280,000 by year end. META has shed 62.2% in the last 12 months. 

5. Today investors will go over the Empire State manufacturing index. 

Asian Markets Try to Brush Off Recession Fears 

Asian markets were mostly higher on Monday, despite recession fears gripping investors ahead of this week’s slew of regional inflation data, which will include China’s loan prime rate decision. In other news, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Taiwan is seeing “interference by outside forces” during the opening ceremony for the Communist Party of China’s 20th National Congress. Pacing the gainers was the latter’s Shanghai Composite with a 0.4% pop, while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3%. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.2%, and Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.2%.

European markets were last seen higher, after newly minted U.K. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt reversed nearly all planned tax cuts that were a part of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s budget, boosting government bond prices and the sterling. At last check, the German DAX is 1.2% higher, while London’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 are both up 0.9%.