Consumer spending rose a better-than-expected 0.6%
Stock futures are pointed mostly lower this morning, taking cues from another round of dismal Big Tech earnings, with Amazon.com (AMZN) serving as one of the culprits this time around thanks to a revenue miss. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are clinging to a modest gain, while Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) futures stand firmly in the red. Elsewhere, the core personal consumption expenditures (CPE) price index added 0.5% in September, on par with estimates, while consumer spending rose a better-than-expected 0.6%.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- How put traders capitalized on Alibaba stock.
- Is this grocery stock in play amid the sector shakeup?
- Plus, two blue chips score big beats, and Pinterest shakes off sector slump.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.4 million call contracts and 1.2 million put contracts traded on Thursday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.85, while the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.68.
- Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is up 6% in electronic trading, after the chipmaker reported earnings and revenue that exceeded expectations. The results helped overshadow the company's slashed full-year guidance. Four analysts have trimmed their price targets in response, the worst coming from Stifel to $28 from $32. Intel stock is down 49% year-to-date.
- Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) stock is 1.9% higher ahead of the bell, after the oil and gas giant announced earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street's projections, with these quarterly profits becoming the second-highest on record. Chevron stock is up 51.5% this year, and pulled back to a historically bullish trendline earlier this month.
- The shares of Pinterest Inc (NYSE:PINS) are 10.5% higher before the open, after the social media company reported upbeat monthly users numbers to go with a top-and bottom-line win. No fewer than five brokerages have upped their price targets, the highest coming from J.P. Morgan Securities to $28 form $26. PINS remains down 39.8% year-to-date.
- The employment cost index and the pending home sales index are due out today.
Asian Markets Stumble into the Weekend
Asian equities fell drastically to close out the week, led by the Hong Kong Hang Seng’s 3.7% dip that dragged the index to its lowest level since April 2009. The mainland Chinese Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, took a 2.3% haircut, dented by the semiconductor sector amid U.S. officials’ push to impose export limits on the country. Rounding out the region, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei each dropped 0.9%, with the latter impacted by a slightly higher unemployment rate and the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged.
The major European bourses are lower today, as traders in the region continue to grapple with the European Central Bank’s (ECB) third-consecutive interest rate hike. Germany’s economy saw unexpected growth in the third quarter, with gross domestic product (GDP) increasing 0.3%, despite high inflation and ongoing energy concerns, beating out economists’ expectations of a 0.2% contraction. Still, the country’s DAX was last seen down 0.5%, while London’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 were 0.4% and 0.2% lower, respectively.