Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures Tumble After Jobless Claims

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are pointing to a lower open for U.S. stocks, as traders brace for Friday's nonfarm payrolls report. An unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims has Wall Street on notice ahead of tomorrow's September jobs report, as traders weigh the possibility of a fourth-quarter rate hike from the Fed. Meanwhile, oil prices are continuing their run higher, with November-dated crude futures up 0.8% at $50.21 per barrel, topping the half-century mark for the first time since June. 

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

• The energy stock that's rallied over 950% in 3 months. 
• As one brokerage firm weighed in on a Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)-Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) marriage, another analyst quadrupled their price target on this biotech.
• The M&A buzz that ignited Lululemon Athletica inc.'s (NASDAQ:LULU) and Weight Watchers International, Inc.'s (NYSE:WTW) options pits.  
• Plus... Twitter's M&A woes, Goldman hits Tesla, and a rare NVIDIA tumble. 

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are 21 points below fair value. 

5 Things You Need to Know Today
  

1. Fed chatter is again weighing on stocks in Europe. 
2. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 770,896 call contracts traded on Wednesday, compared to 449,241 put contracts. The resultant single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.58, while the 21-day moving average edged down to 0.63.
3. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is down almost 18% ahead of the open, falling on reports that  Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) will not place a bid to buy the social media firm, as was rumored. As such, many are turning to salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) as the most likely suitor for the company. Meanwhile, other reports state TWTR wants to conclude sales negotiations by its third-quarter earnings release on Oct. 27. 
4. Electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is also lower in electronic trading, down 2.7%, after a bearish note from Goldman Sachs. Specifically, the brokerage firm downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy," and lowered its price target $55 to $185, citing worries surrounding the company's deployment of capital -- especially on the M&A front -- and potential delays with the launch of its Model 3 vehicle. This comes just days after TSLA rallied on promising delivery numbers. 
5. Another pre-market loser is chipmaker NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA). The shares are down 2.4% this morning, after the company's CFO sold roughly $2.6 million worth of stock, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. This potential dip would still just be a drop in the bucket compared to NVDA's draw-dropping run this year, however. 

Earnings and Economic Data

Weekly jobless claims were the lone economic report on today's docket. Earnings are due from Ruby Tuesday (RT). To see what else is coming up on this week's schedule, click here. 

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