The DJIA is slightly lower pre-market, but could still finish with a third straight weekly win
It appears the
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) will cool off today after Thursday's
huge earnings-induced lift, with futures pointed slightly lower. It seems traders are taking a wait-and-see approach ahead of a busy day of economic data, with reports on manufacturing activity, job openings, and consumer sentiment all due out. Meanwhile, blue chip
General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is fresh off its latest quarterly report, and is currently up 1.6% in pre-market trading. On a weekly basis, the Dow will be fighting to notch its third consecutive win; the index is currently up 0.3% since last Friday.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
And now, on to the numbers…
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are nearly 7 points below fair value.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- Stocks in Asia got a lift from Wall Street, as well as mounting stimulus expectations out of China and Japan.
- The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) saw 945,970 call contracts traded on Thursday, compared to 818,784 put contracts. The resultant single-session equity put/call ratio jumped to 0.87, while the 21-day moving average inched up to 0.75.
- While Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) recently announced it will move forward with its Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) spin-off plans, the latter company just announced an offer to buy the outstanding shares of video streaming site Youku Tudou Inc (ADR) (NYSE:YOKU) for $3.6 billion, or $26.60 per American depositary share, in cash. The news has BABA fractionally higher pre-market, while YOKU has spiked nearly 23%.
- While the options market was pricing in a post-earnings move of nearly 3%, industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) is just fractionally lower ahead of the open. The company reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit this morning, but fell short of the consensus revenue estimate.
- Energy issue Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB), which was met with plenty of pre-earnings pessimism from analysts, said quarterly earnings plunged 49% year-over-year -- but still edged past estimates -- while revenue dropped 33% and came up just short of expectations. SLB is down 0.6% pre-market.
Earnings and Economic Data
The week winds down with industrial production and capacity utilization, the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index. Progressive (PGR) and SunTrust Banks (STI) are scheduled to unveil their quarterly results. To see what's coming up on next week's docket, click here.