The top 10 things to watch on Wednesday, Oct. 18
1. U.S. stock are under pressure in premarket trading Wednesday, with S&P 500 futures down 0.47%. Bond yields are steady, with that of the 10-year Treasury holding above 4.8%. And oil prices climb higher amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, as West Texas Intermediate crude trades up roughly 1.8%, at around $87 a barrel.
2. Club holding Procter & Gamble (PG) delivers a quarterly earnings beat, with organic sales up 7%. Gross margins increase 460 basis points versus last year. The company maintains its fiscal year 2024 earnings-per-share guidance range of $6.25 to $6.43, despite an incremental $600 million in currency headwinds.
3. Club name Morgan Stanley (MS) reports top and bottom-line beats, boosted by better-than-expected trading revenue. The bank says it repurchased $1.5 billion of stock in the quarter. Revenues at its wealth management division rise 4.6% but fall short of analysts’ forecasts, sending shares tumbling by 2.6% in premarket trading.
4. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) delivers a quarterly earnings beat, while raising the midpoint of its full-year outlook. Organic-sales growth from its base business is up 13.8%, with double-digit growth in all four business segments.
5. Citi and Morgan Stanley lower their price targets on Club name Nvidia (NVDA) following news Tuesday that the U.S. is planning to tighten export restrictions on artificial-intelligence chips bound for China. Morgan Stanley reduces its price target to $600 a share, down from $630, while Citi lowers to $575 a share, from $630. Both firms keep buy ratings on the semiconductor company. Can Nvidia thrive in the long term without China?
6. Shares of Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) are down in premarket trading on the back of a Wall Street Journal report that contends the Federal Reserve is set to propose lowering debit-card swipe fees. But Jefferies says there would be very little risk to Visa and Mastercard.
7. Goldman Sachs recommends three oil stocks with valuation dislocations and room for positive production revisions — Club holding Coterra Energy (CTRA), Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Antero Resources (AR).
8. Wells Fargo says the third-quarter setup for restaurant stocks “isn’t great” but thinks margins could be a silver lining as sentiment is already terrible. The firm prefers McDonalds (MCD) and Club name Starbucks (SBUX), which it calls a “sneaky long.” The coffee stock can move higher if the company resets top-line expectations but maintains profit-margin upside, Wells Fargo argues.
9. JPMorgan says the online advertising market strengthened in the second quarter and through the third. The bank believes product initiatives in AI and ad tech are helping to improve advertiser returns. JPMorgan’s “top ad” names are Club holdings Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL).
10. Bank of America shuffles its ratings on chemicals companies on signs petrochemical fundamentals are “near the bottom” — upgrading Dow Inc. (DOW), Huntsman Corp. (HUN) and LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), while downgrading Albemarle Corporation (ALB), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), and Westlake Corporation (WLK).
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