Futures mostly higher as earnings week begins, Intel and Datadog jump, and oil pulls back from highs
Five things to know before the open on Monday, October 19.
Five things to know before the open.
1. Futures mostly higher as a huge earnings week begins
U.S. stock futures pointed mostly higher ahead of the open: as of about 7:45 AM ET, Nasdaq 100 futures were up about 1% and S&P 500 futures about 0.45%, while Dow futures pointed to a roughly 140-point lower open, per CNBC. Seventy S&P 500 companies report this week, per CNBC: General Motors and Netflix on Tuesday, then Tesla, Meta and IBM on Wednesday. More in our earnings-week story and the week-ahead calendar.
2. Intel and Datadog jump premarket on upgrades
Intel rose nearly 4% before the open after JPMorgan upgraded the chipmaker to Neutral from Underweight, citing a more balanced risk-reward after the stock fell about 36% from its June peak, per Investing.com. Datadog rose 3.6% after Bernstein upgraded it to Outperform and nearly doubled its price target to $350. Red Cat Holdings climbed 6.6% after offering to buy Austria's Steyr Motors for about $230 million. And Bumble shares jumped more than 50% after the Wall Street Journal reported the dating-app company is in advanced talks to go private at a $1 billion valuation, per Newsquawk.
3. Asia ends mixed; China grows 4.5%
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed down 0.6% while Seoul's Kospi rose 1.75%, per PANews and TokenPost. China's economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter, slightly above forecasts, per XTB and AFP. Hong Kong was closed for a holiday. Details in our Asia story.
4. Europe opens lower as French protests hit luxury shares
European stocks opened the week lower, with luxury names including LVMH and Hermes under pressure after looting at French stores during cost-of-living protests, per Newsquawk and investinglive. French borrowing costs stayed elevated, with the OAT-Bund spread around 139 basis points (Newsquawk). DHL raised its full-year guidance after quarterly revenue beat expectations.
5. Oil pulls back but holds above $100 after the Russia waiver
West Texas Intermediate traded near $101.05 a barrel, down about 0.4%, and Brent near $108.30, down about 1.4%, as of about 7:47 AM ET, per CNBC and Trading Economics, after President Trump's executive order waiving key sanctions on Russian energy. Prices had fallen harder overnight - WTI dipped below $100 around 2:20 AM ET, per Reuters - before paring losses. Gulf crude flows fell to about 8.5 million barrels a day last week from more than 20 million, analytics firm Kpler said, per Reuters - see our oil story and Sunday's waiver story.
