Futures rise ahead of the Fed, Brazil's rout deepens, and Verizon raises its outlook
Five things to know before the open on Monday, October 26.
Five things to know before the open.
1. Futures rise ahead of the Fed and a packed earnings week
Dow futures rose about 0.4%, or roughly 210 points, S&P 500 futures edged up about 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures traded just above flat as the open approached, with Wall Street looking to steady after Friday's slide, when the Dow sank about 650 points. The Federal Reserve's rate decision lands Wednesday at 2:00 PM ET, with futures pricing roughly a 90% chance of a hold at 3.75% to 4.00%. Verizon kicked off a heavy earnings slate this morning; Visa, Boeing and Coca-Cola report Tuesday, Alphabet and Microsoft on Wednesday, and Amazon on Thursday. More in our First Light futures story and this week's outlook.
2. Brazil's rout deepens after Lula's fourth-term win
Brazilian assets slid further in premarket trading after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured a fourth term with about 51.8% of the vote. The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF fell about 27% in pre-open trading to roughly $31, nearing its 52-week low, Petrobras dropped about 22%, and lenders Itaú Unibanco, Banco Bradesco and Nu fell between 23% and 29%. Bolsonaro has rejected the result and called for the vote to be annulled. Brazil's Bovespa opens regular trading at 9:00 AM ET. More in our Brazil story.
3. Oil slides about 2% as Qatar mediates between Washington and Tehran
Brent crude fell about 1.9% to around $114.50 a barrel and U.S. benchmark crude dropped about 2.2% to roughly $101, pulling back from six-month highs, after Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran in an effort to ease the conflict. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted further Houthi fire on Sunday after Saturday's attacks on an airport and oil facilities in the kingdom. More in our oil story.
4. Verizon tops profit expectations and raises its outlook
Verizon reported third-quarter net income of $5.3 billion, its highest quarterly result, on revenue of $34.3 billion, up 1.5% from a year earlier and just shy of Wall Street forecasts. Adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $13.8 billion. The carrier raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast to $5.04 to $5.06 a share, implying growth of 7.0% to 7.5%, up from 6.0% to 7.0%, and now expects free cash flow to grow close to 12%. Its earnings call begins at 8:30 AM ET; Welltower reports later today.
5. Moderna slides again; SpaceX rises on a $40 billion chip deal
Moderna reportedly fell about 9% further in premarket trading as investors weighed final Phase 3 results for the personalized cancer vaccine it is developing with Merck: the vaccine cut the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 42%, a meaningful benefit but below the 49% seen in an earlier mid-stage study. The stock plunged nearly 18% on Thursday. SpaceX rose about 1% to roughly $149 after Elon Musk said the company had closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy graphics processors, and Bernstein raised its price target on the shares to $268 from $248. Musk also warned that many smaller AI cloud providers could fail as credit tightens, a theme we covered in our CoreWeave explainer.
