Opening Bell: 10.25.18
Europe attempts comeback after world stocks routed again [Reuters]
It wasn't a sunny picture by any means. Germany's Dax .GDAX hit a near two-year low and London's FTSE .FTSE and Paris' CAC 40 .FCHI both brushed 1-1/2 year lows early on, but a semblance of stability was emerging. [.EU]
The pan-European STOXX 600 was almost back at level pegging having opened down almost 1 percent and after Japan's Nikkei .N225 had slumped 3.5 percent overnight. [.T]
Currency dealers were also cautiously reversing out of Swiss franc CHF= and Japanese yen JPY= safety trades [/FRX] and Italian and Spanish bonds made ground as traders waited to see what message the European Central Bank delivers at its meeting later. [GVD/EUR]
Tesla Profit Blowout Reverses Much of Musk's Damage to Stock [Bloomberg]
The profit and cash that Tesla generated sent its shares surging to levels last seen in mid-August, when the chief executive officer was still in the midst of a short-lived gambit to take the company private. The stock sold off in the intervening months, after Musk’s claim that he had “funding secured” for such a deal proved faulty and landed him in legal jeopardy.
All the while, Tesla was achieving long-awaited breakthroughs to boost production of Model 3 sedans. Buyers -- many of whom had been waiting more than two years to take delivery -- quickly made it one of the top-selling sedans in the U.S.
Saudi Attorney General Says Evidence Points to Premeditated Killing of Khashoggi [WSJ]
In a statement carried on the official Saudi Press Agency, the attorney general said the conclusion was based on information shared by Turkish authorities.
“Public Prosecution received information from the Turkish side through the Joint Working Group Between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Turkey that indicates that the suspects in that incident had done their act with a prior intention,” the statement said.
Amazon is expected to report its fourth straight quarter of over $1 billion in profits [CNBC]
The company is expected to report third-quarter profit of $3.09 per share, or roughly $1.5 billion, according to FactSet. That would be up from the 52 cents per share reported a year earlier, and the fourth straight quarter that Amazon has topped $1 billion in profit — a remarkable milestone for a company once known for often losing money because of its heavy investments.
The widening profits are largely driven by the growth of Amazon's high-margin businesses, including its cloud, advertising and third-party seller services. Investors will keep a close eye on how those business units performed in the third quarter.
Twitter Tops Estimates for Earnings, Revenue [Bloomberg]
Monthly active users averaged 326 million, San Francisco-based Twitter said Thursday in a statement. That’s a decrease of 9 million from the second quarter. Twitter warned in its July earnings report of a continued drop in the metric as a result of efforts to clean up its service and stricter privacy rules in Europe. The company said those trends will continue and lead to another decline in monthly users for the fourth quarter.
Twitter’s financial health has been consistently improving in recent months, benefiting from a push to add more live video and personalized content. The social network’s 29 percent jump in revenue in the recent period marks the third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, and Twitter has reported positive net income for four straight quarters. While sales and earnings have grown stronger, Twitter has suffered from a drop in user metrics, especially after purging its ranks to eliminate fake accounts -- an effort that continues ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Wells Fargo Suspends 2 Executives Amid Regulatory Review [NYT]
The bank said on Wednesday that it had placed its chief auditor, David Julian, and its chief administrative officer, Hope A. Hardison, on immediate leave and removed them from the company’s operating committee of senior executives.
Ms. Hardison had been one of the executives in charge of a broad effort to clean up the beleaguered bank. It has been repeatedly punished by federal and state regulators for its deceptive sales practices. American Banker, a trade newspaper, last month ranked her No. 10 on a list of women to watch in banking.
Sears needs more cash in a hurry if it’s going to get through holidays [NYPost]
The 125-year-old retailer — which is quickly chewing through the $300 million in financing it got when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month — is pleading for more time to scare up extra funds to get it through the holidays, The Post has learned.
Specifically, Sears is seeking to push back a Nov. 1 court hearing on a second $300 million loan — a so-called debtor in possession loan — to Nov. 8, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Post.
Wormhole? Nazi-Marked Plane Crashes Onto California Freeway, Bursts Into Flames [HuffPo]
Despite the use of the Luftwaffe’s black-and-white cross, the plane was not a WWII aircraft from Germany but rather a vintage North American AT-6/SNJ trainer aircraft. The plane belonged to Condor Squadron, a nonprofit organization which flies WWII-themed planes over parades, celebrations, memorials and in mock dogfights.
“I picked a spot on the freeway where I knew there was a big section of cars that weren’t there,” pilot Rob Sandberg told KABC. “The engine completely failed. I was able to, fortunately, not hurt anybody other than the airplane.”