Here are the top stories to read ahead of Thursday trading:
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Elevance Health Inc.’s stock tumbled 13.5% to lead S&P 500 premarket decliners Thursday, after the health insurer’s third-quarter profit fell short of estimates amid ”unprecedented” challenges in the Medicaid business.
The Indianapolis-based company had net income of $1.02 billion, or $4.36 a share, for the quarter, down from $1.29 billion, or $5.45 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time items, the company had per-share earnings of $8.37, below the $9.66 FactSet consensus.
Revenue rose 5.3% to $45.106 billion from $42.849 billion a year ago, ahead of the $43.467 billion FactSet consensus.
Julian Emanuel and colleagues at Evercore ISI put out a note ahead of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s results in which they noted that after the poorly-received update from ASML the report from TSM “becomes the main event of the global earnings season”.
Fans of Nvidia may have something to say about that. But judging from the bullish market reaction to TSM’s forecast-beating numbers early Thursday we can at least accept that they have sparked a strong tech-wide rally.
And one doesn’t need to be a technical geek to observe that the chart below suggests TSM stock is poised for a move to fresh record highs above $200 as it breaks out of its upward-sloping flag formation.
Stocks making notable moves in Thursday’s premarket action:
Here are some of the companies presenting earnings on Thursday:
Before the opening bell.
Travelers
Huntingdon Bancshares
Blackstone
Elevance Health
After the close.
Netflix
Intuitive Surgical
WD-40
Crown
F.N.B. Corp.
Here are some of the potential market catalysts due Thursday for traders to consider:
8:15 a.m. Eastern. European Central Bank policy decision. Deposit rate expected to be cut by 25 basis points to 3.25%.
8:30 a.m. U.S. retail sales for September.
8:30 a.m. U.S. weekly initial jobless claims.
8:30 a.m. Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for September.
8:45 a.m. ECB press conference.
9:15 a.m. U.S. industrial production for September.
9:15 a.m. U.S. capacity utilization for September.
10:00 a.m. U.S. business inventories for August.
10:00 a.m. U.S. homebuilder confidence for October.
How are stock-index futures trading:
S&P 500 futures are up 0.3%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are barely changed%.
Nasdaq 100 futures are adding 0.6%.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 337 points, or 0.79%, to 43,078, the S&P 500 increased 27 points, or 0.47%, to 5,842, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 51 points, or 0.28%, to 18,367.
Nasdaq futures are leading an early rally on Thursday as tech investors rejoice in a better-than-expected earnings report and forecast from chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
“Chip manufacturing giant TSMC has delivered a confident tone as guidance for the fourth quarter comes in well ahead of expectations, in stark contrast to what markets saw from ASML earlier in the week,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown
“Despite ASML being adamant that AI demand was still strong, some in the market were having trouble believing it and the big AI plays saw weakness as a result. TSMC’s confidence should be taken as a positive read for the entire AI trade, especially Nvidia,” Britzman added.
