Stock futures little changed after Tuesday’s gains
U.S. stock futures were little changed early Wednesday after the market finished the previous session higher. By 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow were down 18 points to 28,164. The Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 3.63 points to 11,657.12 while the S&P 500 futures were flat.
The Dow at one point rose more than 300 points on Tuesday before giving away much of those gains in late trade to end at 28,308.79. The S&P 500 rallied 0.5% while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite moved up 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Democrats and the White House made progress in talks over coronavirus stimulus yesterday, but a timeline of when the bill could be passed remains unclear.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended her self-imposed deadline for an agreement, while President Trump pressured GOP Senators on Twitter to agree to a fresh round of relief measure before Election Day.
Netflix shares slump on subscriber miss and tepid outlook
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) shares are trading lower after the streaming giant said late Tuesday that subscriber growth lagged in the third quarter, casting doubts on its ability to maintain growth as coronavirus lockdowns go away.
Netflix said it had earnings of $1.74 per share on revenue of $6.44 billion during the quarter. Analysts had called for earnings of $2.13 per share on revenue of $6.38 billion.
The company added just 2.2 million new subscribers during the quarter, well short of the 3.32 million projected by analysts. For the current quarter, Netflix expects to add 6 million net subscribers compared to 8.8 million in the year-ago quarter.
As of this writing, the stock was down $27.40, or 5.21% to $498.02 a share in the pre-market trading session. Shares of the California-based company had been up 62% this year through Tuesday’s close, giving it a market value of $231.6 billion.
Snap surges on strong earnings
Shares of Snapchat app-parent Snap (NYSE: SNAP) soared in early trade Wednesday after the company posted upbeat third-quarter earnings and revenue late yesterday.
The social media company had earnings of 1 cent per share, beating Street’s expectation for loss of 5 cents. Revenue came in at $678 million, up 52% from the year-ago period and above analysts’ estimate of $550.5 million.
Daily active users stood at 249 million at the end of the third quarter, an 18% increase from the same period last year. Wall Street expected the company to report 243 million daily active users.
Shares of the company were indicated $6.53, or 22.95% to $34.98 each in the pre-market trading session.
Tesla, Verizon, Xilinx earnings on tap
Before the open today, Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) will report their quarterly earnings results.
Companies scheduled to report after the closing bell include Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX), and Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW).
