Dow Jones Industrial Average Today Climbs After Surprise Twitter Earnings

Dow Jones Industrial AverageThis morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is on the rise as investors eye another busy day of earnings reports and weekly jobless figures.

This morning, the Labor Department announced that 258,000 Americans sought unemployment benefits last week. That figure was slightly higher than expectations.

Markets were also pushing higher on news that the U.K. economy expanded in the third quarter by 0.5%, a figure that topped expectations.

The report alleviates many concerns about the health of the U.K. economy following the Brexit vote earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the Dow gained 30 points despite a downturn in crude prices and mixed earnings reports. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both slumped thanks to a lackluster sales forecast from Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).

Thursday's Stock Market Numbers:

Dow Jones: 18,199.93; 30.06; 0.17

S&P 500: 2,139.43; -3.73; -0.17%

Nasdaq: 5,250.27; -33.13; -0.63%

Now let's look at the most important market events and stocks to watch today, plus your economic calendar, for Oct. 27, 2016.

What's Ahead for the Dow Jones Industrial Average Today

The Dow Jones Industrial Average projected a 34-point gain as investors eyed mixed earnings reports from after the bell on Wednesday. It will be an especially busy day in the healthcare sector, with three major companies reporting earnings: Celgene Corp. (Nasdaq: CELG), Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN), and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY).

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This morning, the markets are buzzing about Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), which reported Q3 earnings before the bell. TWTR stock was up more than 5% after the firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.13 on top of $613 million in revenue. Wall Street expected $0.09 on top of $605.5 million. However, the news that really made the stock pop was the firm's announcement that it will slash its workforce by 9% (about 350 people) as part of a broad restructuring effort across its sales and marketing efforts. Despite the surprise TWTR earnings report, there are plenty of reasons to remain concerned about the long-term health of this company. We explain why we are bearish on Twitter stock, right here.

Meanwhile, shares of embattled German investment firm Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE: DB) were pushing higher after it topped Wall Street revenue expectations. The bank has been under serious scrutiny over the last few months due to increased concerns about its liquidity and a massive settlement with the U.S. government over mortgage-backed securities.

The price of crude oil today is on the rise after the Energy Information Administration reported a surprise downturn in U.S. crude inventories on Wednesday. The surprise drawdown offset concerns about the potential collapse of the September OPEC production deal. The WTI crude oil price today added 0.1%, while the Brent crude oil price gained 0.2%.

Despite the increase in U.S. crude stocks, investors have to pay attention to the OPEC deal over the next month. Money Morning Global Energy Strategist Dr. Kent Moors has called the deal unstable and warned that it is on the verge of collapse. As Moors explains, there is one unexpected culprit that has driven a wedge into the deal. Learn all about this threat, right here.

But the big story in pre-market hours is Tesla Motors Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA). After the bell on Wednesday, the electric vehicle manufacturer announced a surprise profit for Q3 thanks to a higher delivery number than analysts had anticipated. The company reported EPS of $0.71 on top of $2.3 billion in revenue. Wall Street had expected $0.02 on top of $2.12 billion.

Stocks to Watch Today, Oct. 27, 2016

  • In deal news, shares of NXP Semiconductors NV (Nasdaq: NXPI) gained more than 2% on news that it will sell itself to rival Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) for roughly $38 billion. The deal continues the merger and acquisition trend in the semiconductor industry. NXP is the world's top producer of automotive computer chips.
  • Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) are in focus as the company kicks off a product event this morning at its California headquarters. Analysts expect the firm will unveil its latest update to its line of MacBook Pros. The event comes two days after the firm reported quarterly earnings. In Tuesday's earnings report, the company topped Wall Street expectations, but weak sales in China and a lackluster iPhone forecast weighed on investor sentiment.
  • In earnings news, keep an eye on Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). Wall Street expects that the company will report an EPS figure of $0.85 on top of $32.57 billion in revenue. Before today's AMZN earnings report, take a minute to learn why you should be bullish on the stock's future. Here's our full outlook on the Amazon stock price after earnings.
  • Look for additional earnings reports from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), LinkedIn Corp. (Nasdaq: LNKD), Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Baidu Inc. (Nasdaq ADR: BIDU), Expedia Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE), and United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS).

Today's U.S. Economic Calendar (all times EDT)

  • Durable Goods Orders at 8:30 a.m.
  • Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m.
  • Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index at 9:45 a.m.
  • Pending Home Sales Index at 10 a.m.
  • EIA Natural Gas Report at 10:30 a.m.
  • Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index at 11 a.m.
  • 3-Month Bill Announcement at 11 a.m.
  • 6-Month Bill Announcement at 11 a.m.
  • 7-Year Note Auction at 1 p.m.
  • Fed Balance Sheet at 4:30 p.m.
  • Money Supply at 4:30 p.m.

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About the Author

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.

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