The Dow Jones today jumped over 50 points in pre-market trading after the White House announced it had developed a tentative trade deal with the European Union. U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced they were working on a deal to knock down barriers to trade between the two blocs.
President Trump had previously threatened to hit European cars with a 25% tariff shortly after hitting the EU with tariffs on aluminum and steel. Shares of Volkswagen (OTC MKTS: VLKAY) popped more than 4% on the news. Jumps like this can put you in profits for weeks - if you know how to play them. Money Morning Technical Trading Specialist D.R. Barton, Jr., recently identified a method to find the next Volkswagen play. Check it out here...
Here are the numbers from Wednesday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
Index
Previous Close
Point Change
Percentage Change
Dow Jones
25,414.10
172.16
0.68%
S&P 500
2,846.07
25.67
0.91%
Nasdaq
7,932.24
91.47
1.17%
Now here's a closer look at today's Money Morning insight, the most important market events, and stocks to watch.
Money Morning Insight of the Day
Earnings season is well underway. And if you're looking to make real money, the time to get started is now. Money Morning Quantitative Specialist Chris Johnson argues the markets are at a tipping point. And with just a few smart plays in today's classic stock picker's market... you can pull in triple-digit gains with just a small investment. Read those picks right here.
Don't Miss: This secret stock-picking method is so good, if you started with a small stake, a string of these picks could have earned you $1.2million. Find out how it's done...
The Top Stock Market Stories for Thursday
Shares of Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) fell by 20% in pre-market hours. The downturn came after the social media giant reported revenue growth will slow during the second half of 2018. Even though the firm topped earnings expectations by $0.02, its quarterly revenue and user-growth expectations were well below Wall Street expectations. At one point, the sell-off knocked as much as 24% off of FB stock price. It is clear that ongoing privacy concerns remain a weight on the stock.
In deal news, shares of Arconic Inc. (NYSE: ARNC) popped more than 10% this morning. Shares of the aerospace giant rallied on rumors of a potential buyout from private equity firms. The Wall Street Journalreported the company is considering two offers. The first comes from Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO). The second is a joint offer from Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) and The Carlyle Group LP (Nasdaq: CG).
Four Stocks to Watch Today: AMZN, CMCSA, QCOM
Shares of Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) will lead headlines after the bell Thursday. The e-commerce giant will report earnings just a week after its annual Amazon Prime holiday. Wall Street expected earnings per share of $2.49 on top of $53.46 billion in revenue.
Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) topped earnings expectations for the second quarter but fell slightly short on revenue. The firm said that it had added roughly 260,000 new broadband customers over the previous three months. That was the largest subscriber growth in the second quarter for that business line in a decade. CMCSA stock was up 3.2% before the bell. However, Chinese regulators held out on a deal and let the clock expire this morning. Shares of NXPI stock fell more than 4% on the news.
Shares of Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) popped more than 6% thanks to a deal that fell through due to ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China. The company had been working for two years to complete a purchase of Dutch chip manufacturer NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Nasdaq: NXPI).
Look for additional earnings reports from Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG), Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UAA), Baidu Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU), Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA), Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: EA), Expedia Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE), Celgene Corp. (Nasdaq: CELG), First Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR), and Western Digital Corp. (Nasdaq: WDC).
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.