5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Thursday, October 27

Listed below are crucial information objects that traders want to start out their buying and selling day:

Markets do not look a lot clearer now that we’re over the hump in a busy earnings week. The three main indices had a blended Wednesday. The Dow posted a fourth-consecutive successful session, simply barely, whereas the Nasdaq and S&P 500 snapped their three-day successful streaks. Thursday morning futures did not look so clear-cut, both. Buyers are largely chewing over outlooks from a number of Large Tech earnings which have already reported this week, together with Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta (more on that one below). Two more biggies are coming Thursday, too, as Apple and Amazon are set to report after the bell. There’s another Fed meeting next week, as well, which means another big rate hike is on the way (see below). Read live market updates here.

… can you still lose money on it? You bet. Wall Street had low expectations for Meta’s quarterly earnings, and Meta surpassed them, on the wrong side, sending the stock down 20% in off-hours trading. The Facebook parent company missed badly on profit, as did its average revenue per user, and revenue declined for two straight quarters. What’s worse is that Meta expects another revenue decline in the current quarter, issuing guidance that was mostly lower than what analysts were projecting. The advertising environment is rough, as we’ve already seen with Alphabet and Snap, and Meta is feeling the pinch, too. Beyond that, CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to keep spending big on the metaverse despite that part of the business, Reality Labs, losing $9.4 billion already this year, with more losses to come – as its revenue shrinks.

Russian missiles again struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, as Vladimir Putin presses his offensive from the sky while his forces try to regroup on the ground. The Russians also pounded the Zaporizhzhia region, which is home to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Meanwhile, a top Russian official warned that the Kremlin’s forces could target U.S. commercial satellites, which have already supplied imagery of Russia’s troops and formations. Read live war updates here.

It’s just under two weeks until Election Day, when Americans will decide the balance of power in Congress. The economy is again voters’ top concern as Covid worries have waned and prices have surged at levels not seen in four decades. The Federal Reserve has had little luck so far slowing down inflation with its big interest rate hikes, even as critics warn that the central bank’s actions threaten a recession. And now one of the Senate’s top Democrats, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, is warning Fed Chairman Jerome Powell that the Fed’s actions could lead to job losses. “It is your job to combat inflation, but at the same time you must not lose sight of your responsibility to ensure that we have full employment,” Brown wrote to Powell. The Fed is expected to announce another three-quarter-point rate hike at next week’s meeting, just days before the election.

Elon Musk on Wednesday showed up at Twitter headquarters with a sink in his hands, pretty much just so he could make a “let that sink in” pun on, you guessed it, Twitter. All indicators are pointing towards the billionaire Tesla CEO closing his $44 billion deal to take the social media firm non-public simply in time for Friday’s court-appointed deadline. Musk’s takeover will conclude a monthslong saga that included him hanging the deal for $54.20 a share, strolling away from it and Twitter suing him to complete the deal. Now the query turns into, what’s going to Musk truly do with Twitter? We’ll simply should see what the self-described “Chief Twit” has in retailer.

– CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Jonathan Vanian, Natasha Turak, Jeff Cox and Lauren Feiner contributed to this report.

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