Stocks had a roller coaster session, which was a fitting end to a tumultuous week. The averages opened up sharply higher following two days of massive declines that saw the Dow lose about 1,400 points. The averages moved in a narrow range for most of the morning but by midday, the market was back in negative territory. Before losing too much ground the averages regrouped and went higher, with the Dow tacking on triple digit gains and the Nasdaq gaining roughly 2.3%. Despite today's gains, the market finished with its worst weekly performance since March. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., import prices rose 0.5% in September, while export prices were flat, both of which were a little better than forecast. The preliminary October reading of the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was down 1.1 points to 99.0 compared to the final 100.1 reading for September. In energy news, Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. rig count is up 11 rigs from last week to 1,063. COMPANY NEWS: Big banks kicked off the earnings season, with JPMorgan (JPM) reporting better than expected third quarter earnings per share and a 7% increase in assets under management for the quarter. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo (WFC) reported lower than expected Q3 earnings but reported revenue in-line with consensus estimates. Additionally, Citi (C) reported Q3 EPS that beat Wall Street expectations, though revenue was lower than the consensus estimate. CEO Michael Corbat noted, however, that the lender is "firmly on track" to deliver on its fiscal 2018 financial targets. PNC Financial (PNC) also reported better than expected quarterly results... General Electric (GE) moved the date of its Q3 earnings release and webcast to October 30 from October 25 to allow new chairman and CEO Larry Culp to complete his initial business reviews and site visits following his appointment on October 1, the conglomerate announced... Facebook (FB) said that of the 50M people whose access tokens the company believed were affected by a recent security breach, about 30M actually had their tokens stolen. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA), which rose 19.7% after the company reported results from an FDA end of Phase 2 meeting and provided a corporate update. Also higher was Snap (SNAP), which gained 5.4% after Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold. Among the notable losers was Wabash (WNC), which fell 19.1% after it provided lower than expected guidance for Q3 and cut its FY18 earnings guidance. Also lower was Alder Biopharmaceuticals (ALDR), which slipped 1% after Mizuho analyst Difei Yang downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy. INDEXES: The Dow rose 287.16, or 1.15%, to 25,339.99, the Nasdaq gained 167.83, or 2.29%, to 7,496.89, and the S&P 500 advanced 38.72, or 1.42%, to 2,767.09.
