Stocks opened mixed, with the Dow and S&P higher and the Nasdaq slightly lower. The averages drifted slowly higher, and have turned green across the board, as investors focus on earnings reports and traders position themselves ahead of the outcome of today's midterm elections. As stock prices have risen, oil prices have fallen, with WTI sliding more than 2% to trade below $62 a barrel. The continued slide in oil prices comes despite the Iranian sanctions that were just put in place, which theoretically removed almost 1M barrels of oil out of the supply mix.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the JOLTS report showed job openings fell 284,000 to 7.009M in September.
COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Booking Holdings (BKNG) are up nearly 5% after the owner of Priceline and other online travel sites reported Q3 bookings and room night growth that topped Street forecasts. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said Booking Holdings' Q3 room nights growth and its Q4 guidance, with the top end of room nights growth being 100bp better than expected, speak to the multiple levers the company has to pull.
Generic drugmaker Mylan (MYL) has jumped 16% after various Wall Street analysts called its Q3 report last night "better than feared," "comforting" and "encouraging."
Under Armour (UAA) shares have slid 3.5% following a report in The Wall Street Journal that revealed a practice that had allowed employees to charge strip club visits to their corporate cards. In response to questions from The Journal about Under Armour's culture, Chairman and CEO Kevin Plank said: "Our teammates deserve to work in a respectful and empowering environment...We can and will do better."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was ConvergeOne (CVON), which rose 32% after it agreed to be acquired by affiliates of CVC Fund VII in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $1.8B. Also higher were Gogo (GOGO) and e.l.f. Beauty (ELF), which gained a respective 28% and 17% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was GreenSky (GSKY), which dropped 36% and was downgraded to Neutral at BTIG after the company's third quarter revenue came in below expectations and management reduced its fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 EBITDA outlook. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were Univar (UNVR) and Tenet (THC), which fell 17% and 12%, respectively.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 107.98, or 0.42%, to 25,569.68, the Nasdaq was up 30.52, or 0.42%, to 7,359.37, and the S&P 500 was up 9.17, or 0.33%, to 2,747.48.
Booking Holdings
+86.1 (+4.58%)
Symbol now VTRS
+5.02 (+16.01%)
Under Armour
-0.86 (-3.59%)
Under Armour
-0.67 (-3.12%)
ConvergeOne
+3.03 (+32.13%)
Gogo
+1.64 (+28.18%)
e.l.f. Beauty
+1.845 (+16.61%)
GreenSky
-5.44 (-37.01%)
Univar
-4.19 (-16.18%)
Tenet Healthcare
-3.26 (-11.99%)