Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.69%) will begin the trading day higher, rising by a moderate 30 points at the opening bell, according to stock index futures as of 7:40 a.m. EDT.
Critical economic data that was delayed during the government shutdown is set to start flowing again soon. The monthly Employment Situation report from the Department of Labor, which should have published on Oct. 4, will instead come out Tuesday. The report for October will be pushed back by a week to Nov. 8, as well. Investors, along with the Federal Reserve, have a more muddied picture of the economy these days thanks to the budget standoff that just concluded.
With that bigger picture in mind, here are a few individual stock stories to watch for in today's market.
The global economy is on the mend. General Electric (GE 8.28%) announced third-quarter earnings this morning that were down slightly from last year's haul. Net profit came in at $3.2 billion, or $0.31 per share. Quarterly revenue ticked lower by 1% to $35.7 billion as GE's capital unit continued to work on shedding its noncore business. Still, orders rose by a solid 19% in what CEO Jeff Immelt called an "improving global business environment." Shares are up 2% in premarket trading.
Mobile advertising is big business. Tech stocks could get a lift today after Google (GOOGL 1.27%) last night reported a 26% bounce in its paid clicks, which helped push quarterly revenue higher by 12%. The search giant's earnings came in at $10.74 per share, up 21% from last year. Google's stock is up 9% in premarket trading, and other companies that rely on mobile advertising are rising as well. Facebook and Pandora are up 3.6% and 0.6%, respectively, before the bell.
Morgan Stanley (MS 1.81%) reported a sharp rise in quarterly income this morning. After accounting for debt-valuation adjustments, revenue rose to $8.1 billion from $7.5 billion a year ago. Adjusted profit jumped 79% to $0.50 a share as stock sales, and trading revenue rose by $400 million. Morgan Stanley's stock is up 3.4% in premarket trading.
Finally, Honeywell (HON 0.30%) turned in quarterly results that saw both sales and profit rise by 3%. Revenue hit $9.6 billion, and per-share earnings rose to $1.24. Profitability jumped by more than a percentage point as each of the company's business segments managed to report a higher operating margin. However, revenue still fell short of Wall Street expectation's, and the company cut its full-year sales forecast. Honeywell shares are down 1.3% in premarket trading.
