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.
Expect a flat start to the stock market today, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 1.18%) is set to rise by an insignificant two points at the opening bell, according to index futures. News is breaking this morning on a few stocks that could see heavy trading in the session, including Facebook (META 2.33%) Boeing (BA 0.53%) and Amazon.com (AMZN 0.81%).
Facebook is set to announce a new program today for selling video advertisements, according to The Wall Street Journal. The clips will play automatically and should start appearing in users' feeds on computers and mobile devices Thursday. There appears to be strong demand for the new medium among advertisers, who could pay up to $2 million per day to reach Facebook's full adult user base. Still, the company will have to walk a fine line here: Last quarter it said that it was halting the increase in ad frequency that has led to a huge revenue spike, suggesting that it is already close to the point where ads could hurt the user experience. Facebook's stock is up 1.8% in premarket trading.
Boeing shares are on the move after it announced a huge hike in its quarterly dividend payout, to $0.73 cents per share. At a total of nearly $3 a share, the company's annual payout now yields more than 2%, based on yesterday's closing price. Boeing, the best-performing stock on the Dow this year, also announced a new $10 billion stock buyback program aimed at returning to shareholders some of its spiking cash flow. That figure was up 84% last quarter, thanks to a large increase in aircraft orders. Boeing's stock is up 2% in premarket trading.
Finally, Amazon is apparently the place to shop if you want in-demand toys this holiday season. A Bloomberg study released this morning found that the e-commerce giant beats rivals Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart when it comes to the availability of 100 of the most popular toys. Amazon boasted 95% of those top items, in part thanks to its legion of third-party sellers, while Target had the worst coverage, just 40%. Amazon's stock is unchanged in premarket trading, but up about 55% on the year.
