Fridays Market Prepper

Fridays Market Prepper

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U.S. job growth likely rebounded sharply in October, with nonfarm payrolls jumping by 310,000 jobs - the largest gain in two years - after hurricanes Harvey and Irma depressed employment in September. That could seal the case for a rate hike from the Fed next month even as wage growth probably slowed. The data, which will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, is also forecast to show the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.2%.

Economy

Corporate leaders are tagging along with President Trump when he heads to China on Sunday, which will be part of a broader tour in Asia from Nov. 5 to 14. A few of those attending include Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Steve Mollenkopf of Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), Shane Tedjarati of Honeywell (NYSE:HON), Andrew Liveris of DowDuPont (NYSE:DWDP) and Kevin McAllister of Boeing (NYSE:BA).

"The reality clearly shows that the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are the very one who is aggravating the situation of the Korean peninsula and seeking to ignite a nuclear war," Pyongyang said through its state-run media outlet KCNA. It comes after two American B-1B bombers flew near North Korea on Thursday and as the U.S. operates three aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific for the first time in a decade.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro has announced plans to make one final $1.1B principal payment today for a bond issued by state-owned oil company PVSDA. The country would then aim for a restructuring and refinancing, although it has few avenues to do so because of U.S. sanctions. Estimates of Venezuela's total outstanding debt vary, with some analysts putting the figure between $100B-$150B.

Coming during tense NAFTA talks, the U.S. Commerce Department, accusing Canada of unfairly subsidizing and dumping softwood lumber in the U.S., has set final duties on imports. The rates range from about 10% to nearly 24% and would affect about $5.66B worth of the key building material. Canada said it would appeal the decision.

President Trump has nominated Jerome Powell to run the Federal Reserve once Janet Yellen's term expires in February, in a move unlikely to disturb the booming stock market. The decision came as Republican leaders unveiled their tax reform plan, which hit shares of private equity groups and homebuilders amid proposals to cap the tax deductibility of interest and mortgage payments.

Stocks

Apple shares rose over 3% AH, with the company's market cap topping $900B, after the tech giant reported better-than-expected earnings and offered a rosy forecast for the holiday shopping season. Quarterly shipments of the iPhone rose 2.6% from a year earlier to 46.7M units, and China sales rose for the first time since early 2016. Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) mound of cash also continued to scrape the cloudline, coming in at $268.9B for the quarter.

Meanwhile, long lines outside of Apple (AAPL) stores across the world are showing strong initial demand for the iPhone X, as the $999 device becomes available today in major markets like China, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, India and Japan. Analysts say the real test will be the company's ability to sustain that level of interest over the coming months as it works through supply bottlenecks.

President Trump's Twitter account was kicked offline for 11 minutes Thursday night after a rogue support staffer had some fun on his or her "last day of work." A larger security issue? It's not exactly clear what level of access various Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) employees have to user accounts, but should some have the ability to fire off tweets, it could pose a major problem in the internet age of no time delay or take-backs.

Even as Amazon takes a big jump into groceries with the $13.7B acquisition of Whole Foods, it's scaling down other parts of its grocery business. The company has emailed customers in at least five states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and California, to inform them that Amazon Fresh (NASDAQ:AMZN) will be closing for certain zip codes later this month.

Another day, another report... Sprint (NYSE:Sclimbed 5% in AH trading on Thursday and T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUSrose 3%, as sources told the WSJthat the two have restarted talks to salvage their $74B merger. As always, the companies could fail to agree on terms, but they're working on saving their deal, which would combine the third and fourth-biggest U.S. mobile carriers.

Singaporean prosecutors and police are examining Goldman Sachs's (GS) relationship with 1MDB, Bloomberg reports, and have interviewed Goldman executives that have worked on bond offerings for the state investment fund. Founded by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, 1MDB faces money laundering probes in at least six countries, including the U.S., Switzerland and Singapore.

The current plague outbreak in Madagascar is the country's worst in "in 50 years" and is expected to spike this weekend. The nation has recorded 1,801 cases of infection so far, which can be cured with antibiotics if it's caught early, but there have already been 127 recorded deaths. It's an unusual outbreak because approximately 67% of those cases are pneumonic, which is the most serious form of the plague.

It's not just about the price anymore. Failure of EpiPens to deploy correctly have been cited in seven deaths this year, according to reports made to the FDA and obtained by Bloomberg News. A total of 228 reports of EpiPen or EpiPen Jr. failures were received during the same time period. Shares of Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL), which slumped 4.1% on Thursday, fell another 1.2% in AH trading in response to the news.

Looking to break clean from the turmoil surrounding its British and French probes, Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) has embarked on a new search for a sales chief to take over from soon-to-retire John Leahy, Reuters reports. His deputy, Kiran Rao, had been identified as Leahy's successor earlier this year, but CEO Tom Enders has now decided to look outside the core part of the company in a bid to denote a fresh start.

China's home-built C919 passenger jet completed its third test flight this morning, maintaining an altitude of around 10K feet as it circled above Shanghai. China's first national passenger jet aims to challenge the dominance of Boeing's (BA) 737 and Airbus's (OTCPK:EADSY) A320, bringing the Asian nation a step closer to its goal of becoming a global civil aerospace player.

Thursday's Key Earnings
Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI+1.6% AH raising guidance.
AIG (NYSE:AIG-3.3% AH posting a big loss for Q3.
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA-0.7% despite growth in core commerce.
Apple (AAPL+3.1% AH projecting massive holiday sales.
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK-7.6% on a weak production outlook.
DowDuPont (DWDP-1.8% promising more job cuts.
Enterprise Products (NYSE:EPD-1.9% weighed down by Harvey.
Herbalife (NYSE:HLF-6% AH with slumping North American sales.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX-3.1% AH selling Tazo to Unilever.
Teva (NYSE:TEVA-19.9% slashing its forecast for 2017.

Today's Markets 
In Asia, Japan +0.5%. Hong Kong +0.3%. China -0.4%. India +0.3%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.3%. Paris +0.1%. Frankfurt +0.3%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow +0.2%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.3%. Crude +0.6% to $54.86. Gold -0.2% to $1276.10.
Ten-year Treasury Yield flat at 2.35%

Today's Economic Calendar
8:30 Non-farm payrolls
8:30 International Trade
9:45 PMI Services Index
10:00 Factory Orders
10:00 ISM Non-Manufacturing Index
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count

Known to most as Uranium Pinto Beans, Jason has more than 15 years under his belt of trading stocks, options and currencies. His expertise primarily lies in chart analysis, and he has a strong eye for undervalued stock. Because he’s got the ability to identify great risk/reward trades he usually enjoys taking the path less traveled and reaping the benefits from the adventure.

He is a co-founder of Option Millionaires, and he is best known for his weekly webinars with Scott, as well as his high level training webinars and charts found in the forums.

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