CNBC | Morning Squawk
IN THE NEWS TODAY
U.S. stock futures were searching for direction, after Wall Street broke a two-session losing streak. With the month almost over, the Dow and S&P 500 were close to erasing their September losses. The Nasdaq has so far gained 1.8 percent. (CNBC)
Fed Chair Janet Yellen tops a busy list of Fed speakers today, delivering testimony at 10 a.m. ET on banking regulation before the House Financial Services Committee, where the Wells Fargo (WFC)
clawbacks are likely to come up. (CNBC)
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will forfeit $41 billion (MG note: CNBC typo- should read 41 million), following the recent sales scandal, while ex-community banking head Carrie Tolstedt will give up $19 million. The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing tomorrow, after last week's Senate hearing. (CNBC)
OPEC is meeting in Algeria today, and could continue to create volatility. Crude prices, which fell nearly 3 percent Tuesday, were recovering a bit this morning, on industry data showing a surprising drop in U.S. inventories. The government stockpile report is out at 10:30 a.m. ET. (Reuters) (MG note: Just travelled up and down eastern USA- SC has the best gas prices)
Dow component Nike (NKE) was under pressure in the premarket, after reporting late Tuesday future orders up a less than expected. However, the athletic footwear and apparel retailer did blow the doors off expectations with earnings. Revenue also beat. (Reuters)
BlackBerry (BBRY) this morning reported breakeven earnings, which were better than the 5 cent loss analysts had been expecting. But revenue was short. The company plans to end all internal hardware development, outsourcing that function to partners.
Amazon (AMZN) may have a secret plan to beef up its shipping network, to replace FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS). Amazon aims to build a full-scale logistics network. (WSJ) (MG comment: Much as I admire Amazon, shipping was an integral part of my long business career. Freight is hard. The road is littered will failed freight companies. Think DHL in America. UPS and FedEx are hardly shaking in their boots. I see Amazon's efforts as augmenting their proven carriers during peak seasons. Good luck Jeff but go slowly to learn- maybe like Google has on self-driving cars or Barnes and Noble on tablets or your company with smart phones)
Six Democratic senators have written to Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer, seeking answers to questions about the company's 500 million-account data breach, thought to be the largest ever. (WSJ)
A stop-gap funding bill to avoid a federal government shutdown later this week failed to garner enough votes to move forward in the Senate, with Democrats and Republicans both opposing the measure. (Reuters)
The Senate is scheduled to vote today on overriding President Barack Obama's veto of a bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia and other countries over the attacks. (USA Today)
The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was the most watched ever on TV. Nielsen said 84 million viewers tuned in Monday night. Tens of millions more people watched live streams and debate related videos online. (CNBC)
Shimon Peres, who led Israel as prime minister and president in an enduring six-decade political career built on promoting peace between Arabs and Jews, died Tuesday, after being hospitalized for a major stroke. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was 93. (NBC News)
BY THE NUMBERS
The government is out with its August report on durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET, with forecasts calling for a 1.5 percent drop after a 4.4 percent July gain.
A drop in home loan rates last week did nothing to boost refinances, which fell 2 percent, said the Mortgage Bankers Association. Total mortgage applications fell 0.7 percent.
In addition to Yellen's testimony today, five regional Fed presidents hold public appearances today, including Neel Kashkari from Minneapolis, Jim Bullard from St. Louis, Charles Evans Chicago, Loretta Mester from Cleveland, and Esther George from Kansas City.
San Francisco Fed Bank President John Williams said in an interview the central bank can raise interest rates without threatening the U.S. economic recovery. Policymakers risk doing more harm by continued inaction, he added.
Tempur Sealy (TPX) shares were losing a quarter of their value in premarket trading, after cutting its 2016 outlook late Tuesday. The mattress company sees sales for the current quarter coming in below expectations.
Sonic (SONC) last Tuesday projected current quarter earnings below current Wall Street forecasts, because of slower customer traffic and lower spending at its restaurants. The stock was sinking in the premarket.
STOCKS TO WATCH
Takata is in talks with the Justice Department, according to the Wall Street, to resolve allegations of criminal wrongdoing in its handling of its faulty airbags, which led to a massive global recall.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to resolve U.S. claims involving mortgage-backed securities that it sold to credit unions ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.
German financial regulators are reportedly not working on an emergency plan for Deutsche Bank (DB). Shares of the lender have recently sank on concerns about an anticipated multibillion U.S. fine.
Facebook (FB) plans to appeal against an order by a German privacy regulators to stop collecting and storing data of German users of its messaging app WhatsApp.
ABInBev (BUD) shareholders have approved the beer brewer's $100 billion takeover of rival SABMiller. Shareholders at SABMiller are expected to vote on the deal today.
SAP (SAP), the biggest software maker in Europe, plans to pump $2.2 billion into investments related to the $280 billion internet-of-things market through the end of 2020.
