Tuesday, October 18, 2016

With Q3 earnings season hitting high gear this week, we’ve got plenty of notable stocks reporting before the bell today, including many large financial institutions on Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs (GS Quick QuoteGS - Free Report) saw net earnings rise 58% ($800 million) in the quarter, posting a big beat on the bottom line: $4.88 per share compared to $3.86 expected. Goldman credited big gains in trading and equity businesses. Shares are up roughly 1.5% in pre-market trading. Click here for more.

Aside from the big banks, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Quick QuoteJNJ - Free Report) beat estimates by 2 cents to $1.68 per share, as well as raised its guidance for the full year. Even still, we see shares trading down a tad in the early market. Click here for more.

The biggest mover in the pre-market is Netflix (NFLX Quick QuoteNFLX - Free Report) , which posted a giant positive surprise after the closing bell yesterday on big subscriber adds domestically and overseas. Shares are up 19% at this hour. Original programming, such as the Colombian Pablo Escobar saga Narcos, remains a growth driver for the entertainment services company. Click here for more.

Consumer Price Index for September

September’s CPI results were also released this morning, in-line at +0.3% month over month, and +1.5% year over year. Subtracting often-volatile food and energy costs, September’s month over month read is +0.1%, +2.2% year over year. The reason these costs are stripped out makes sense when you see gasoline prices rose 5.8% in last month’s CPI report.

Does this resemble inflationary pressure? According to Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer yesterday said the Fed believes U.S. inflation (and employment, by the way) “pretty much met expectations.” This points more directly to a Fed interest rate rise before the end of the year (25 basis points), but not likely until after the U.S. election.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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