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Pre-Markets Mixed to Start November

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Pre-market futures are mixed this morning as major indexes seek some equilibrium after striking — then pulling slightly back from — all-time trading highs at various times last month. We’re still undergoing a government shutdown, so some key pieces of economic data (such as Construction Spending for September today and government jobs numbers later this week) are unlikely to show up.

The blue-chip Dow and the small-cap Russell 2000 are both down at this hour, -40 points and -3 points, respectively. The S&P 500 is +18 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq leads the way again, +160 points at this hour. Going into the penultimate trading month for 2025, all major indexes are up double-digits, but only the Nasdaq has a “2-handle” (+23.3%). Bond yields are mixed but mild: the 10-year blips up to +4.11% and the 2-year down to +3.61%.

Commercial paper giant Kimberly-Clark (KMB - Free Report) has reportedly agreed to purchase J&J spinoff Kenvue (KVUE - Free Report) for a whopping $48.7 billion this morning. The Kleenex, Cottonelle and Huggies parent is now moving into other home staples products like Tylenol and Band-Aid. Shares of KMB are down -14% on this news, while KVUE shares reflect the buying price and are up +20% at this hour.

Q3 Earnings Ahead of the Bell

In quantity, this will be the biggest week of Q3 earnings season so far. We’ve already seen most of the Mag-7 stocks post their quarterly results, so the marquee names are little fewer and far-in-between. But after today’s close we hear from cybersecurity cloud provider Palantir (PLTR - Free Report) , Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC - Free Report) , Clorox (CLX - Free Report) , Simon Properties (SPG - Free Report) and Williams Companies (WMB - Free Report) .

ON Semiconductor (ON - Free Report) is out this morning with Q3 earnings results, posting a bottom-line beat of 3 cents — 63 cents per share versus expectations for 60 cents — on $1.55 billion in sales, which is similarly ahead of the $1.53 billion in the Zacks Consensus. Shares are up +4% in early trading on the news, although the stock has a ways to go to make back the -20% it has lost so far in 2025.

What to Expect from Today’s Stock Market

Aside from the already stated earnings reports due after today’s close, we will get a couple monthly economic prints from the private sector after the opening bell this morning: S&P final U.S. Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing, both for October. The S&P post from a month ago was above the brea-even 50 threshold, 52.2, while the ISM headline was a mere 49.1%. ISM numbers are expected to upgrade to +49.3%, but remain below that demarcation point between growth and loss.

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