>>> Endeavor Group: Silver Lake issued the following statement regarding the dis

Endeavor Group: Silver Lake issued the following statement regarding the disclosure by Endeavor Group Holdings (EDR) that it is exploring strategic alternatives (17.72 -0.36)
"Silver Lake is committed to strategies that deliver value for all shareholders of Endeavor. To that end, Silver Lake is currently working toward making a proposal to take Endeavor private. Silver Lake firmly believes in Endeavor's business and is not interested in selling its shares in Endeavor to a third-party nor in entertaining bids for assets that are a part of Endeavor. Silver Lake is the owner of approximately 71% of the voting power of Endeavor. Our Co-Chief Executive Officer, Egon Durban, and our Managing Director, Stephen Evans, serve as members of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Endeavor. Silver Lake has been a committed investor since 2012 and has made significant investments in Endeavor since then to support its growth."

>>> Meta Platforms conference call update: AI will be biggest investment area in

Meta Platforms conference call update: AI will be biggest investment area in 2024 (299.53 -13.02)
  • Continue focusing on operating efficiently going forward. AI will be biggest investment area in 2024, in engineering and compute resources. Going to continue deprioritizing a number of non-AI projects to shift people towards working with AI instead.
  • On the recruiting front, have a sizable hiring backlog; still planning to grow headcount at a much slower rate going forward, but the actual rate next year may temporarily be faster as we work through this hiring backlog.
  • Reels has now driven more than 40% increase in time spent on Instagram since launch. Reached a monetization milestone earlier-than-expected, and estimate that reels is now net neutral to overall company ad revenue.
  • Generative AI will increasingly be important going forward. Believe LLaMA is now the leading open source model with more than 30 million downloads last month.
  • AI-driven feed recommendations continue to grow their impact on incremental engagement, with a 7% increase in time spent on Facebook and a 6% increase on Instagram this year.
  • AI tools for advertisers also driving results with shopping campaigns reaching a $10 billion run rate and more than half of advertisers using advantage plus creative tools to optimize images in text and ads creative.
  • Threads: There are just under 100 million monthly actives at this point and getting to the point to be focusing on growing the community further.
  • Other major long-term focus is the metaverse; just launched Quest 3. Also launched the next generation of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Also making progress on software for the metaverse 2.

>>> Fortune Brands Innovations beats by $0.10, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 E

Fortune Brands Innovations beats by $0.10, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs in-line (55.23 -1.86)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.19 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.10 better than the FactSet Consensus of $1.09; revenues rose 5.5% year/year to $1.26 bln vs the $1.25 bln FactSet Consensus.
  • Co issues guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.63-0.73, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $1.01 FactSet Consensus; sees Q4 revs of $1164-1211 mln vs. $1.21 bln FactSet Consensus.

>>> US Close Dow -0,32% S&P -1,43% Nasdaq -2,43% Russell -1,67%

Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's trade brought many stocks lower, leaving the major indices near their lows of the day. The S&P 500 closed above its 200-day moving average yesterday (now 4,238), but opened below that key level today before ultimately settling below 4,200. The disappointing price action itself acted as a downside catalyst, along with a jump in rates and a big loss in Alphabet (GOOG 126.67, -13.45, -9.6%) following an earnings report that contained some relatively disappointing growth for its cloud business.

Microsoft (MSFT 340.67, +10.14, +3.1%) was a winning standout after reporting some impressive growth for its Azure business, but other mega caps slid alongside Alphabet. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) fell 2.2% versus a 1.4% decline in the S&P 500. The equal weighted S&P 500, meanwhile, fell 1.1%.

General Dynamics (GD 242.40, +9.40, +4.0%), Visa (V 236.85, +2.20, +0.9%) and Waste Management (WM 164.07, +9.44, +6.1%) also registered gains after impressing with their quarterly results while Boeing (BA 177.73, -4.63, -2.6%) and Texas Instruments (TXN 141.79, -5.13, -3.5%) saw sizable declines.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors declined. The communication services sector (-5.9%) was the worst performer by a wide margin, weighed down by Alphabet. The utilities (+0.5%) and consumer staples (+0.3%) sectors were alone in positive territory at the close.
The 10-yr note yield climbed 11 basis points to 4.95% and the 2-yr note yield rose two basis points to 5.12%. Yields were already moving up, but turned higher in response to this morning's release of the September New Home Sales report, which showed the strongest annual rate of sales (759,000) since February 2022. Another wave of selling hit the Treasury market following a $52 billion 5-yr note sale that met dismal demand.

In other news, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected Speaker of the House after receiving unanimous Republican support.
  • Nasdaq Composite: +22.5% YTD
  • S&P 500: +9.0% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.3% YTD
  • S&P Midcap 400: -3.5% YTD
  • Russell 2000: -6.2% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
  • Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index -1.0%; Prior -6.9%
  • September New Home Sales 759K (consensus 683K); Prior was revised to 676K from 675K
    • The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales activity in September picked up noticeably, aided by lower prices and reportedly mortgage rate concessions from builders.

Thursday's economic calendar features:
  • 8:30 ET: Advance Q3 GDP (consensus 4.0%; prior 2.1%), advance Q3 GDP Chain Deflator ( consensus 2.7%; prior 1.7%), weekly Initial Claims ( consensus 210,000; prior 198,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.734 mln), September Durable Orders ( consensus 1.5%; prior 0.2%), Durable Orders ex-transportation ( consensus 0.3%; prior 0.4%), advance September goods trade balance (prior -$84.3 bln), advance September Retail Inventories (prior 1.1%), and advance September Wholesale Inventories (prior -0.1%)
  • 10:00 ET: September Pending Home Sales ( consensus 0.5%; prior -7.1%)
  • 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior +97 bcf)

>>> IBM beats by $0.08, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY23 outlook for CC revs

IBM beats by $0.08, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY23 outlook for CC revs and FCF (137.17 -0.63)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $2.20 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.08 better than the FactSet Consensus of $2.12; revenues rose 4.6% year/year to $14.75 bln vs the $14.73 bln FactSet Consensus.
    • Software revenue up 8 percent, up 6 percent at constant currency.
    • Consulting revenue up 6 percent, up 5 percent at constant currency.
    • Infrastructure revenue down 2 percent, down 3 percent at constant currency.
  • FY23 Outlook: Co reaffirms CC revenue growth of 3-5%, which is not comparable to consensus, which is not CC. At current foreign exchange rates, currency is expected to be about a one-point headwind to revenue growth. Co reaffirms FY23 guidance for FCF at about $10.5 bln

>>> Whirlpool beats by $1.18, beats on revs; guides FY23 EPS below consensus, re

Whirlpool beats by $1.18, beats on revs; guides FY23 EPS below consensus, revs above consensus (125.59 -1.46)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $5.45 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $1.18 better than the FactSet Consensus of $4.27; revenues rose 2.8% year/year to $4.93 bln vs the $4.79 bln FactSet Consensus.
    • Cost take out actions delivered approximately $300 million of year-over-year benefit in the quarter; on track to deliver over $800 million full-year benefit
  • Co issues mixed guidance for FY23, sees EPS of ~$16.00, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $16.16 FactSet Consensus and prior guidance of $16.00-18.00; sees FY23 revs of ~$19.4 bln vs. $19.15 bln FactSet Consensus.
  • Declared fourth-quarter dividend of $1.75 per share

>>> NETGEAR beats by $0.27, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs below two analyst esti

NETGEAR beats by $0.27, beats on revs; guides Q4 revs below two analyst estimate (10.51 -0.43)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.23 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.27 better than the two analyst estimate of ($0.04); revenues fell 20.7% year/year to $197.85 mln vs the $183.85 mln two analyst estimate.
  • Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $175-190 mln vs. $214.92 mln two analyst estimate.
  • "We are also encouraged that our retail channel partners are now maintaining rather than depleting their inventories. However, as interest rates remain high, we will continue to work with our SMB channel partners to optimize their inventory carrying levels during the next few quarters. Accordingly, we expect CHP to be approximately flat sequentially, in line with market seasonality, and SMB to be down sequentially which would result in overall fourth quarter net revenue in the range of $175 million to $190 million. As we continue to make meaningful progress in reducing our own inventory levels, we will be consuming older, higher cost inventory. We expect we will be back to normal inventory levels and normal inventory costs by the middle of next year."

>>> Mattel beats by $0.22, beats on revs; raises FY23 EPS outlook, reaffirms FY2

Mattel beats by $0.22, beats on revs; raises FY23 EPS outlook, reaffirms FY23 revs guidance (20.11 -0.10)
  • Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $1.08 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.22 better than the FactSet Consensus of $0.86; revenues rose 9.3% year/year to $1.92 bln vs the $1.84 bln FactSet Consensus.
    • Gross Billings in the North America segment increased 10% as reported and in constant currency, driven by growth in Dolls (including Barbie and Disney Princess and Disney Frozen) and Vehicles (Hot Wheels®), partly offset by declines in Action Figures, Building Sets, Games, and Other (primarily Action Figures), and Infant, Toddler, and Preschool (primarily Thomas & Friends).
    • Gross Billings in the International segment increased 9% as reported, or 2% in constant currency. The increase in Gross Billings as reported was driven by growth in Dolls (including Disney Princess and Disney Frozen, Monster High, and Barbie) and Vehicles (primarily Hot Wheels), partly offset by declines in Action Figures, Building Sets, Games, and Other (primarily Action Figures).
  • Co issues guidance for FY23, sees EPS of $1.15-$1.25, excluding non-recurring items, (from prior $1.10-$1.20) vs. $1.20 FactSet Consensus; sees FY23 revs of $5.425 bln vs. $5.49 bln FactSet Consensus