ExxonMobil Corp.   said it plans to cut around 1,900 domestic jobs, and to lower its global workforce by around -15% over the next two years. The oil giant said that the dampening of energy demand due to COVID-19 has forced the company to make the changes. According to  Exxon, the job cuts will improve the company’s long-term cost competitiveness and to ensure the company manages through the current “unprecedented market conditions.Outlook on near-term demand is gloomy among investors amid new lockdown orders in Europe and decreasing gasoline consumption in the United States.

Within the United States, cases are expected to increase in 49 out of 50 states in the coming weeks. With the uncertainty looming, three of the top gaming companies will report earnings next week.Caesars Entertainment (CZR) and Melco Resorts and Entertainment (MLCO) will report on November 5. All three companies saw their stocks drop sharply in the first quarter and all three have seen the stocks rally sharply off their lows.

The other four will report that night—Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Google/Alphabet (GOOG). So far this earnings season it appears that companies that are beating their earnings and revenue forecasts aren’t being rewarded as greatly as usual and companies that miss are getting punished more than usual.For companies that miss on their earnings estimate, the historical average is for a decline of just over 2%. One concern going in to Thursday is that the tech sector has seen the worst declines after earnings so far this earnings season.

). The company mentioned that around two-thirds of the 42,000 patients enrolled in late-stage clinical trials have been dosed with its developing coronavirus vaccine.It plans to apply Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late November.

Molecular diagnostics company Exact Sciences  has agreed to buy cancer-detection company Thrive Earlier Detection for $2.5 billion in cash and stock. Under the terms of the 65% stock-35% cash deal, Thrive Earlier Detection will receive $1.7 billion up front  .An additional $450 million will be payable to Thrive subject to milestones related to the development and commercialization of a blood-based, multi-cancer screening test. Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy said that the acquisition will allow Exact Sciences to add Thrive's early-stage cancer-screening test, CancerSEEK, into its blood-based screening platform.

AMD posted third quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. The chipmaker’s third-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 41 cents a share, compared to Wall Street forecasts of 35 cents. Revenue of $2.8 billion (vs. $1.8 billion a year earlier) also exceeded analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. The company’s core computing and graphics segment sales came in at $1.67 billion, beating estimates of $1.55 billion.Ryzen processor sales growth were partially offset by softer graphics revenue. Gross margin in the rose 1 percentage point year-over-year to 44%. AMD CEO and President Lisa Su cited strong demand for our PC, gaming, and data center products as key drivers of record quarterly revenue. Looking ahead, AMD projected fourth-quarter revenue of about $3 billion, up 41% year-over-year. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected at about 45% for the fourth quarter.

Semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has agreed to purchase rival Xilinx   for $35 billion. “Our acquisition of Xilinx marks the next leg in our journey to establish AMD as the industry’s high performance computing leader and partner of choice for the largest and most important technology companies in the world,” said AMD CEO and President Lisa Su. Under terms of the all-stock deal, Xilinx investors will receive 1.7234 AMD shares for each Xilinx stock.The merger values Xilinx at about $143 a share. The agreement, expected to close by the end of 2021, is subject to approval from shareholders and regulators.

On Friday, Goldman Sachs analyst Noah Poponak initiated coverage of Virgin Galactic  shares  with a neutral rating. The spaceflight company got a price target of $19 from Poponak, a target that’s below the estimates of all other analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.  While Virgin Galactic aims to expand its reach in private space travel, Poponak has concerns that “time to realization of the opportunity is very long, customer adoption and recurrence uncertain, and potential for competition not insignificant”. Poponak  added, “The key question for investing in SPCE is how many people will want to fly to space and how much will they pay to do so.”   

The result was better compared to the net loss of -10 cents a share  that analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected. Revenue for the quarter tripled to $1.65 billion, from $555.6 million.FactSet analysts had expected $1.6 billion.   According to the company, its main market which is the automotive industry underwent "unprecedented shutdowns" in the previous quarter, but Cleveland-Cliffs prepared its inventories for recovery. In September, Cleveland-Cliffs   agreed to buy the U.S. operations of Luxembourg-based steel-and-mining company ArcelorMittal for $1.4 billion in cash and stock. The deal would make the company the largest producer of iron ore pellets. 

Dunkin’ Brands could soon be run by private equity. The doughnut company held preliminary discussions to be acquired by private equity-backed restaurant company Inspire Brands, according to a Dunkin’ statement on Sunday.(The deal would take Dunkin’ Brands private at a price of $106.50 a share, said the New York Times which first reported the development). However, there is no certainty that any agreement will be reached, and neither party will comment further unless and until a transaction is reached according to company spokeswoman, Karen Raskopf. Dunkin' website ,mentions that the company owns around 21,000 "points of distribution" in more than 60 countries - that includes 12,900 Dunkin' restaurant franchises and 8,000 Baskin-Robbins stores.  

According to Tickeron’s group trends screener, the Major Diversified Chemicals group is up 52.14% in the last six months. Another thing that jumped out from the screener was the fact that the group scored a “strong buy” rating overall.Of the eight stocks in the group, four carry the “strong buy” designation from Tickeron’s Artificial Intelligence readings.

The only charts that matter are the ones that show us stock patterns. Investors need to think differently.The results at the end of that day could change to outlook for some of your favorite long-term investments. In this article, we’ve laid out a strategy to position investors for any outcome on election day.

American Express Co.  reported third quarter earnings that came in lower than analysts’ expectations.But the credit card company experienced a steady improvement in in current spending volumes. The company’s earnings for the three months ending in September fell -17.1% year-over-year to $1.30 per share, and was lower than the $1.25 anticipated by analysts. Revenues fell -20% to $8.8 billion, but beat analysts' estimates of $8.6 billion . The credit card group said its credit reserves grew by $665 million, leading to to around $7.2 billion as of quarter-end. “While our business continues to be significantly affected by the impacts of the pandemic, our third quarter results have increased our confidence that our strategy for managing through the current environment is the right one,” said CEO Stephen Squeri.

Shares of semiconductor company Intel were down more than -11% Friday morning.It projects fourth quarter revenues of around $17.4 billion. "2020 has been the most challenging year in my career with a global pandemic geopolitical tensions challenging business principles of globalization and social unrest," CEO Bob Swan told investors.

When I first started studying the stock market, one of the first theories on investing that I remember learning about was the Dow Theory. One of the main ideas in Dow Theory is that the transportation companies can be a leading indicator for the overall economy.If transportation companies are seeing a decline in revenue or a slowdown in the demand for their services, it’s a sign that the overall economy is slowing.Conversely, if the transportation companies are seeing an increase in the demand for their services, the economy is set to expand. The Dow Theory will get a partial test on October 27 and 28 as three different trucking companies will report earnings.

However, the airline is has tapered its cash-burn rate. The airline’s third-quarter loss came in at -$1.2 billion, or -$1.96 a share, vs. income of $659 million, or $1.23 a share, in the same period a year ago.Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting a loss of -$2.35 a share. The quarterly operating revenue was $1.8 billion, down -68% year-over-year. As of third quarter-end, Southwest had  liquidity of $15.6 billion, consisting of cash and short-term investments of $14.6 billion and a secured revolving credit facility of $1 billion. The airline’s cash-burn rate, ( measures how much cash an airline is using to continue operations despite losses), was around $16 million per day in the third quarter, an improvement from average core cash burn of approximately $23 million per day in the second quarter.

 However, the beverage behemoth did not  provide a full-year profit guidance amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Coca-Cola’s adjusted non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in September came in at 55 cents per share, down one penny year-over-year, but beating the Street expectations of 46 cents. Net sales fell -9% to $8.65 billion, beating expectations of $8.36 billion. Organic sales dropped -6%. Unit case volume (which helps measure demand without the impact of pricing or foreign currency) declined -4%. The company mentioned quarter-over-quarter improvements in demand.

The number of Americans applying for initial jobless claims registered a decrease last week, falling below 800,000 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began to hurt jobs market. According to the Dept.of Labor, 787,000 Americans filed for initial jobless benefits for the week ended Oct. 17, compared to a revised 842,000 the week earlier.

AT&T Inc.  reported third quarter revenues that beat analysts’ expecttions, on strong additions to its media and wireless networks.   The telecom & media giant’s adjusted earnings for the three months ending in September came in at 76 cents per share, quite in-line with Street forecasts . The company estimated a -21 cents per share earnings hit linked to the coronavirus pandemic.  Revenues fell -5.2%year-over-year  to $42.3 billion, but surpassed analysts' expectations of $41.6 billion. According to AT&T, subscribers to its HBO Max streaming service hit 38 million in the U.S. last quarter, pushing  it ahead of its 2020 target.

One particular industry that got my attention was internet/social media. On Thursday, October 29, Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Twitter (TWTR) will all report earnings results.This case could be the first of many with the goal being to break up some of the large tech giants including Facebook, Amazon, and others. While it will likely take months or years for the legal battles to play out, I want to focus on the earnings reports of the three stocks I mentioned above.