10 things you need to know in markets today
Amazon had a big miss on third-quarter profits but was nearly in-line with revenue expectations. Fourth quarter revenue guidance was lower than expected too. Stock was down as much as 7% in after-hours trading.
UBS lifted adjusted profits by more than expected in the third quarter despite tough market conditions that the Swiss bank warned were unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. The Financial Times reports that adjusted pre-tax profits were SFr 1.3 billion (£1 billion) in the three months to September, compared to SFr979 million (£809 million) in the same period a year earlier. The consensus forecast of analysts had been for a rise to SFr 1.1 billion (£910 million).
Google's mobile and video ad businesses helped it top Wall Street financial targets in the third quarter and the company authorized a new, $7 billion (£5.7 billion) stock repurchase programme. Google's stock barely budged in after-hours trading, rising about 1% despite the strong results.
BNP Paribas beat expectations in the third quarter, with France's largest bank by assets benefiting from improving performances by its international businesses. BNP reported net income of €1.89 billion (£1.69 billion) in the three months to September, according to the Financial Times, ahead of the €1.69 billion (£1.51 billion) analysts were expecting and up 3.3% compared to a year earlier.
Twitter says it has "meaningful updates" in the works that will tackle its endemic abuse problem - and they will be rolling out in November. On Thursday, the social networking company announced its third-quarter earnings. It beat analysts expectations for revenues, and earnings per share - but also confirmed it is laying off 9% of its global workforce.
US GDP is coming. Preliminary third-quarter growth estimates are due at 1.30 p.m. BST (8.30 a.m. ET). Analysts are expecting annual growth to accelerate to 2.5%, up from 1.4% in the second quarter.
General Electric is in talks to buy No. 3 oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. GE has approached Baker Hughes, but details of the talks couldn't be learned and the talks could fall apart before an agreement is reached, the WSJ said.
Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductors have agreed a $38 billion (£31.2 billion) merger. The Times reports that Qualcomm, the American maker of smartphone chips, is to buy NXP, the Dutch maker of automotive chips, in a deal that is worth $47 billion (£38.6 billion) including debt.
Anheuser-Busch InBev's first results since completing its £79 billion ($96.1 billion) takeover of SABMiller earlier this month showed a 0.9% fall in sales volumes in the third quarter. The Financial Times reports that the brewing giant's drop was better than the expected fall of 1.5% in sales volume.
The Nikkei is close to a 16-month high. The Japanese stock market is up 0.58% at the time of writing (6.25 a.m. BST/1.25 a.m. ET), as improving yields boost financial stocks. China's Shanghai Composite is down 0.06% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.63%.
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