Daily summary: US stocks rise ahead of Amazon and Apple earnings. Facebook rebrands as Meta

• European equities mixed after ECB Decision
• US GDP growth disappoints, strong jobs data
• Bitcoin returns above $60,000
• Facebook changes company name to Meta

European indices swinged between gains and losses, but remained close to recent highs, as investors digested a batch of mixed corporate earnings and the European Central Bank's stance on transitory inflation. Volkswagen stock dropped 4.5% after the auto-maker lowered its outlook for deliveries and posted disappointing quarterly profit as the company suffered from chip shortages. Royal Dutch Shell shares fell more than 3.0% after the company posted weak third-quarter profit. On the positive note, Airbus increased its full-year guidance and Lloyds Banking Group posted solid quarterly profit and upgraded its outlook. French IT services provider Capgemini also surged on better-than-expected quarterly results. On the monetary policy front, ECB kept monetary policy steady and gave no updates on tapering and forward guidance on the economy, despite rising inflation. Inflationary pressures remain elevated in Europe and the economic recovery continues although the Bundesbank said the German economy is likely to slow sharply in Q4 amid supply shortages and slowing demand. Markets anticipate any big decision about the future of the pandemic emergency bond purchase programme to come only in December.

Meanwhile, upbeat moods prevail on Wall Street, where Nasdaq gained 1.20% and reached new all-time high as both Apple and Amazon were over 3% higher ahead of its earnings report after market close. Earlier, upbeat results from Carlye Group, Caterpillar, Comcast, and Merck lifted market sentiment. Also, Ford stock rose sharply on a huge earnings surprise, while eBay and Twilio tumbled on weak forward guidance. Facebook today announced it changed its name to Meta, part of a strategic shift to emphasize the development of its virtual world while its main social network business is in crisis. The company has dealt with a barrage of news reports over the past month. Those have stemmed from Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower who revealed reports which show that company is aware of many of the harms its apps and services cause but either doesn’t rectify the issues or struggles to address them.  On the economic data front, the US economy grew an annualized 2% in Q3, missing market expectations by 0.7 percentage points and slowing sharply from the 6.7% jump of the previous quarter, as high inflation curbed demand and soaring COVID-19 infections among the unvaccinated worsened labor shortages. On the other hand, initial jobless claims fell more than expected to a seasonally adjusted 281 thousand last week, a new pandemic low. 

Bitcoin is recovering from yesterday's losses and is currently trading above $ 61,000. Also most altcoins recorded small gains today. The crypto market capitalization  currently stands at $ 2.59 trillion, which is 4.71% higher compared to yesterday's close.

Natural gas futures are currently down more than 5.5% after Russia announced it would ship more fuel to Europe ahead of the upcoming heating season. Meanwhile, the EIA weekly report showed an 87bcf addition of gas into storage last week, slightly above market forecasts of an 86bcf increase. Also, output in the US Lower 48 states has averaged 92.3 billion cubic feet per day so far in October, up from 91.1 bcfd in September, according to Refinitiv.

AUDUSD pair rose sharply during today’s session and broke above 200 SMA (red line). Currently the pair is approaching resistance at 0.7560 which is marked with upper limit of the 1:1 structure and 50% Fibonacci retracement of the last downward wave. Should a break higher occur, upward move may accelerate towards the next resistance at 0.7675. Source: xStation5