Stocks Closed Lower Yesterday, But Poised To Close Up For The Week  Image: Bigstock Stocks closed lower yesterday, giving up early gains to end in the red. But with one more day to go, all of the major indexes are still up for the week. Earnings continue to roll in. And there were plenty of big name companies reporting positive EPS surprises yesterday including American Airlines (+27.8% positive EPS surprise); AT&T (+11.5% positive EPS surprise); Philip Morris (+10.9% positive EPS surprise); and the Blackstone Group (+10.4% positive EPS surprise). After the close it was a mixed bag with Snap reporting a loss on earnings and a miss on revs (even though sales were up 6% y/y). But their forecast for no growth in Q4 sent shares tumbling in after-hours by -26%). Transportation company CSX, on the other hand, posted a positive EPS surprise (+6.12%), and a positive sales surprise (+3.67%), and were up in after-hours trade by 4%. Today we'll get another 22 companies on deck to report. Next week we'll get as many as 1,015. And the week after that it balloons to 1,615. In other news, Weekly Jobless Claims were down -14,000 at 214,000 vs. last week's 226K and views for 235K. The 4-week moving average came in even lower at 212.25K. Existing Home Sales slipped to 4.71 million units (annualized) vs. last month's 4.78M, but beating the consensus for 4.695M. That's down -1.5% m/m and -23.8% y/y. The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index improved to -8.7 vs. last month's -9.9, but missed estimates for -5.0. And Leading Indicators dipped -0.4% vs. last month's upwardly revised 0.0% and views for -0.3%. Nothing big on the docket today, economic report-wise. But October options will expire. So there could be some extra volatility. Stocks are poised for a weekly gain. If so, that would be 3 up weeks in a row for the Dow, and 2 up weeks (not in a row) out of the last 3 weeks for the S&P, Nasdaq, and Russell 2000. And that would be a solid finish to the week, especially after last week's key upside reversal day that set this rally in motion. Best,  Kevin Matras
Executive Vice President, Zacks Investment Research | 
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