Nov. 17 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures are posting solid gains Tuesday after Home Depot's earnings top Wall Street estimates.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

Here are 10 things you should know for Tuesday, Nov. 17: 

1. -- U.S. stock futures were posting solid gains Tuesday after Home Depot's (HD) - Get Report earnings topped Wall Street estimates and investors looked past the terrorist attacks in Paris last week.

European stocks rose, taking their lead from Asian markets outside of China. Shares in Paris led the gains in early trading.

Asian stocks finished the session mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 1.2%. The Shanghai Composite index in mainland China finished 0.1% lower.

2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. on Tuesday includes the Consumer Price Index for October at 8:30 a.m. EST, Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for October at 9:15 a.m., and the NAHB Housing Market Index for November at 10 a.m.

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3. -- U.S. stocks on Monday closed near session highs, snapping a three-session losing streak, after the markets saw a choppy start following the deadly terror attacks in Paris on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 1.41%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained almost 1.14% and Nasdaq rose 1.09%.

4. -- Home Depot on Tuesday posted third-quarter profit and revenue that topped analysts' forecasts,

Earnings at the home-improvement retailer were $1.35 a share. Revenue rose to $21.82 billion from $20.52 billion.

Same-store sales during the quarter rose 7.3%.

Home Depot said it expects full-year earnings of $5.36 a share and sales growth of 5.7%.

5. -- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn swapped his entire stake in eBay (EBAY) - Get Report for the same number of shares in PayPal (PYPL) - Get Report in the third quarter, according to regulatory filings, Reuters reported.

Icahn had pushed for eBay to spin off PayPal last year.

Icahn also took a 1.36 million share stake in American International Group (AIG) - Get Report during the third quarter.

6. -- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital was a buyer of Apple (AAPL) - Get Report in the third quarter.

The hedge fund disclosed in a regulatory filing that it owned 11.2 million shares of the tech giant at Sept. 30, up from 7.4 million shares at June 30. 

Greenlight also raised its stake in General Motors (GM) - Get Report and Michael Kors (KORS) .

7. -- Urban Outfitters (URBN) - Get Report  reported weaker-than-expected sales in its fiscal third quarter.

The retailer posted revenue of $825.3 million in the period, which was below Wall Street forecasts. Same-store sales rose 1%, with that figure up 3% at Free People and 1% at Urban Outfitters' namesake stores, but flat at Anthropologie.

Earnings during the period were 42 cents a share, which met analysts' expectations.

"Both companies hold a strong position in the market for digital audiobooks in Germany," said Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office. "We therefore see ourselves obliged to examine more closely the agreement between these two competitors."

The Federal Cartel Office opened the investigation after receiving a complaint from the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which alleged Apple and Amazon were "on the way to establishing a monopoly," the FT reported.

9. -- Pandora (P) will acquire technology and intellectual property from Rdio and will add new features to its Internet music streaming service by late next year.

The $75 million cash deal depends on Rdio seeking bankruptcy protection and gaining court approval for the deal. Rdio will wind down its service.

10. -- Earnings are expected Tuesday from Walmart (WMT) - Get Report , Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) - Get Report and TJX Cos. (TJX) - Get Report

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