5 Things You Must Know Before the Market Opens Friday
Updated from 6:09 a.m. EDT with earnings from General Electric and Honeywell.
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Here are five things you must know for Friday, July 22:
1. -- Donald Trump, the real estate magnate who once was considered the longest of the long-shot candidates, officially accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination Thursday on the final evening of the GOP's convention.
"We are a team," Trump said in a speech that went off without any major issues. He added later, "Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order."
The speech, which ran more than an hour, focused on law, order, Trump's vision for the future and his contrasts with rival Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
Trump intensified his attacks on Clinton.
"This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness," Trump said.
He added, "America is far less safe-and the world is far less stable-than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy," he said. "I am certain it is a decision President Barack Obama truly regrets."
As for Clinton, reports said she could announce her running mate as soon as Friday.
2. -- Visa (V) - Get Report announced a partnership with adversary PayPal (PYPL) - Get Report in which Visa cards will be more prominently accepted on PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo, and its customers will be able to send and withdraw money more quickly.
"The new agreement will allow PayPal to gain access to Visa tokenization services, beginning in the United States," wrote Jim Cramer, TheStreet's founder and manager of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, and research manager Jack Mohr. Action Alerts PLUS owns shares of both PayPal and Visa in its portfolio.
"This means PayPal customers will be able to use the product for in-store transactions, effectively expanding acceptance for the PayPal digital wallet to all physical retail locations where Visa contactless transactions are enabled. This will be an essential contributor to PayPal's growth strategy, allowing the company to gain a foothold on millions of points of sale in bricks-and-mortar stores (something that had previously had strong barriers of entry)," wrote Cramer and Mohr.
PayPal posted adjusted second-quarter earnings of 36 cents a share, meeting analysts' forecasts, while Visa on Thursday said earnings fell 76% from a year earlier, largely due to the cost of completing its purchase of its operations in Europe. But excluding charges, Visa earned 69 cents a share, 2 cents above forecasts.
PayPal shares fell 2.4% in premarket trading on Friday. Visa shares were inactive in the premarket.
3. -- General Electric (GE) - Get Report shares rose 1.6% in premarket trading Friday after the company posted adjusted earnings of 51 cents a share in the second quarter, topping analysts' forecasts of 46 cents.
Revenue rose 15% to $33.5 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $31.9 billion.
General Electric is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells GE? Learn more now.
Honeywell (HON) - Get Report earned $1.66 a share in the second quarter, beating forecasts by 2 cents. The company said it was raising the low-end of its full-year earnings guidance range to $6.60 to $6.70 a share. The stock was rising 1% in premarket trading.
Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Report was declining 2.8% in premarket trading on Friday after the coffee chain reported that same-store sales for the fiscal third quarter rose only 4%, snapping a 25-quarter stretch of 5% growth or greater. Results also marked a steep slowdown from 7% same-store sales growth delivered in the preceding quarter.
Starbucks is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells SBUX? Learn more now.
4. -- U.S. stock futures on Friday were higher following the release of GE's earnings, rebounding from losses suffered Thursday that put an end to the Dow Jones Industrial Average'srecord-breaking seven-day streak.
European stocks moved higher on Friday but Asian shares finished the session to the downside following comments by the Bank of Japan governor ruling out "helicopter money" for the tepid Japanese economy.
5. -- Roger Ailes left the Fox News Channel a mere two weeks after a former anchor accused the network's chairman and architect of sexual harassment.
In an emailed statement, Fox News said Ailes, 76, had resigned as chairman and CEO at Fox News and the Fox Business Network along with his position as chairman of 21st Century Fox's (FOXA) Fox Television Station group.
In an apparent effort to stave off an exodus of employees, especially on-air talent who have expressed their loyalty to Ailes in recent days, Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch will assume the positions of chairman and acting CEO of both networks.
"I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice. Our nation needs a robust Fox News to resonate from every corner of the country," Murdoch said in a statement Thursday after Ailes resigned.