Good morning, friends and Fortune readers.
Another troubled retailer reports earnings today, and following yesterday’s news of new home construction dropping slightly, this morning we’ll see how the market for existing home sales fared in October. Here’s what else you need to know about.
1. Best Buy’s boost
Best Buy (BBY) actually had a decent earnings report this morning, sending shares up sharply in pre-market trading. Earnings came in above analysts’ expectations, and revenue was up a bit compared to the same quarter in 2013.
2. Arizona sues GM
There’s another bit of bad news for GM’s (GM) CEO Mary Barra: The state of Arizona is suing the automaker for $3 billion, arguing the automaker put the public at risk by concealing safety defects to avoid the cost of recalls.
3. Homes sales, again
Another key piece of housing market data comes in today, and experts think that, like the new home construction number, it likely slipped a bit last month. Sales last month were running a bit below the year prior. A possible reason is investors are not buying homes to rent, or flip. Today’s report from the National Association of Realtors will come out at 10 a.m. ET.
4. Alibaba gets into bonds
Alibaba (BABA) remains a darling of Wall Street, and today it’s getting into the bond game. Just two months after its IPO caused a media frenzy, the Chinese e-commerce company is issuing an $8 billion bond round, according to Reuters. If the IPO is any indication, expect interest to be feverish.
5. Will T-Swift reconsider Spotify now?
Spotify streams are going to be counted as part of the Billboard 200 rankings, reports the New York Times. For calculating the top albums of the week, 1,500 streams from Spotify and other streaming services will count as a sale. This is the biggest change to the charts since 1991, when hard sales data came into use.
