Hello friends and Fortune readers.
Wall Street stock futures are higher Thursday, amid a slew of earnings from Asia and Europe which have as many misses as hits. Cell network operators are up after strong earnings by France’s Orange SA. Among the carmaker Daimler AG did very well in 3Q, but Korea’s Hyundai didnt. Crude oil futures are struggling again below $46 a barrel after another report showing high U.S. inventories.
Today’s must-read story is from Fortune‘s Erin Griffith and it looks at everything that’s available as part of YouTube’s new $9.99-per-month subscription video service, YouTube Red, including ad-free videos and the ability to save videos for offline viewing.
Here’s what else you need to know to start the day.
1. Doves expected to cry loudest at the ECB
The European Central Bank holds its regular council meeting Thursday. President Mario Draghi is expected to hint at extending the bank’s quantitative easing program and maybe even another cut in interest rates if inflation refuses to rebound, but most are reckoning with no action until December at the earliest.
2. Alphabet earnings
Alphabet (GOOG), the new holding company for Google, reports quarterly earnings this afternoon and the market will be watching to see if the tech giant can surpass Wall Street’s profit expectations for the second quarter in a row. Investors will also be curious about Alphabet’s plan to increase its advertising revenue. Today’s earnings report will be the company’s last before switching to a new format in January, when Alphabet will begin reporting split results from its two units — Google and all other Alphabet businesses together as a whole.
3. Home sales and jobless claims
The National Association of Realtors is expected to report today that sales of existing homes rebounded slightly last month, with a 0.8% increase following a drop of 4.8% in August. Meanwhile, the Labor Department is expected to report that the number of people who filed applications for unemployment benefits last week increased by 10,000 claims from the prior week’s 42-year low of 255,000.
4. McDonald’s earnings (aka what’s the most important meal of the day?)
OK, so the fast food giant’s third quarter numbers won’t include results of McDonald’s recent highly-publicized addition of an all-day breakfast menu because that change occurred in the current quarter. But, analysts will most likely ask the company for an update on how the extended breakfast offerings have fared in the past few weeks. Aside from breakfast, McDonald’s (MCD) is expected to report same-store sales growth of about 1.9% globally, though U.S. same-store sales are expected to drop, while quarterly revenue likely fell again from last year’s third quarter. Meanwhile, another food retail chain that relies heavily on breakfast sales will also report today when Dunkin’ Brands (DNKN), the holding group that owns the Dunkin’ Donuts chain, posts its own third-quarter earnings.
5. Hillary’s Benghazi hearings
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign faces a major test today when the Democratic front-runner testifies on Capitol Hill. The hearing will likely focus on the 2012 deaths of four U.S. officials in Benghazi, Libya, for which Clinton — then the Secretary of State — has faced criticism over the security at the facility where the attack occurred and the officials were killed. Clinton will also likely face further questioning over her use of a personal email server while in office.
— Reuters contributed to this post.
