A look at the day's major movers
RISERS
Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA), up 17% at US$33.20
The chemical coatings company moved into profit in the three months to the end of September. Net income this time round was US$56.3mln versus a loss in the same period last year of US$5.4mln.
Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE:GCAP), up 19% at US$7.33
The financial services company reported adjusted net income of US$2.1mln versus a loss the year before US$5.8mln.
FALLERS
J C Penney Company Inc (NYSE:JCP), down 155 at US$3.12
More trouble for the struggling department stores operator as it issued a profit warning. It now expects an adjusted loss of 40-45 cents per share in the quarter ending October 28 - far bigger than analysts’ average estimate of a loss of 18 cents.
World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT), down 14% at US$30.93
The energy management company reported a third quarter 2017 net loss of US$38.5mln, which included a non-cash accounting charge of US$76.9mln relating to a U.S. deferred tax valuation allowance
Pre-market
The big acquisition of Whole Foods Markets Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) does not seem to have distracted management at Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which reported results last night.
The online retail leviathan's stock was up 8.2% at US$1,052 in after-hours trading after third quarter net income of US$256mln on revenue of US$43.7bn beat market expectations.
Analysts had expected sales to rise from US$32.7bn in the same quarter of last year to US$41.6bn.
Earnings per share of 52 cents were half a dollar above the consensus forecast.
Wedbush Securities said Whole Foods and Prime Day helped drive a revenue beat, resulting in operating income well ahead of Street expectations.
The broker adjusted its forecast to reflect a better-than-expected third quarter and a projected higher operating margin in 2018.
The broker raised its price target to US$1,285 from US$1,250.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) does not bestride the technology world in the way it did a decade or more ago but there is life in the office software and Xbox maker yet.
The shares were up 6.2% at $83.54 in screen-based trading after the third quarter update, released after the end of open outcry trading on Thursday, trumped analysts' estimates.
Net income of US$6.58bn was equivalent to 84 cents a share and up from US$5.67bn (72 cents a share) a year earlier
The median forecast among analysts who follow the stock was for unchanged earnings of 72 cents a share.
Revenue for the third quarter rose 11.9% to US$24.54bn from US$21.93bn the year before.
Completing a trio of tech giants receiving a warm welcome from the market, Google's parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) saw its shares rise 4% to US$1,031.33 after it reported third quarter net income of US$6.73bn, up from US$6.33bn in the same period of 2016.
Earnings per share rose to US$9.57 from US$7.25 and were comfortably ahead of the consensus forecast of US$8.31.
Revenue rose to US$27.8bn from the previous year's US$26.9bn, and was ahead of expectations of US$25.24bn.
In the more old school world of toys-maker Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:MAT) the party was taking a turn for the worse.
The stock lost a sixth of its value as it suspended its dividend in a shocker of a third quarter trading update.
The company surprised the market by posting a loss of US$603mln for the quarter, which it blamed, among other things, on the bankruptcy of toys retailer toys R Us.
A loss per share of 68 cents was in stark contrast to the positive earnings per share of 57 cents the market had been expecting.