Thursday's Stock Market Open: Preliminary Brexit Deal Boosts Stocks

Traders took heart in word of a preliminary deal to ease the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union ahead of Thursday’s European Council meeting.

At noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which opened 76 points higher, turned down, giving up 7 points to 26,994. The S&P 500 was up 5 points at 2,994 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 15 points to 8,139.

Netflix (NFLX) opened 7% higher following third-quarter results beat estimates. Netflix reported $665 million in net earnings, or $1.47, a share on revenue of $5.2 billion compared to $403 million, or 89 cents a share, on revenue of nearly $4 billion in the year ago quarter.

Morgan Stanley (MS) also opened higher after reporting a 3% increase in third-quarter earnings. The bank reported net earnings of $2.17 billion or $1.27 a share, compared to $2.11 billion or $1.17 a share in the year ago quarter. Revenue also was higher in the quarter, rising to $10 billion from $9.8 billion a year ago.

Philip Morris (PM) reported net income of nearly $1.9 billion or $1.22 per share, compared with $2.2 billion or $1.44 per share, in the third quarter of 2018. Net revenue rose 1.8%.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced a preliminary Brexit deal despite questions about whether the Democratic Unionist party will support it.

“We’ve got a great new deal that takes back control – now Parliament should get Brexit done on Saturday so we can move on to other priorities,” Johnson tweeted.

Talks to hammer out a deal went into the wee hours Thursday. Earlier deals hammered out by Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, were rejected by Parliament. The fate of the latest pact also is uncertain with the DUP’s refusal to support it. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also rejected the deal, saying it was “even worse” than the agreements May worked out. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the EU Oct. 31.

“I believe it is high time to complete the withdrawal process and move on, as swiftly as possible, to the negotiation on the European Union’s future partnership with the United Kingdom,” Juncker wrote in a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk.

Elsewhere, China is balking on further negotiations to end the U.S.-China trade war until Washington lift the threat of additional tariffs. Though Washington had tabled tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods that had been scheduled to kick in Tuesday, scheduled Dec. 15 tariff increases on $150 billion of Chinese good were still a possibility.

Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said if the ultimate goal in negotiations is to end the trade war, “cancel all additional tariffs. This is good for China, good for the U.S. and good for the world.”

Last week, President Trump announced a handshake phase 1 deal following two days of high-level trade talks in Washington. He said it would be several weeks before anything was ready for signing.

On global markets, stocks were mostly higher.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.69% higher while the Nikkei 225 was off 0.09% and China’s Shanghai Composite dipped 0.05%. Australia’s S&P/ASX lost 0.77%.

In early afternoon trading in Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.91% while the German DAX added 0.37% and the French CAC 40 increased 0.06%. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.22%.

On currency markets, the British pound was up 0.03cent to $1.2831 while the euro added a half cent to $1.1121. The U.S. dollar index was off 0.3%.

Oil futures were lower. Crude oil was trading 41 cents lower at $52.95 while Brent crude lose 38 cents to $59.04. Gold and silver were higher.