Gamers play the "StarCraft II" developed by video game producer Blizzard Entertainment during the Gamescom 2015 fair in Cologne, Germany.
The Bank of England kept policy on hold. In an 8 to 1 vote, the Monetary Policy Committee kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.50% and its asset purchase program at 375 billion pounds. Both were expected. The lone vote in favor of a rate hike was somewhat of a surprise as many economists were expecting at least two dissents. The British pound is down 0.5% at 1.5321.
German factory orders gained steam. Orders rose by 2% over last month, easily outpacing the 0.2% gain that was expected. The 7.2% gain on a year-over-year basis was the strongest since May 2014, and, according to Claus Vistesen of Pantheon Macroeconomics, propelled the data to its best quarterly advance since May 2011. Germany's 10-year yield is off 4 basis points at 71.2 basis points.
Tesla slashed its outlook. The electric automaker announced an adjusted loss of $0.48 per share, beating the $0.59 loss that Wall Street analysts were anticipating. Revenue surged 39.6% to $1.2 billion, which was in-line with expectations. However, the big news was the company cut its delivery outlook to between 50,000 and 55,000 from its previous forecast of 55,000. Tesla still expects Model X deliveries to begin in the late in the third quarter. The stock was down as much as 8% in after-hours trade.
Keurig's outlook disappoints. The maker of coffee brewers earned $0.80 per share, topping analyst estimates by two cents. Revenue fell 5.2% to $969.5 million, missing the $1.04 billion that was expected. The company's fourth quarter earnings outlook of $0.70 to $0.75 per share was is well below Wall Street estimates. Keurig also announced it was laying off 5% of its workforce. The stock was lower by as much as 26% in after-hours action.
Bill Ackman is loading up on Mondelez. Activist investor Bill Ackman has zeroed in on Mondelez as his next target. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hedge fund manager has amassed a $5.5 billion stake in the snack food company, amounting to a 7.5% stake when taking into account options contracts that he owns.
Facebook launched its own streaming feature. "Live" is Facebook's answer to Twitter's Periscope and the standalone service Meerkat. The streaming videos can only be hosted by celebrities and seen on Facebook. "Our goal with Live is to make it easy for them [celebrities] to share authentic moments and original, unique content with their fans on Facebook in real-time," Facebook said.
It's more expensive to run a Superbowl commercial. CBS says the cost for a 30-second commercial during the Superbowl is $5 million, making for an 11% increase versus last year. CBS CEO Les Moonves expressed his excitement about regaining the TV rights for the event saying, "You are going to see it in revenue and in profit in 2016, and we love having it. We're very excited about having it. There's no downside."
Stock markets around the world are mostly lower. Australia's ASX (-1.1%) paced the decline in Asia after the country's unemployment rate jumped from 6.1% to 6.3%. In Europe, Britain's FTSE (-0.3%) leads to the downside. S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 2093.75.
US economic data is light. Initial and continuing claims are set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET and natural gas inventories will cross the wires at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.26%.
Earnings reports continue to flow. Allergan, Duke Energy, Molson Coors Brewing, Mylan Labs and Viacom highlight the names reporting ahead of the opening bell. Bojangles, Con Edison, Post and Zynga are among the companies scheduled to report following the close.