Here's a super-quick guide to what traders are talking about right now

Dave Lutz, the head of Exchange Traded Funds at JonesTrading, has a quick guide to what is going on in markets on Thursday.

In brief:

• It's the busiest day of earnings season for S&P 500 companies. Alphabet, Amgen, and Amazon all report after the market close. Twitter, which is not on the S&P, reported pre-market and beat on earnings and revenue, but is laying off 9% of its workforce as it struggles to find a buyer.
• US stock futures are little changed, and are getting some support from news that Qualcomm has agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion in an all-cash deal. It's the largest deal ever in the semiconducter industry.
• Durable goods orders and initial jobless claims data cross at 8:30 a.m. ET, while pending home sales numbers will be released at 10 a.m.

Here's Lutz:

Good Morning, and welcome to the busiest day of Earnings Season, with over 10% of the SPX reporting. Futures were under pressure on disappointing Chinese data, but M&A (QCOM/NXPI) has propelled Spoos up 20bp into the green. Over in Europe, a sea of red with the DAX off 10bp as Fins come off highs with DB reversing early gains from #s. Staples and Energy are leading to the upside, but those "Yield Proxies" may weaken as we have a sharp selloff in Global Sovs. In London, the FTSE is almost unchanged with HC leading, while Fins are lower on BARC Numbers. Volumes are strong, with most exchanges trading 20-40% heavier than norm. A sharp fall in Chinese industrial profit growth weighed in Asia - Hang Seng lost 80bp, Nikkei lost 30bp, Shanghai closed in the red, dragged lower by Autos and Big Oil, while ASX loses $40b in two days to 5week lows as retail and energy hit Aussie for 1.2% in heavy trade.

Bund Yields continuing to jump higher as peeps stress about ECB tapering, while Gilt Yields are popping and Pound hitting one-week high on better GDP. This is dragging US Yields higher, with the US 2-year bond yields nearing 5-month highs. The DXY is weaker against Euro, while Kuroda headers overnight have a bid to Yen. Ore finally retreated in Chain, but all base metals are higher with the falling $, while the Energy Complex is mixed - WTI struggling to hold a bid, but Natty gas continues to get hit into Expiry later today. Softs showing a nice bid across the board.

Ahead of us today, we get Durable Goods Orders and Weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30 - Pending Home Sales for September hit at 10am, just before the Natty Gas Inventory data at 10:30. At 11 we get Kansas City Fed Manf. Activity, and at 1pm focus turns to the US Auction of $28 Bln in 7-Year Notes, right when ECB's Mersch Speaks. At 2:30, Natty Gas Contracts Roll with the close of NYMEX. We should be getting single-stock headers from the speakers at Sohn Canada throughout the session, and after the close we get numbers from AMGN, AMZN, GOOGL, LNKD, CY, CBI, BIDU, HLS among others.