October 20th Pre-Market Brief

Good Morning

This is the week earnings season gets real, with SpaceX, Netflix earnings tonight. Then Tesla and Meta tomorrow. Tech is already giving back some of yesterday’’s bounce this morning.

I’m keeping an open mind until the big names show their earnings.

Let's dig in...

Today's Big Picture

1. A Korean IPO Flop Stalls Monday’s AI Bounce

South Korea’s Elice, which rents out AI computing power, lost about a third of its value on day one. U.S. peers CoreWeave, Nebius and IREN are lower before the bell. Even in yesterday’’s bounce, bond investors kept demanding high interest from AI borrowers like CoreWeave and Oracle. Morgan Stanley puts AI-related borrowing at $466 billion this year, up from $101 billion at this point in 2025.

2. Tankers Hit Iranian Mines as Oil Reaches a Five-Month High

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says two tankers caught fire after hitting its mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is trading around $110 a barrel. Pricier oil feeds inflation, and Fed minutes showed most officials already expect another rate hike this year. United Airlines reports after the bell, and its fuel outlook is the number to watch.

3. GM’s Outlook Outweighs a $20 Billion Buyback

GM beat on profit and sales and announced a $20 billion buyback, but the stock is falling premarket. It narrowed its full-year profit outlook, and the $13.25 midpoint sits below the $13.47 analysts expected. GM also sees about $2 billion in higher commodity costs, including pricier memory chips. CFO Paul Jacobson said the fourth quarter could come in below the third.

Market Overview

Today’s Sponsor

Chemical-Free Farming Is Now Open To Investors

For decades, farmers have relied on herbicides and heavy equipment to control weeds.

Greenfield Robotics is working to change that.

BOTONY robots navigate crop rows and mechanically remove weeds, giving farmers an alternative to blanket herbicide applications and intensive tillage.

The potential benefits are significant:

• Clean food supply

• Reduce reliance on agricultural chemicals

• Reduce unnecessary soil disturbance

• Help farmers protect crops from weed competition

• Support more sustainable farming practices

And the market is enormous.

Greenfield estimates more than 250 million acres of broadacre cropland in the U.S., with more than 100 million acres in its initial serviceable market.

With the Reg A+ now live, investors can participate in Greenfield Robotics' growth story.

Explore the Investment

^{This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Please read the Offering Circular and related disclosures before investing. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.}

Stock Spotlight (pre-market)

GE Aerospace $GE ( ▼ 0.81% )  
is slipping premarket despite a beat and a higher full-year outlook. The jet-engine maker booked $19 billion in orders but sees its repair business growing more slowly next year.

3M $MMM ( ▼ 1.66% )  
is higher premarket after beating profit estimates and raising its earnings forecast for a second straight quarter. The Post-it maker also detailed a data-center deal with Amazon tied to $6 billion in sales over seven years.

RTX $RTX ( ▼ 0.93% )  
is higher premarket after profit came in well ahead of estimates. The maker of Pratt & Whitney engines and Raytheon missiles earned $2.26 a share, against the $1.78 analysts expected.

Northrop Grumman $NOC ( ▼ 1.77% )  
is edging higher premarket after a mixed quarter. The B-21 bomber maker beat on profit at $7.89 a share, while sales came in just short of estimates.

Steel Dynamics $STLD ( ▲ 1.93% )  
is lower premarket after profit and margins came in below estimates, even though sales beat. The steelmaker says its order backlog keeps growing and now stretches into 2027.

Solstice Advanced Materials $SOLS ( ▲ 2.06% )  
refrigerants and materials maker spun off from Honeywell, is higher premarket. The Financial Times says activist investor Starboard Value has a stake and wants about $100 million in cost cuts.

What to Watch

Upcoming IPO’s
MarketBeat did an excellent job on this free IPO guide on IPO’s happening this year

SpaceX Earnings (After the Close)
Analysts expect about $12.9 billion in sales and roughly $19.6 billion in spending on its build-out. Its AI business, which rents computing power to companies like Google, is expected to pass Starlink in sales. Spending well above that estimate, with no clearer path to profit, would add to the AI debt worries.

Netflix Earnings (After the Close)
In the past week, Netflix cut about 1,000 jobs and shook up its content leadership. Analysts expect 82 cents a share on $12.88 billion in sales. The stock fell after each of its last five reports, so the outlook matters more than the quarter.

Today’s Sponsor

The goat-herding company that hedged a wage law

For US businesses with big payrolls. Western Grazers in California hedged a state wage-law change on Kalshi. If a new rule would raise your costs, you can hold a position that it passes, so the payout offsets the hit. Federally regulated, from a few dollars.

See how hedging works