Monday's Final Takeaways: China's Economy Grows, Options Trading Hours Expand

Marley Kayden (0:01)

Welcome back to Market on Close. I'm Marley Kayden here in Chicago, alongside Sam Vadas at the New York Stock Exchange. Here's some final thoughts on the session today. Oil looks set to snap a seven-session winning streak earlier in trading, but WTI for November went above $102 around lunchtime and then finished the day higher, marking its eighth straight session of gains. Optimism around a waiver of Russian sanctions increasing global supply initially sent shares of both WTI and Brent lower, but only Brent held on to the lower prices. It ended the day down about four-tenths of a percent, near 109.42 when the market closed.

WTI is at 103.93.

That's up 2.5 percent. Ukrainian bombings of oil facilities in Russia, Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and Saudi Aramco sites, and more tankers coming under attack in the Persian Gulf have clouded the supply outlook and sent those prices higher. Also, the New York Stock Exchange is following in the CBO's footsteps as it's extending its trading hours for options on 29 major stocks and heavily traded funds, giving investors more time to trade before and after the regular market session. The new session runs from 7.3 to 9:25 a.m. Eastern before the opening bell, and then from 4 to 4:15 p.m. after the close. This includes names like NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, along with ETFs tracking the S&P 500, the NASDAQ 100, and the Russell 2K. And then starting on December 6th, NYSE is going to extend trading to 23 hours, five days a week in those same names. And data from the CBOE seemingly confirms the growing appetite for trading beyond the regular session, as extended hours trading just hit its highest levels on record. More than 199,000 contracts per day on average, Sam. If you can believe the appetite for after hours trading in terms of the options activity, those are just two things that stuck out to me, but what caught your eye during the session today?

Sam Vadas (1:58)

We live in a global world, don't we, Marley? We did see some confidence among home builders falling to the lowest level since 2012 That really stuck out to me. According to the NHB index today, sentiment fell to 29, which is a 14 year low. That reading has been below the 50 line, which separates whether conditions are poor or good for more than two years. It goes to show how much rising mortgage rates and elevated construction costs and weak confidence continue to weigh on the housing market. The iShares US Home Construction ETF, which tracks home builders and materials companies, got hit today. It's down over 10% year to date. But even with a struggling property market, economies can still look resilient. Just ask China. The Chinese economy, as we mentioned earlier, grew more than expected in the third quarter. GDP came in at 4.5% year over year.

That puts growth on track to meet and satisfy the range the government is targeting. But there's a catch. A lot of what is being driven right now is by strong exports and things like high tech goods, which they're obviously shipping out to the world, which is upsetting the weakness and the confidence deficit we are seeing at home. So a very lopsided economy right now, but heading into tomorrow, what are you going to be looking out for, Marley?

Marley Kayden (3:14)

As we talked to KG about, a lot of companies reporting tomorrow, but SpaceX should be interesting. Commenting on a potential merger with Tesla on the call could earn Elon Musk an SEC violation. But as Carl Brower from iccars.com said to me earlier on Trading 360, it's Elon Musk, he said, and he thinks he will comment on the potential tie up and risk that fine. As far as expectations, EPS of 11 cents expected on revenue of $12.59 billion. Musk has back-to-back earnings with Tesla reporting on Wednesday, so it will be a busy week for the richest man in the world. Sam, but what will you be watching?

Sam Vadas (3:48)

I'm wondering how much the fine is because he's already allegedly going to be spending $11 billion on giving these kids a share in SpaceX, 72 million kids.

That's probably chump change for someone like Elon Musk. More housing data building permits, housing starts, pending home sales. We've got ADP jobs in the morning as well. Internationally, we've got Japanese exports and UK wage data, Marley.

Marley Kayden (4:14)

Lots to look out for, but that is going to do it for us on Market on Close. For Sam Vadas, I'm Marley Kayden. You can download our Schwab Network app for free in the Apple App Store, and you can do it at 24-7 on schwabnetwork.com. We hope you have a great rest of your Monday.