Stocks slip as Eli Lilly halts COVID-19 trials, banks cautious on recovery

Gregg Smith of Evolution VC Partners provides insight into what factors are impacting markets, including upcoming earnings, the Federal Reserve, the coronavirus vaccine race and the presidential election.

Stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors weighed earnings from the big banks and another coronavirus vaccine setback.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped, as did the S&P 500 while the Nasdaq Composite was little changed.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
SP500	S&P 500	5948.71	+31.60	+0.53%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	18972.420086	+6.28	+0.03%
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	43870.35	+461.88	+1.06%

Eli Lilly, joined Johnson & Johnson, in halting its trials of a COVID-19 vaccine over safety concerns.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
LLY	ELI LILLY & CO.	749.92	-3.49	-0.46%
JNJ	JOHNSON & JOHNSON	155.50	+2.39	+1.56%

Financials, as a group, were the biggest drag on the S&P 500 despite solid results from JPMorgan which reported a third-quarter that we better-than-expected, due to a boost in trading revenue.

"The investment banking business continues to be a big driver of firm performance with markets revenue up 30% and global investment banking fees up 9%," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. He was however cautious on the need for more federal stimulus.

Citibank also slipped while BlackRock bucked the downtrend.

JPMORGAN TRADING JUMPS IN LATEST QUARTER

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
JPM	JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.	244.76	+3.98	+1.65%
C	CITIGROUP INC.	68.95	+0.67	+0.98%
BLK	BLACKROCK INC.	1,028.00	+3.33	+0.32%

As for tech news, in a widely anticipated event, Apple announced the 5G version of its iPhone, as well as a new smaller smart speaker. Despite the hype, the stock fell in what is the worst stock performance of an iPhone reveal, according to Dow Jones Market Data Group.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
AAPL	APPLE INC.	228.52	-0.48	-0.21%

EARNINGS PARADE

In other earnings news, Delta airlines posted a loss of $5.4 billion while noting it will not furlough employees at this beyond its pilots. The carrier's results are of particular interest given lawmakers in Washington continue to go back and forth over the next round of fiscal stimulus, which may include additional aid for the airlines. Delta has seen its shares fall nearly 50% since the start of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
DAL	DELTA AIR LINES INC.	63.34	-0.30	-0.47%

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the first order of business when the full Senate returns is to debate another COVID-19 relief package.

“When the full Senate returns on October 19th, our first order of business will be voting again on targeted relief for American workers, including new funding for the PPP," McConnell said in a statement. "Unless Democrats block this aid for workers, we will have time to pass it before we proceed as planned to the pending Supreme Court nomination as soon as it is reported by the Judiciary Committee."

NASDAQ LEADS STOCK GAINS AHEAD OF AMAZON PRIME DAY, APPLE REVEAL

TECH & MEDIA IN FOCUS

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
AMZN	AMAZON.COM INC.	198.38	-4.50	-2.22%

Amazon.com Inc. kicked off its two-day shopping event, Prime Day, shares ended little changed.

And The Walt Disney Co. shares rallied after the media giant announced a reorganization to put a focus on streaming. The company also announced a virtual investor day, scheduled for Dec. 4.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
DIS	THE WALT DISNEY CO.	114.72	+0.46	+0.40%

ECONOMIC NEWS

The September reading of the consumer price index (CPI) came in as expected, with a rise of 0.2%. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 0.2%.

In August, consumer prices ticked up 0.4%.

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West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose nearly 2% to $40.20 a barrel. Gold ticked down modestly to $1,888.50 an ounce.

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