Good morning, friends and Fortune readers.
Stocks are set to slip Monday following the best week of the year for the markets last week. U.S. stocks are little changed by the results of Brazil’s presidential election and Europe’s bank stress tests. Twitter (TWTR) releasing its earnings this afternoon, probably in more than 140 characters. Here’s what you need to know today.
1. Patent expiration hits Merck
Pharma company Merck (MRK), which reported quarterly results this morning, may have beaten analysts’ expectations, but its earnings were still down year-over-year at $0.90 per share. Global sales dropped 4%, largely on the back of losing patents and a drop in sales of the company’s Hepatitis C drug. This was Merck’s first earnings report since it sold its consumer division to Bayer for $14.2 billion.
2. How’s housing?
The National Association of Realtors will release data on pending home sales for September today, keying us in on another measurement of the strength of the housing market. The number was down just slightly in August, but realtors remain generally bullish on the market.
3. Twitter’s #earnings
Twitter will report its quarterly earnings this afternoon, and the biggest question will be whether the social network has managed to increase its monetization of ads. Twitter kicks of a week of social media earnings, with Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Groupon all reporting later in the week.
4. Brazil makes its choice
President Dilma Rousseff will remain President of Brazil, winning yesterday’s runoff election for another term. That didn’t sit will on Wall Street, with Bloomberg reporting that ETFs that track Brazilian stocks have taken a big hit, as Rousseff’s policies have generally been seen as bad for Brazilian business. Brazilian markets are set to drop Monday too.
5. Bad news for Apple Pay
All seemed peachy for Apple Pay when it was launched last month. Now things aren’t looking as good, with CVS and Rite-Aid stores both apparently disabling the function in favor of their own e-pay system. Something tells me Apple’s (AAPL) Tim Cook won’t be too happy about this.
