Spending Bill, Netflix Reports, Facebook Rebrand, EIA Data

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — The Democrats’ spending bill gets pruned.  Netflix (NASDAQ:) earnings disappoint as Squid Game fails to translate immediately into a revenue bump. Tesla (NASDAQ:) and IBM (NYSE:) report after the bell, while NextEra Energy (NYSE:), and Verizon (NYSE:) head a full early slate of earnings. The European Central Bank’s most prominent hawk has called it a day, and oil prices come off recent highs after a fourth straight weekly rise in inventories. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, 20th October. 

1. Dems trim spending bill

Democratic lawmakers edged closer to agreement on how to . President Joe Biden said it’s likely that the party will drop its commitment to two years fee-free tuition at community college.

Opposition from West Virginian Senator Joe Manchin has also scuppered the Clean Electricity Program, which foresees a far-ranging stick-and-carrot mechanism to force the pace of the Energy Transition by utilities.

The administration is trying to trim the scale of the package down to an overall cost of $2 trillion from an original $3.5 trillion. The costs are to be spread out over 10 years. Reports suggested that Democratic lawmakers are looking to tie up a deal by the end of the week on passing the bill.

2. Damp Squid

Netflix stock after becoming the first megacap to report earnings for the third quarter. The streaming giant beat forecasts for new subscribers, adding 4.4 million rather than the 3.5 million expected.

However, that didn’t translate into an upside surprise for revenue, because most were based in Asia Pacific. In the higher-paying North American market, the company eked out a subs gain of less than 75,000.

Elsewhere in the megacap universe, Facebook (NASDAQ:) will reportedly in an effort to make itself more associated with the ‘metaverse’ it hopes to build. The move is an implicit recognition of the damage to its brand from endless disclosures about psychological damage done by its social media networks. Reports suggest that political disfavor with the company is already generating resistance to .

3. Stocks set to open flat as earnings season hits top gear; Tesla, IBM earnings eyed

U.S. stocks are set to open flat later as earnings season cranks into top gear. Some solid reports on Tuesday had helped the market to close within an ace of the record highs posted in August.

earnings after the close will be the highlight of the day, and will probably be grateful for having the spotlight stolen from it. Early reporters include Verizon, , , Abbott Labs (NYSE:) and Kinder Morgan (NYSE:).

Overnight, became the latest company in the chipmaking sector to extend its assessment of how long tightness in the semiconductor market will last, but its .

By 6:20 AM ET (1020 GMT), were down 4 points, effectively flat on the day, as were and .

4. Hawk takes flight

The changing of the guard in Europe’s largest economy will be a complete one. The…