Shiba Inu Coin, Tesla, Ford, Nokia: What to Watch in the Stock Market

U.S. stocks opened higher amid another wave of earnings from major corporations. Here’s what we’re watching in Thursday’s session.

• Auto maker Ford Motor ’s stock rose after it increased its guidance, projecting it will earn an operating profit of between $10.5 billion and $11.5 billion for the full-year 2021, up from $9 billion to $10 billion.
• Construction-equipment maker Caterpillar swept pass profit estimates for the third quarter.

• Nokia posted a forecast-beating rise in third-quarter net profit and now expects full-year margins to land at the top of its guidance range.
• Comcast said its third-quarter net profit doubled, boosted by strong revenue growth at its NBCUniversal media empire, which benefited from the Tokyo Olympics and an influx of returning visitors to its Universal Studios theme parks.
• Tesla ’s stock benefited after Hertz Global Holdings said Wednesday it is linking up with Uber Technologies to make 50,000 Teslas available in Uber’s ride-sharing network by 2023, the latest in the rental-car company’s efforts to build momentum postbankruptcy.
• Stanley Black & Decker lowered its estimate of its full-year adjusted earnings, citing rises in commodity, transportation and labor costs.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that money manager T. Rowe Price Group  agreed to buy Oak Hill Advisors for as much as $4.2 billion to enter the private-debt investing business.
• The online marketplace eBay posted better-than-expected third quarter results, but provided a slightly disappointing fourth-quarter outlook.
• DWAC , the blank-check company taking former President Donald Trump‘s social-media platform public, continued to be a popular stock for traders.
• Drug maker and animal-health company Merck reported third-quarter profit and revenue that rose above expectations and provided and upbeat full-year outlook.
• Twilio projected a wider loss for the December quarter than Wall Street expected.
• Cryptocurrencies gained Thursday, with bitcoin up 4.6% from its 5 p.m. ET level Wednesday, trading at $61,671.54. Ether rose 5.1% over the same period, and dogecoin jumped more than 25%.
• The rise in cryptocurrencies’ values aided shares of companies tied to them, such as cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global and U.S.-listed bitcoin miners like Bit Digital up and Marathon Digital Holdings .
• Shopify reported earnings for its most recent quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations and its chief financial officer called out a “more normalized spending environment.”
• Gold miner Newmont said its profit and sales fell for the third quarter as its attributable gold production decreased.

• Companies including Amazon.com , Starbucks and Apple will report earnings after the market close.

Chart of the Day

• The Shiba Inu coin—not to be confused with dogecoin, which also is a homage to the Japanese dog breed—is surging in value. It…