Business

In the first sign that President Trump's favorite social network may be finally turning the corner, Twitter reported revenue, EBITDA and earnings all of which beat expectations, at revenues of $589.6MM (vs exp.$587.5MM), EBITDA of $207MM (vs exp.  $161MM) and non-GAAP EPS of $0.10, better than the $0.06 expected. Monthly active users rose by 4% to 330 million in the third quarter, which while below the 330.5mm expected was still a welcome development for investors who last quarter saw a decline in the company's MAU and punished the stock appropriately.

US equity futures and Asian shares are flat this morning with European shares treading water ahead of the ECB's policy meeting in which it’s expected to announce a tapering to its €60bn in monthly QE. On this busiest day of Q3 earnings season, companies set to report earnings include Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Intel, while we also get data on jobless claims and wholesale inventories.

Following up to our earlier preview of today's critical ECB announcement, here is Bloomberg macro commentator Tanvir Sundhu, who says not to sweat what Draghi says today as the ECB will be able to avoid a "taper tantrum" (for now) and as a result the risk isn’t that the ECB is going to set off a sustained bond bear market, but - due to the shortage of monetizable assets - "it’s that it might find itself low on ammunition if the economy or prices suddenly turn south."

From Sundhu's latest Macro View:

Deutsche Bank’s Q3 2017 revenues were €6.78 billion, below market expectations of €6.88 billion. The share price fell 2.7% shortly after the European market open. The problem – like the previous quarter - was a bigger-than-expected drop in trading revenues. Trading revenue was down 30% year-on-year to €1.512 billion versus €2.162 billion in Q2 2017.

Today's ECB meeting is expected to be one of the most important in recent years: Mario Draghi has signaled, and is widely expected to announce a blueprint of what the central bank's QE tapering will look like beyond 2017, and while no actual tightening will be implemented - either via rates of asset purchases - the ECB is expected to announce it will cut its €60bn/month bond purchases in roughly half starting in January 2018 and lasting for the next 9-15 months.

Courtesy of RanSquawk, here are the key parameters of Thursday's meeting: