Amazon.com Inc. cast a pall over earnings season as the effort to get packages from warehouse to doorstep in a single day led to its first year-over-year quarterly profit decline since 2017. Results elsewhere were mixed. Third-quarter income jumped at Barclays Plc, but Anheuser-Busch InBev NV blamed a drop in beer shipments in China and the U.S. as profit growth stumbled. Companies reporting today include Verizon Communications Inc., Nielsen Holdings Plc, Charter Communications Inc. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (Bloomberg)

Intel’s data center division returned to growth in the third quarter, pushing the chipmaker’s revenue and earnings above analysts’ expectations and fueling an 8 per cent bounce in its shares in after-market trading.  The recovery followed a six-month retreat as cloud computing customers cut back on capital spending after a period of booming investment. The cloud rebound left Intel with revenue of $19.2bn for the latest quarter, roughly in line with the previous year and well above the $18.05bn that Wall Street had been expecting. The chipmaker also raised its revenue guidance for the rest of this year by $1.5bn, to $71bn. (FT)

Top U.S. and Chinese trade officials reportedly will discuss plans today for China to buy more U.S. farm products, but in return, China wants cancellation of some planned and existing U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He plan to speak by telephone today as the two sides try to hammer out the text for a "Phase 1" trade deal announced earlier this month. (SA)

With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor I am Josh Fenili.