October 27 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Monday, Oct. 27: 1. -- U.S. stock futures were trading slightly lower on Monday while European shares rose following largely positive results from the European Central Bank's stress tests on eurozone banks. Asian stocks finished the session mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225arose 0.6%. 2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. onaMonday includes pending home sales for September at 10 a.m. EDT. Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 10 Dividend Stocks 3. -- U.S. stocks onaFriday rose and the S&P 500 recovered much of the ground lost in the selloff earlier in October, posting its biggest weekly gain of 2014 on strong third-quarter earnings in the U.S. and better-than-forecast economic data in China and Europe. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% on Friday, closing at 1,964 and putting gains at more than 4% for the week. TheaNasdaq closed up 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.76%. U.S. stock indices, nonetheless, remain below highs reached in mid-September. 4. -- Apple Payawas disabled over the weekend in Rite Aid and CVS stores, The New York Times reported. The reason wasn't immediately clear. Ashley Flower, a spokeswoman for Rite Aid, told the Times the company "does not currently accept Apple Pay." She added that Rite Aid was "still in the process of evaluating our mobile payment options." Analysts told the Times that disabling acceptance of Apple's mobile wallet was a way to favor a rival system that is not yet available but is being developed by a consortium of merchants known as Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX. Rite Aid and CVS are part of that consortium, not part of the group of retailers that had teamed up with Apple on its payment system. Apple Pay technology was working last week in Rite Aid and CVS stores. 5. --aWilliams Partners and AccessaMidstream Partners agreed to combine in an amended deal. The value of the deal is about $50 billion, the companies said in a statement on Sunday. Williams Cos. owns controlling interests in the two master limited partnerships. "This is another big step toward our goal of becoming the leading natural gas infrastructure provider in North America," said Williams' CEOaAlan Armstrong in a statement. "The combination of Access Midstream Partners' intense focus on natural gas gathering with Williams Partners' broader service offerings along the value chain is yielding even more robust growth opportunities." The merger is expected to occur by early 2015. The deal will create a company with expected 2015 adjusted EBITDA of about $5 billion, the companies said. 6. --aTwitter is expected by analysts on Monday to report third-quarter earnings of 1 cent a share on revenue of $351.4 million. 7. -- The European Central Bank said there was a capital shortfall of 25 billion euros at 25 banks as of the end of last year. But in a news release announcing the results of its stress testsaon eurozone banks, the ECB said Sunday that 12 banks had already covered their capital shortfalls, leaving 13 banks still short of capital. These 13 must prepare capital plans within the next two weeks and will have nine months to cover their shortfalls, the release said. Must Read: 10 Best Apple Products Ever 8. --aAllergan is forecast by analysts on Monday to report a profit of $1.68 a share on revenue of $1.78 billion. Allergan, the maker of Botox, has rebuffed several takeover attempts fromaValeant Pharmaceuticals . 9. --aHewlett-Packard ais seeking a buyer for its corporate-networking business in China, The Wall Street Journal reported, citingapeople familiar with the matter. HP has begun sounding out private-equity firms in China that might be interested in the business, H3C Technologies, the people told the Journal.aThe process is in the early stages and HP is expected to sell at least 51% of H3C, assuming a buyer steps forward, the people said. In a full sale, the business could be worth roughly $5 billion, one of the peopleatold the newspaper. 10. --aDrugmaker Merck is expected by Wall Street to post third-quarter earnings on Monday of 88 cents a share on sales of $10.66 billion. Must Read: 10 Stocks Billionaire John Paulson Loves in 2014 -- Written by Joseph Woelfel To contact the writer of this article, click here:Joseph Woelfel To submit a news tip, send an email to:tips@thestreet.com. Follow @JoeWTheStreet

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