More earnings, key economic measure, first look at January jobs: 3 things to watch for Wednesday

Peloton bike

Source: Peloton

Here are the most important things to know about Wednesday before you hit the door.

1. Earnings continue

General Motors, Merck & Co., and Peloton, among others, will report quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

Automaker General Motors is expected to report earnings per share of 1 cent, well below the $1.43 earned in the fourth quarter a year prior, according to FactSet. Sales are estimated to come in at $31.3 billion, compared to the $38.4 billion generated in the same quarter a year ago.

Last month, General Motors announced it will invest $3 billion for production of “a variety” of all-electric trucks and SUVs, which would rival high flying stock Tesla, which surged more than 20% on Tuesday. Shares of General Motors are down more than 12% in the past six months.

Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. to report earnings per share of $1.15 on revenue of $11.979 billion. In the same quarter a year earlier, Merck reported earnings per share of $1.04 on revenue of $10.998 billion. Shares of Merck are up about 5% in the past six months.

In its second report since going public, Peloton is expected to report a loss of 32 cents, after losing $1.29 a quarter before, according to FactSet. Shares of the exercise company are up nearly 20% since its market debut in September.

2. Services gauge

We'll get a read on the strength of the U.S. services sector when The Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing economic reading is released at 10 a.m ET on Wednesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones are forecasting a read of 55 for January, the same as December. A reading above 50 signals expansion.

The services gauges come after Monday's data showed national factory activity increased to a reading of 50.9 in January, the highest level since July.

3. ADP jobs

We'll get a first reading on the strength of the labor market in January on Wednesday when private payroll data from ADP comes out at 8:15 a.m. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are estimating 150,000 jobs added in January, down from the 202,000 created in December.

Wednesday's ADP job count comes ahead of Friday's more closely watched Labor Department nonfarm payrolls report for January.

Major events (all times ET):

8:15 a.m. ADP employment

8:30 a.m. International trade deficit

9:45 a.m. Services PMI

10:00 a.m. ISM nonmanufacturing

Major earnings:

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General Motors (before the bell)

GlaxoSmithkline (before the bell)

Merck (before the bell)

Humana (before the bell)

Spotify (before the bell)

Boston Scientific (before the bell)

Capri Holdings (before the bell)

Peloton (before the bell)

Qualcomm (after the bell)

Fox (after the bell)

Yum China (after the bell)

FireEye (after the bell)

GrubHub (after the bell)

Zynga (after the bell)

Twilio (after the bell)

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