On today's episode of Morning Brief, Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith analyze the market open and break down some of the biggest stories of the trading day.

US stocks opened higher (^DJI,^GSPC, ^IXIC) as Investors gear up for a big week ahead where five of the "Magnificent Seven" players will report their earnings results. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Meta (META) all report this week. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and ADP private payroll data will also give Wall Street a fresh read on the labor market this week.

Neuberger Berman senior research analyst Dan Flax believes that Mag Seven earnings will be "important in terms of getting an update on some of the cyclical factors." He adds, "There's clearly patches of weakness in the consumer [and] I think the enterprise is slower, but if we step back and think ‘What's happening?' you have this build out of the digital platform, the cloud, artificial intelligence. These secular trends remain healthy in my view.”

Franklin Templeton chief market strategist Stephen Dover discusses the fresh economic data ahead and what it means for the Federal Reserve’s next move. There are “a couple [of] economic announcements coming out this week that are likely to be positive,” Dover tells Yahoo Finance. He warns that jobs data is likely to be “muddled” given the impact of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene as well as the ongoing Boeing (BA) union strike.

Shares of Philips (PHG) are plunging after the medical device company cut its full-year sales target after weak demand from China weighed on its third quarter results. Philips CEO Roy Jakobs explains, "When we look at third quarter results, we saw two parts. One, we saw strong margin delivery. So we stepped up 160 basis points in margin. Despite that, we had flat sales growth. And that flat sales growth indeed was driven out of further deterioration in China, where actually we saw two underlying trends unfolding. One was the consumer market, where further drop in consumer sentiment led to further sell-out drop and sell-in drop... But also we had the hospital market, where actually we expected the stabilization of demand, and that also further deteriorated."

As airlines across the industry expand their fee structures, Southwest Airlines (LUV) is taking a unique approach to its transformation strategy. CEO Bob Jordan emphasizes that Southwest's evolution is driven by customer demand. He points to services like assigned seating and premium amenities such as extra legroom as features passengers are willing to pay for. Jordan also highlights upcoming initiatives, including Getaways by Southwest and strategic mergers, which he expects will boost profit margins. "It's not fees for things like bags. It's revenues that come because our customers want to pay for these new services. So it's really a win-win," Jordan explains to Yahoo Finance.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl