By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, October 17th. Please refresh for updates.

• Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) stock rose 2.9% after the second-largest U.S. lender posted better than expected earnings, helped by strong bond trading and higher interest rates, even as it reported a drop in third-quarter profit as it set aside funds to cover potential soured loans.

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) stock rose 1.3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the investment bank was planning a sweeping reorganization, including combining its flagship investment banking and trading businesses into one unit.

• Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) stock rose 4.4% after the lender reported healthy quarterly earnings, with net interest revenue up 44% from a year ago.
• Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK) stock rose 10% after the Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Value has taken a near 5% stake in the software maker.

• Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock rose 1.3% after Morgan Stanley called the iPhone maker a top stock pick in the event of a U.S. economic downturn.

• Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON) stock rose 1.4% after the aerospace company lifted its outlook for business jet deliveries, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought in a wave of first-time users and buyers in the private flying market.

• Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock rose 1.4% after job openings on the company's website suggest the world's most valuable car maker is hiring employees at a quick pace, in nearly every category of job.

• Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) stock rose 8.2% after billionaire investor Harold Hamm boosted his offer to $4.3 billion for the remaining stock his family doesn’t already own, planning to take private the shale giant he founded decades ago.

• News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA) stock rose 3.5% and Fox (NASDAQ: FOX) stock fell 5.3% following the news that owner Rupert Murdoch has started a process that could reunite his media empire, nearly a decade after the companies split.