10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Achilles the cat World Cup prediction

AP/Dmitri Lovetsky

Achilles the cat, one of the State Hermitage Museum mice hunters, lies on a table after attempting to predict the result of the opening match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup between Russia and Saudi Arabia in St.Petersburg, Russia.

Here is what you need to know.

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The Fed gets more hawkish. The Federal Open Market Committee raised its key interest rate 25 basis points on Thursday to a range between 1.75% and 2%, and said it sees two more rate hikes this year for a total of four. It had previously expected just three rate hikes in 2018.

The ECB is on the brink of ending its QE program. The European Central Bank could announce plans to stop its €2.55 trillion ($3 trillion) bond-buying scheme, ending years of post-crisis stimulus, Reuters says. A decision will cross the wires at 7:45 a.m. ET.

Trump is getting ready to make a decision on slapping $50 billion worth of tariffs on China. President Donald Trump will meet with this top trade advisers Thursday to decide whether to place $50 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods that fall into 1,300 different product categories, Reuters says.

China's economic data misses across the board. Retail sales grew by 8.5% year-over-year in April, making for the weakest reading since June 2003, according to National Bureau of Statistics data released Thursday. Fixed asset investment, industrial output, and mining output also fell short of expectations.

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Here's the real reason hedge funds give you ideas, according to Harvard. Hedge funds love to pitch stocks to investors at conferences and then exit those positions right after, according to a paper published by Harvard Business School PhD candidate Patrick Luo, who analyzed 341 stocks pitches by 29 hedge funds over five years.

A bidding war has broken out for 21st Century Fox assets. Comcast made a $65 billion offer for 21st Century Fox's assets excluding the Fox News and Fox Business channels. That's 24% higher than the bid Disney made for the company's production assets and movie franchises.

GM becomes first major auto company in history to have a female CEO and a female CFO. The automaker named Dhivya Suryadevara as CFO on Wednesday.

Elon Musk loads up on more Tesla stock. Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought an additional $25 million worth of Tesla stock, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing released Wednesday. He now owns more than 33 million shares, or nearly 20% of the company, according to Bloomberg data.

Stock markets around the world are lower. Japan's Nikkei (-0.99%) led the losses in Asia and Britain's FTSE (-0.64%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.1% near 2,773.

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US economic picks up. Retail sales, import and export prices, and initial claims will all be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 2 basis points at 2.95%.

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