10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Here is what you need to know.

Trump reportedly wants a massive escalation in the trade war with China. President Donald Trump wants to move forward with tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods -after the public-comment period ends on September 6 - Bloomberg reports.

2 of the most successful stock pickers of 2018 say a trait shared by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos holds the key to their success. "And the founder/CEOs? We prefer them because they have an appetite to think longer-term and they're willing to take risk that a rent-an-MBA executive or a successor manager may not be willing to," Anthony Zackery, a portfolio manager at the Zevenbergen Genea Fund, told Business Insider.

Coca-Cola just became a giant threat to Starbucks after buying one of Europe's biggest coffee chains. The beverage giant has agreed to pay Whitbread 3.9 billion pounds ($5.1 billion) for its British coffee-shop chain Costa Coffee.

Apple sends out invitations for the new iPhone event on September 12. The tech giant is expected to reveal three new iPhone models and could also unveil other products such as an updated iPad Pro and the next version of its AirPods.

Cboe is telling market makers that it's getting close to launching ether futures. The exchange is waiting on additional clarity from the Commodity Futures Trade Commission and could launch by the end of 2018, a person with knowledge of the situation told Business Insider.

Lyft takes a step towards an IPO. The ride-services firm is in talks with an adviser for an initial public offering in March or April of 2019, Bloomberg says.

A notorious short-seller has come out swinging against a popular marijuana stock. Shares of marijuana company Cronos plunged more than 28% on Thursday after Citron Research wrote it "appears to have been deceiving the investing public by purposely not disclosing the size of its distribution agreements with provinces - unlike every other major cannabis player."

Stock markets around the world are lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-0.98%) led the losses in Asia and Germany's DAX (-0.95%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.14% near 2,897.

Earnings reporting is light. Big Lots reports ahead of the opening bell.

US economic data keeps coming. Chicago PMI and University of Michigan consumer confidence will cross the wires at 9:45 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET, respectively. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.85%.