10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Advertisement
10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Bolivia strike

AP/Juan Karita

Bolivia Strike Opponents of Bolivia's President Evo Morales kick the shields of police guarding the electoral court, during a national strike in La Paz, Bolivia.

Advertisement

Here is what you need to know.

  1. Here comes the jobs report. The US economy is expected to have added 198,000 jobs in November as the unemployment rate held at 3.7%, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
  2. The Fed could tweak its approach to future rate hikes. Fed officials are considering a "wait-and-see approach" to future rate hikes as they want to assess the strength of the US economy, according to the Wall Street Journal's Nick Timiraos.
  3. Bitcoin hits a fresh 15-month low. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap fell as much as 8.26% to $3,300 a coin late Thursday, hitting its lowest level since September 2017.
  4. The biggest IPO in biotech history just priced. Moderna Therapeutics, which develops medical treatments based on messenger RNA, priced its initial public offering at $23 a share, giving it a valuation of about $7.5 billion.
  5. A formerly dominant and often overlooked sector is at the epicenter of the stock-market meltdown. The Philadelphia Semiconductor had gained 118% since the start of 2016, but has fallen 18% from its March highs, with former stock-market darlings AMD and Nvidia seeing much bigger losses.
  6. Bank stocks briefly enter bear-market territory. The KBW Bank Index briefly entered bear-market territory on Thursday - down 20% from its March peak - as trade tensions and a flattening yield curve weighed.
  7. Tesla is reportedly planning to pay off its next chunk of convertible debt in an odd way. The electric-car maker will pay holders of convertible notes with a 50/50 mix of equity and cash, Bloomberg reports.
  8. Stock markets around the world are mixed. Japan's Nikkei (+0.82%) led the gains in Asia and Britain's FTSE (+1.61%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.58% near 2,680.
  9. Earnings reports trickle out. Big Lots and Vail Resorts report ahead of the opening bell.
  10. US economic data keeps coming. Aside from the jobs report, wholesale inventories and University of Michigan consumer confidence will both be released at 10 a.m. ET and consumer credit will cross the wires at 3 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down one basis point at 2.89%.
{{}}