10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Trump and Kim

Reuters/Kham

A welcoming banner with images of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hangs at a South Korean restaurant ahead of USA-DPRK summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Here is what you need to know.

  1. Kraft Heinz takes a $15 billion charge, reveals it has been subpoenaed by the SEC. Kraft Heinz shares plunged 11% late Thursday after the food-products company announced a $15 billion charge related to its Kraft and Oscar Meyer trademarks and said it was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission about its accounting practices. The company also announced fourth-quarter results that missed on both the top and bottom lines.
  2. Pinterest reportedly files for a confidential IPO. The company is looking at June for a potential initial public offering and a valuation of about $12 billion, the Wall Street Journal says, citing a confidential S-1 filing.
  3. It's been a year since Kylie Jenner's tweet rocked Snap - and shares still haven't recovered. ""Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?" Jenner asked her Twitter followers one year ago Thursday.
  4. Zillow is shaking things up at the top. CEO Spencer Raskoff will be replaced by Richard Barton, the company's cofounder and executive chairman, who also served as CEO from 2005 until 2010. Raskoff will remain on the board of directors.
  5. Roku's CFO says the company is in a 'strong position' to take on Amazon. After the streaming-video company on Thursday announced fourth-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines, CFO Steve Louden told Business Insider that it's in a "strong position" to take on Amazon because it's a strong supporter of ad-supported content.
  6. Shares of a mysterious Hong Kong investment company have soared 8,500% in 5 years. "Fundamentals do not support the stock's rally at all," Li Yuanrong, managing director of Shenzhen-based venture capital firm 20VC told Bloomberg.
  7. A US-China trade deal could disappoint Wall Street. "When you look at the different possible scenarios, most of them are negative for stocks," Alec Young, director of global markets research for index developer FTSE Russell, said, even though hopes of a trade deal have helped propel the recent stock-market rally. "The market has basically robbed from the future and pulled all of the market's gains for the year into the first couple of months."
  8. The trade war continues to take its toll on US farmers. Nearly 25 million tonnes of US soybeans will go unsold this year as a direct result of the trade war with China, Robert Johansson, the chief economist of the USDA said Thursday.
  9. Stock markets around the world were higher. China's Shanghai Composite (+1.91%) paced the advance in Asia and Germany's DAX (+0.64%) was out front in Europe. The S&P 500 was set to open up 0.38% near 2,786.
  10. Earnings reporting slows down. Cabot Oil and Wayfair report ahead of the opening bell.
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