Anything For You All: 10 things you need to know before the opening bell

February 20, 2018

Here is what you need to know.

The European Parliament will call for Britain to have "privileged" single-market access after Brexit. The Parliament wants the European Union to negotiate an "association agreement" that could give Britain "privileged" single-market access and membership of EU agencies.

Mario Draghi is getting a new right-hand man. Eurozone finance ministers are set to choose Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos as the new vice president at the European Central Bank, a move likely to boost the chances of a German becoming head of the European Central Bank next year, Reuters says.

Bitcoin is back above $11,000. The cryptocurrency trades up about 2% near $11,400 a coin as trade presses higher for the fifth straight day and 10th in the past 11.

Paul Singer's Elliott Management says cryptocurrencies are "one of the most brilliant scams in history." "FOMO (fear of missing out) has solidly trumped WTHIT (what the hell is this??)," the $34 billion hedge fund wrote in a fourth-quarter letter to clients.

S&P: Warnings that cryptocurrency could crash the global financial system are "much ado about nothing." "In our opinion, in its current version, a cryptocurrency is a speculative instrument, and a collapse in its market value would be just a ripple across the financial services industry, still too small to disturb stability or affect the creditworthiness of banks we rate," the credit analyst Mohamed Damak and his team wrote.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sells some stock. Spiegel sold $50 million of Snap stock last week, marking his first share sale since his company went public a year ago, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed.

Layoffs are coming at Deutsche Bank. The German bank plans to cut up to 500 trading and investment-banking jobs following three years of steep losses, according to multiple reports.

750 KFCs in Britain are closed because of a chicken logistics crisis. More than 80% of Britain's KFC locations are temporarily closed after a change in food distributors led to a nationwide chicken shortage for the company.

Stock markets around the world trade mixed. Japan's Nikkei (-1%) lagged in Asia, and Germany's DAX (+0.12%) clings to gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.6% near 2,716.

Earnings reports keep coming. Domino's Pizza, Home Depot, and Walmart report ahead of the opening bell.