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

March 06, 2018

Here is what you need to know.

Gary Cohn is making a desperate effort to stop Trump's trade war before it starts. Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council and former Goldman Sachs executive, and a group of officials in the White House and Treasury Department are trying to persuade President Donald Trump to reconsider his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum, Politico's Ben White reports.

The stock market bottomed 9 years ago. The S&P 500 put in a financial-crisis low of 666 on March 6, 2009 — here are the headlines from the darkest days of the crisis.

JPMorgan says the stock market's most trusted strategy is on its last legs. The "buy the dip" mentality is showing signs of fading, according to Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a global market strategist at JPMorgan.

Australia holds rates. The Reserve Bank of Australia held its benchmark interest rate at 1.50% for a 17th straight meeting and singled out household spending as "one continuing source of uncertainty."

India raises the stake in its trade war for chickpeas. India has implemented a 60% import tax on chickpeas from Australia and Canada, its third increase in the past three months.

Nordstrom rejects 'inadequate' buyout deal from Nordstrom family. A special committee for the board of directors rejected the Nordstrom family's offer of "$50 in cash for each share of the company that the family doesn't own, plus the same price for about 21% of the company that individual family members own," Reuters reports.

Goldman Sachs is creating a new commodities finance team. The new team, called "commodity finance solutions," will report to Colleen Foster, the global head of commodities sales, Reuters says.

Stock markets around the world are higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+2.09%) led the gains in Asia, and Germany's DAX (+1.09%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.3% near 2,729.

Earnings reporting picks back up. Target reports ahead of the opening bell, while Ross Stores releases its quarterly results after markets close.

US economic data flows. Factory orders and durable-goods orders will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.88%.