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

Senin, 20 April 2020

10 things you need to know before the opening bell


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10 Things Before the Opening Bell

Here's what you need to know before the markets open.

1. 'Bears are out for blood': Oil plunges to a 2-decade low as coronavirus shatters demand. WTI reached a low of less than $14 a barrel, dropping to its lowest level since 1999.

2. Goldman Sachs says the biggest US companies will slash spending by a record 33% during 2020. Analysts expect buybacks and dividends to also decline sharply in the year, falling by 50% and 23%, respectively.

2. Jim Simons' Renaissance scored a 39% gain in its flagship Medallion fund as the coronavirus hammered rivals. The Cold War code-breaker's hedge fund scored almost a 10% gain in March, outperforming most of its rivals.

3.The UK has greenlit a $300 million rescue package to stop thousands of startups collapsing during COVID-19. Half that cash will be government money issued via convertible notes.

4. Facebook and three Indonesian firms are in early talks for mobile payment approval. The plan, if approved, could be among the first such service under the social media firm's unified payment service Facebook Pay.

5. Branson says Virgin Atlantic will need UK government help to survive. "This would be in the form of a commercial loan – it wouldn't be free money and the airline would pay it back," Branson said in a blog.

6. Danske Bank board proposes no dividends be paid for 2019. The board had originally proposed to pay a dividend of 8.50 Danish crowns ($1.24) per share, corresponding to 49% of reported net profit for 2019.

7. Stocks are down. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.6%, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.7%. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2%, and Japan's Nikkei fell 1.2%. In the US, futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq fell between 1.2% and 1.7%.

8. First-quarter earnings expected. IBM, Equifax and Philips NV are highlights.

9. Eyes will be on bond markets.The three-month and six-month bill auctions should provide some insight into the state of US government debt.