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

Jumat, 24 April 2020

10 Things Before the Opening Bell

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

1. Oil's rally in recent days is just a 'dead-cat bounce,' analysts warn after Trump stoked tensions with Iran. As of Friday morning in Europe, both Brent crude and WTI have fallen from the open, but are broadly stable.

2. Marc Benioff's Salesforce scores a 370% return on Zoom after investing $100 million last year. Zoom's stock price has skyrocketed as the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive users to its video-conferencing app.

3. ECB chief Christine Lagarde warned of a 15% plunge in Europe's economy during the coming coronavirus recession. She also told the leaders they risk "doing too little, too late," while discussing how to mitigate the economic fallout from the virus.

4. Apple unveiled a verified TikTok account. At the time of writing, the account hasn't posted anything and has just over 5,000 followers.

5. French court to rule on Amazon union spat as vendors struggle. The court will decide on Friday whether to back Amazon's appeal against an order to restrict goods it can deliver.

6. Korean Air to get up to $971 million support from state-owned banks. Two state-owned banks in South Korea offered to provide up to 1.2 trillion won ($971 million) to support the airline.

7. Ryanair may cut 10-20% of jobs in the winter season, CEO tells German paper. "Passengers will return, but it will take time," chief executive Michael O'Leary said, adding that there could also be a second wave of worldwide infections.

Most stocks are down. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.8%, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.7%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 0.8%. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite fell 1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.6%, and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.8%. In the US, futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq rose 0.6%.
First-quarter earnings coming in. Verizon, Sanofi and American Express are highlights.

10. Economic data releases today. Baker Hughes US Oil Rig Count and CFTC Gold and Oil Net Positions are due.