10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Happy Birthday bull market. The stock market's bull run turns seven today. The S&P 500 bottomed on March 9, 2007 at 676.53. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 closed at 1979.26, making for a 193% gain.
Trump won three primaries and Sanders scored an upset. Republican presidential candidate front-runner Donald Trump won the GOP primaries in Hawaii, Michigan and Mississippi while Sen. Ted Cruz was victorious in Idaho. "If I get to go against Hillary, polls are showing that I beat her, and some of the polls have my beating her very easily," Trump said. "We will take many, many people away from the Democrats and we'll take many people away that normally go Democrat as independents." On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders edged out former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Michigan despite the polls showing him down by more than 20 points. Clinton easily won Mississippi.
Chipotle closed a restaurant because its employees got sick. An email from Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said a restaurant in Billerica, Massachusetts has been temporarily closed for a full cleaning after four employees fell ill, Reuters reports. According to Arnold, the restaurant is still investigating if the employees had norovirus and that no customers were reported to have fallen ill. Shares of Chipotle fell nearly 4% in after-hours trade on Tuesday after the report surfaced.
Citigroup is having a tough first quarter. On Tuesday, Citigroup's CFO, John Gerspach, spoke of a difficult business climate in the first quarter. Reuters reports, Gerspach said markets revenue is 15% lower than a year ago and investment banking revenue is down 25%. He said the company expects to take a $400 million charge "to resize both our infrastructure and capacity."
A former JPMorgan advisor was sentenced to 5 years for stealing from clients. Michael Oppenheim, a former advisor for JPMorgan Chase & Co. was sentenced to five years in prison for admitting he stole at least $20 million from clients, Reuters reports. According to the prosecution, Oppenheim persuaded clients to allow him to withdraw money from their accounts , saying he would invest it in municipal bonds. Instead. he used the money to pay for his gambling addiction and his own personal trading.
Malaysia kept policy on hold. Bank Negara Malaysia held its key interest rate at 3.25%, as expected. The central bank noted the outlook for global growth is "vulnerable to downside risks arising from the prevailing fragilities that are both cyclical and structural, excessive leverage, the sharp declines in commodity prices and the rising geopolitical risks." It expects growth at home to be supported by infrastructure projects and capital spending, but to slow from the current rate of 5%. Additionally, Bank Negara Malaysia expects inflation to perk up as a result of the recent weakness in its currency, the ringgit. This was the last meeting for Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who is retiring after 16 years. Her successor hasn't yet been announced. The ringgit finished weaker by 0.2% ahead of the meeting.
UK manufacturing beat. Data provided by the Office of National Statistics showed manufacturing production in the UK rose 0.7% month-over-month in January, easily beating the 0.2% gain that was expected. On a year-over-year basis, January's 0.1% drop was better than the 0.7% fall that analysts had anticipated. Meanwhile, industrial production disappointed, climbing 0.3% im January, which was shy of the 0.5% advance economists had hoped for. The British pound is unchanged near 1.4125.
Global markets trade mixed. China's Shanghai Composite (-1.3%) paced the losses overnight and Spain's IBEX (+1.3%) leads the gains in Europe. S&P 500 futures are up 8.50 points at 1989.25.
Earnings reports continue to flow. Express and Hovnanian highlight the names reporting ahead of the opening bell. Square is the notable releasing its quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data remains light. Wholesale inventories are due out at 10 a.m. ET and crude oil inventories will cross the wires at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US Treasury will reopen $20 billion 10-year notes at 1 p.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is higher by 5 basis points at 1.88%.