10 things you need to know before the opening bell
US stocks are at record highs. Friday's dynamite jobs reported propelled both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to record-high closes. The 0.8% gain in the S&P 500, however, extended the average's streak without a move of 1.0% to a 17th straight session.
Walmart is buying Jet.com. The deal will be worth about $3 billion, according to Recode's Jason Del Rey, citing anonymous sources. Walmart hopes the acquisition will help jump-start its struggling online business, which is just a sliver of the size of Amazon's. Walmart generates about $14 billion in annual e-commerce sales, compared with about $99 billion from Amazon.
Berkshire Hathaway earnings miss. The Warren Buffett-led conglomerate reported operating earnings per share of $2,803 ($2,911 expected, according to Bloomberg) and a 25% year-over-year jump in net income to $5 billion.
Delta Air Lines flights are grounded nationwide. A nationwide system failure has caused grounded Delta Airlines flights across the US. "Our systems are down everywhere. Hopefully it won't be much longer," the airline's Twitter account tweeted in response to passenger inquiries, Reuters reports.
Airbnb is now worth $30 billion. Bloomberg reports that the home-sharing company has raised another $850 million, bringing its fund-raising total to $3.2 billion. Airbnb is the second-most-valuable startup behind only Uber (~$68 billion).
The bitcoin exchange that was hacked says all its customers will lose some of their funds. Bitfinex, the Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange that was hacked for $65 million, says all of its customers will lose 36% of their funds. The company says customers will be given digital "tokens"that record their losses, which may one day be redeemed or exchanged for shares of iFinex, the company that operates Bitfinex.
OPEC will meet in September. OPEC members will hold reportedly an informal meeting on a possible production freeze along side the International Energy Forum in Algeria on September 26 to September 28, Reuters reports. "OPEC continues to monitor developments closely, and is in constant deliberations with all member states on ways and means to help restore stability and order to the oil market," Mohammad bin Saleh al-Sada, Qatar's minister of energy and industry, said in a statement. West Texas Intermediate crude oil is up 1.6% at $42.48 per barrel.
China trade data. Trade data released by the General Administration of Customs showed China's trade surplus grew to $52.31 billion in July. Exports fell 4.4% in dollar terms and imports sank 12.5%, leading to the largest surplus since January.
Stock markets around the world are higher. Japan's Nikkei (+2.4%) paced the advance in Asia and Germany's DAX (+0.9%) leads the way up in Europe. S&P 500 futures higher by 4.00 points at 2,180.75.
Earnings reports continue to flow. Allergan, Dean Foods, Sotheby's, and Tyson Foods are among the names reporting ahead of the opening bell while Hertz Global, Lending Club, News Corp., and Twilio highlight the companies releasing their quarterly results after markets close.