10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Yellen to resign from Fed board. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will resign from the central bank's board of governors once Jerome Powell is sworn in, leaving four seats on the central bank's seven-member board for Trump to appoint.
There's a new biggest bull on Wall Street. Brian Belski of Bank of Montreal Capital Markets sees the S&P 500 finishing 2018 at 2,950, the highest on Wall Street.
The FCC is reportedly planning a total repeal of net neutrality rules. Politico reports the Federal Communications Commission will today reveal a plan to remove net neutrality regulations, with a vote planned in December.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are slipping after a $31 million crypto heist. Tether, the company behind a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar, said $31 million was stolen from its main wallet on Sunday. Both bitcoin and Ethereum are down less than 1%.
AT&T will face an antitrust lawsuit over its $84.5 billion Time Warner deal. "This merger would greatly harm American consumers," Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said announcing the suit. "It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy."
Tencent passes Facebook in market value. The Chinese tech giant became the first Asian company to surpass a market value of $500 billion.
Starbucks is using the oldest trick in the book to boost its stock price. The coffee giant plans to sell $1 billion of debt, and then use the proceeds to buy back its own stock, expand its business, pay cash dividends or finance acquisitions, according to a regulatory filing.
Stock markets around the world are higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+1.91%) led the advance in Asia and Germany's DAX (+0.48%) paces the gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.22% near 2,588.
Earnings reports keep coming. Dollar Tree and Lowe's report ahead of the opening bell while GameStop and HP release their quarterly results after markets close.
US economic data trickles out. Existing home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.35%.