10 things you need to know before the opening bell
1. Leaving the European Union without a deal in later this year will destroy "many thousands of jobs" in the United Kingdom, the Business Secretary Greg Clark has warned. Boris Johnson, the favorite to replace May, has promised to take Britain out of the EU by October 31 "do or die."
2. Stocks are climbing. Despite trade war fears, Fed rate cut expectations took precedence in Friday trading.
3. Trump late on Thursday slammed cryptocurrencies saying they should be "subject to all banking regulations." The president added: "Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."
4. The world's super wealthy just collectively lost $2 trillion - and Trump's trade war is to blame. The collective wealth of high net worth individuals has declined for the first time since 2011, decreasing in 2018 by 3% globally.
5. Volkswagen are to inject $2.6 billion into Ford unit Argo AI taking the overall deal to $7 billion. Volkswagen will reportedly contribute $1 billion in capital and $1.6 in business activities, and VW and Ford will be equal stakeholders of the venture.
6. Nike is keeping its plans for their Arizona factory despite the controversy of the Betsy Ross sneaker. Nike on Thursday said it's going forward with plans to make soles for Nike Air shoes in a Phoenix suburb even though Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey blocked state money for the facility when the company pulled a flag-themed shoe.
7. Passengers on an Air Canada plane described the chaos of extreme turbulence that threw them to the ceiling, and put 30 passengers in hospital. The flight from Vancouver to Sydney was forced to make an emergency landing in Hawaii on the flight Thursday.
8. Stocks around the world today are rising. US futures are up including the S&P 500 (+0.2%) and the Nasdaq (0.3%). In Europe stocks were more mixed, as the DAX slid (-0.1%) but Euro Stoxx 50 was up (+0.1%). In Asia, stocks closed on the up with the Nikkei 225 up (+0.2%), the Shanghai composite (+0.4%) and the Hang Seng (+0.2%).
9. Some earnings to keep an eye out for today: retailer Sears Holdings.
10. On the economic calendar today, a variety of data is out. In particular is the data on the Producer Price Index excluding food and energy.