10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Here's what you need to know before markets open.
1. Salesforce cashed out its Zoom stake last quarter, potentially scoring a 600% return in 14 months. Marc Benioff's enterprise-software company bought $100 million of Zoom stock in April 2019, and has sold it for as much as $700 million.
2. Carl Icahn netted $1.3 billion from betting against brick-and-mortar shopping malls with an instrument that gained fame in the 2008 crisis. Icahn Enterprises said the profit was a result of a short position on commercial mortgage-backed securities.
3. After a huge sell-off, here's 5 reasons why gold might be down, but not out. Gold saw its biggest one-day selloff in seven years, but little other than a Biden presidency and an early vaccine could derail its march higher.
4. Tesla announces 5-for-1 stock split as shares continue to rip higher. The company's stock price has more than doubled this year, as investors pile into Elon Musk's vision for electric cars.
5.Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones famously earned a 4-year streak of triple-digit returns. Here are the 7 trading rules he lives by after suffering a devastating loss. "Don't focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have," Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire founder of Tudor Investment Corp, said.
6. Goldman Sachs says these 24 single-stock trades can help you make big returns in August as the pandemic creates a wildly unpredictable back-to-school season. Despite all the uncertainty retailers face, Goldman Sachs says investors are expecting less earnings-season volatility than usual in August.
7. Morgan Stanley breaks down 4 reasons the next stock bull market is just getting underway — and lays out its best investing strategy for taking advantage. Mike Wilson lists four reasons why he sees a continuing bull market ahead and gives his tips on how to profit from the upswing.
8. Global stocks are mixed. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.1%, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.1% and the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.2%. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.6%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.4%, and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4% at the close. In the US, futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the US Tech 100 rose 0.9%.
9. Earnings results today. Tencent, Cisco, Foxconn, and Toshiba are highlights.
10. On the economic front. The Energy Information Administration's crude oil stocks change and the 10-year note auction are due.