The 10 most important things in the world right now
Good morning! Here's what you need to know on Friday.
1. Asian stocks are higher in early trade, following gains in Europe and Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei erased its stunning reversal of Thursday afternoon at the open, and is up more than 3% for the day.
2. BP's chief executive Bob Dudley has warned that the current crisis in oil prices is as bad as the one the market experienced in 1985 and 1986, when crude prices capped a six-year-long struggle by falling as low as $7 per barrel.
3. The US Marine Corps says the 12 Marines who were in two helicopters that crashed off Hawaii are considered dead. The Marines were from various states and ranged in age from 21 to 41.
4. Uber's losses are mounting, but its revenues are growing, too, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Ellen Huet and Eric Newcomer. In Q3 of 2015, Uber lost $697 million - outstripping its $498 million in net revenue, according to the report.
5. While the world has been focused on Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, Islamic State has been creeping into another chaotic state: Libya, leaving analysts fearing this will be a major stress point for Europe going forward.
7. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the refugee crisis in Europe during a phone call on Thursday. Obama told Merkel he plans to host a summit for leaders in September to secure new commitments to help address the crisis.
8. Bloomberg reports that in 2014 Google paid Apple $1 billion just to keep its search engine as the default on the iPhone. That number comes from the ongoing Google/Oracle legal battle, in which several accounting figures that Google would rather be kept secret came to light.
9. Sales of the iPhone will experience their first ever year-on-year decline when Apple reports its quarterly earnings next week, analyst Gene Munster said.
And finally ... These are the 36 best European economists to follow on Twitter.