10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

MIKE BIRD

SEP. 29, 2014

Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

Riot police in Hong Kong try to calm things down.

Good morning! It’s been an eventful weekend, and these are the major events round the world already moving markets today. 

Hong Kong Is Seeing Massive Protests. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated through the night in the city. Tear gas and pepper spray were used, a rarity for Hong Kong.

PIMCO Is Suffering. Following the departure of founder and veteran bond fund manager Bill Gross, investors are exiting PIMCO. The Wall Street Journal thinks the outflows amount to around $10bn, but Morgan Stanley analysts say the share price drop discounts about $400 billion in outflows.

Apple Could Be Billed Billions By Tax Authorities. The massive tech firm could learn today whether their current arrangement for corporation tax in Ireland will be found illegal. 

European Markets Are Down A Little. The FTSE 100 is down 0.22%, France’s CAC 40 is down 0.24% and the German DAX index is down 0.13%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed down 1.90% after the turmoil there.

The Dollar Hit A Four Year High. The strengthening dollar reached its highest level since 2010 against a basket of currencies in early Asian trade on Monday. 

Eurozone Confidence Is Dropping. Another month of falling business and consumer confidence was revealed by the European Commission, with inflation expectations dropping too. 

SoftBank Wants DreamWorks. According to reports, the Japanese firm is in talks to buy the animation company for as much as $3.4 billion.

Lenovo Will Close a $2.1 Billion Deal With IBM. The company is snapping up IBM’s x86 server division.

Personal Income Data Is Out Later. US figures on personal income and spending are out at 8.30 a.m. ET, and data on pending home sales will be released at 10 a.m.

Air France’s Pilot Strike Is Over. The strike which lasted two weeks, loomed over French politics and nearly destroyed Air France’s new budget airline is finally ending.