March 26 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know
Updated from 6:57 a.m. EDT.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Thursday, March 26:
1. -- U.S. stock futures are falling even more after Wednesday's deep drop in stock prices.
European stocks fell as weak U.S. durable goods data and concerns about Greece's debt crisis and a war in Yemen weighed on stock indices Thursday, with stocks falling sharply after a Wall Street selloff.
2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. on Thursday includes St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard speaking on the economy and monetary policy in Germany at 4:35 a.m. New unemployment claims data are released at 8:30 a.m.
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart will discuss the economy and monetary policy in Detroit at 9 a.m. The Purchasing Managers' Index services flash index reports at 9:45 a.m. Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort Index gives its results at 9:45 a.m.
3. -- U.S. stocks on Wednesday plummeted in a broad selloff after durable goods orders missed the mark.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) - Get Report dropped 1.62% to 17,718.54. The S&P 500 (SPY) - Get Report fell 1.46% to 2,061.05. The Nasdaq (QQQ) - Get Report tanked 2.37% to 4,876.52.
4. -- Wells Fargo (WFC) - Get Report will lay off 1,000 workers from the bank's mortgage division in Milwaukee, Wisc., the company said. A drop in mortgage delinquencies and bad mortgages means that the lender doesn't need as many staff to deal with the problems. Wells Fargo is the mortgage servicer for one in six U.S. home mortgages.
Berkshire Hathaway investment Wells Fargo is in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust. Read Cramer's thoughts on Wells Fargo and on Buffett's shareholder letter on Real Money here.
In premarket trading, Wells Fargo stock was dropping by 1.2%.
5. -- Wall Street continues to parse the merger between prepared foods maker Kraft Foods (KRFT) and H.J. Heinz, which was orchestrated by 3G Capital, a Brazilian private equity company, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) - Get Report (BRK.B) - Get Report. Berkshire has invested in Kraft for years, and Berkshire and 3G together own Heinz.
The deal is worth about $46 billion and -- unusually -- was conducted without the aid of a major Wall Street bank. The new company will be worth about $80 billion.
Buffett described the deal as "my kind of transaction" in a statement. Heinz Chief Executive Bernardo Hees will run the combined company.
Kraft stock rocketed up 35.6% Wednesday. In premarket trading, Kraft was sinking by 1.2%.
6. -- Schlumberger (SLB) - Get Report will pay more than $232 million in fines after one of its business units said it would plead guilty to violating trade sanctions with Iran and Sudan -- or the "Northern Gulf" and "Southern Egypt," as employees referred to the countries in emails. The penalty exceeds that levied on BNP Paribas (BNPQY) for violating sanctions, previously the largest such fine. A court still needs to approve the settlement.
At the end of 2014, Schlumberger held about $7.5 billion in cash.
Schlumberger stock was rising by 1.2% in premarket trading.
7. -- Oil prices and gold were rising as investors got nervous after an ugly day in the markets Wednesday, and as Saudi Arabia has begun bombing Yemen. Disruptions in the oil supply aren't much of a concern yet, but instability in the Middle East generally results in higher oil prices.
8. -- RadioShack's bankruptcy auction decisions are heading to court. Hedge fund Standard General, RadioShack's largest shareholder, has increased its bid to about $165 million to buy 1,740 former RadioShack stores. Standard General plans to run the stores along with Sprint (S) - Get Report, the mobile phone company. Liquidators are also bidding to sell the stores, including all remaining stock and fixtures.
The deal with Standard General would save 9,000 jobs, the company says. But some other creditors feel the deal to sell stores to Standard General and Sprint would not pay enough cash on RadioShack's debts.
RadioShack has also proposed selling personal information on 117 million customers to raise money. However, 23 states have objected to that plan.
The auction must be approved in court before its results are final.
9. -- The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed extending its oversight of high-frequency trading. The rule changes would give the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, greater authority over such traders. The new regulations say that broker-dealers who trade in off-exchange markets would be required to join a national securities association. Now the broker-dealers are allowed to conduct unregulated trades off of the main exchanges.
Michael Lewis' 2014 book, Flash Boys, detailed the Wild-West atmosphere of high-frequency trading.
10. -- The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - Get Report is selling a 25% stake in Citizens Financial (CFG) - Get Report, its U.S. unit, for $3.2 billion. RBS will still maintain a 45.6% share of the company, though. RBS may also lay off workers in an effort to focus on the U.K. market.
RBS stock was down 0.19% in premarket trading.