Nov. 19 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know
Here are 10 things you should know for Thursday, Nov. 19:
1. -- U.S. stock futures were rising Thursday, building on gains made Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled it could raise interest rates next month.
European stocks rallied Thursday, following Asia higher, amid mounting optimism that any rate increases by the Fed won't roil markets or the global economy.
2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. on Thursday includes weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EST, the Philadelphia Fed Index for November at 10 a.m., and Leading Indicators for October at 10 a.m.
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3. -- U.S. stocks on Wednesday rose after the minutes from the Fed'sOctober meeting raised the chances of a December rate hike and gave investors, and businesses, the ability to plan for the inevitable move.
The S&P 500 rose 1.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.4%, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.8%.
4. -- Pfizer (PFE) - Get Report is in advanced talks to buy Allergan (AGN) - Get Report for as much as $380 a share, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Allergan, the Botox maker, would be valued as high as $150 billion under the transaction. It would be the drug industry's largest-ever deal, according to Bloomberg.
The companies aim to announce an agreement as soon as Monday, the people said. The price being discussed is $370 to $380 a share, two of the people said.
However, the U.S. Treasury Department's letter on tax inversion deals, released on Wednesday, could delay the final agreement and change the terms of any transaction, another person told Bloomberg.
Buying Allergan, which has its legal domicile in Dublin, could let New York-based Pfizer relocate outside the U.S. for tax purposes, in what would be known an an inversion.
5. -- Square's initial public offering was priced at $9 a share, a deep discount to the target of $11 to $13 a share that was set last week.
The mobile payments processor's valuation of $2.66 billion is less than half the $6 billion Square commanded during its last round of private-equity fundraising in 2014.
Before paying its investment bankers and other fees, Square raised $231 million in the IPO, instead of the $282 million to $346 million that the San Francisco company had been seeking.
Square is scheduled to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol " (SQ) - Get Report ."
6. -- The IPO for Match, which owns a group of dating companies such as Tinder, was priced below expectations at $12, raising $400 million.
Match will begin trading Thursday under " (MTCH) - Get Report ."
Match is valued at around $4.2 billion, including debt.
The company is owned by media mogul Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) .
7. -- Yahoo! (YHOO) is being pressured byactive investorStarboard Value, which is calling on the company to halt the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba (BABA) - Get Report and instead sell its beleaguered Internet business.
In a letter it sent Yahoo! late Wednesday, Starboard said the planned spinoff of more than $20 billion in shares of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, now carries too much risk, The Wall Street Journal reported. Last year, Starboard urged Yahoo! to make the separation.
The letter, which was reviewed by Journal, expresses frustration with Yahoo!'s response to the activist. Yahoo! is among Starboard's largest positions, according to people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported.
Yahoo! had no immediate comment, the newspaper said.
8 -- Volkswagen (VLKAF) will discuss initial recall plans in meetings Thursday and Friday with U.S. and California regulators, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency told the Journal.
The German automaker faces a Friday deadline for proposing how it will fix nearly half a million cars tainted by illegal software.
Volkswagen also is expected to provide details of deep spending cuts on Friday, according to the Journal.
9. -- Salesforce.com (CRM) - Get Report , a provider of enterprise cloud computing solutions, posted adjusted profit of 21 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter, above Wall Street expectations, as revenue rose 24%.
The company raised its guidance for its current fiscal year.
10. -- Earnings are expected Thursday from Best Buy (BBY) - Get Report , Gap (GPS) - Get Report , Fresh Market (TFM) , J.M. Smucker (SJM) - Get Report , Splunk (SPLK) - Get Report and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) - Get Report .