5 Things You Must Know Before the Market Opens Friday

U.S. stock futures rise after Citigroup tops earnings estimates and U.S. retail sales jump in June.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

Updated with information on U.S. retail sales and consumer inflation.

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Here are five things you must know for Friday, July 15:

1. -- U.S. stock futures rose Friday after Citigroup (C) - Get Report topped earnings estimates and U.S. retail sales jumped in June.

European shares tumbled following a terrorist attack in Nice, France, that killed at least 84 people.

A heavy truck drove at high-speed late Thursday into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day. The attacker, identified by a police source as a 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman, also opened fire before officers shot him dead, Reuters reported.

French President Francois Hollande called the attack terrorism, and announced three days of mourning in France that will begin Saturday.

Donald Trump was expected to announce Friday morning that he has chosen Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to be his vice-presidential running mate but postponed the event "in light of the horrible attack in Nice, France."

Asian shares had a strong day, finishing with gains after China reported that its economy expanded at a steady 6.7% pace from April to June, defying expectations for a slight slowdown as state investment bolstered output.

Oil prices in the U.S. early Friday rose 0.2% to $45.77 a barrel.

U.S. retail sales for June rose 0.6%, above economists' estimates of 0.2%. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in June; estimates called for an increase in the index of 0.2% to 0.3%.

U.S. stocks on Thursday set another record with the S&P 500 clinching its fourth record close in a row as hopes for global monetary stimulus kept hopes high on Wall Street. 

The benchmark index gained 0.52%, securing a record close of 2,164. The Dow Jones Industrial Average scored a record close for its third day in a row, climbing 0.73% to 18,506. The Nasdaq added 0.57%.

2. -- The final bids for Yahoo!'s (YHOO)  search, email, advertising and media operations are due Monday, with the board set to make a decision soon afterward, TheNew York Times reported, citing people briefed on the process. 

Bidders for Yahoo!'s operations include Verizon (VZ) - Get Report and AT&T (T) - Get Report , several private-equity firms and a Quicken Loans co-founder, Dan Gilbert, who is getting financial backing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, the Times reported.

Wall Street expects the business to fetch as much as $6 billion, including intellectual property and land, the Times reported.

3. -- Xerox (XRX) - Get Report privately rejected a bid to merge its document business with R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD) - Get Report , The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The proposal called for a deal that would have been structured as a so-called Morris Trust, a set-up in which Xerox would get a slight premium, one person told the Journal. The R.R. Donnelley proposal called for its executives to take control, and for several hundred million dollars in new cost cuts, the person added.

The Xerox board reviewed the proposal with its advisers before telling R.R. Donnelley Thursday it wasn't interested, believing its own plan to separate into two companies by the end of the year is less risky, the people told the Journal.

4. --  Citigroup (C) - Get Report  posted second-quarter profit of $1.24 a share, above Wall Street estimates of $1.10. The stock rose 1.5% in premarket trading. Citigroup earned $1.51 a share a year earlier.

Wells Fargo (WFC) - Get Report  earned $1.01 a share in its second quarter, in line with estimates. The stock fell 0.9%. The bank earned $1.03 a share in the second quarter of 2015. 

Citigroup and Wells Fargo are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells C or WFC? Learn more now.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - Get Report kicked off earnings season for the big banks on Thursday, posting profit of $1.55 a share, beating estimates of $1.43 a share even as net income slipped 1% to $6.2 billion. Total revenue climbed 3% to $25.2 billion, beating projections.

5. -- T-Mobile (TMUS) - Get Report announced Thursday that its customers would get free, unlimited data for Pokemon Go for a year.

"Ready to catch them all!? #TMobileTuesdays is giving you unlimited data use for #PokemonGo!," CEO John Legere tweeted.

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