July 6 Premarket Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures are lower Wednesday as European shares tumble and the British pound hits a new 31-year low.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

If you'd like to receive "10 Things" in your email inbox every morning, please register for TheStreet Alerts and follow me.

Here are 10 things you should know for Wednesday, July 6

1. -- U.S. stock futures pointed lower Wednesday as European shares tumbled and the British pound hit a new 31-year low on continued worries over Great Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

The pound was recently at $1.2928, down 0.72%. The currency has declined on concerns that the Brexit could cause a steep slide in the British commercial real estate value and hurt the wider economy

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.9% after sliding as much as 3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 1.2%. Stocks in mainland China and Thailand closed higher.

Crude oil in the U.S. fell 0.6% early Wednesday to $46.30 a barrel, after sinking almost 5% on Tuesday.

2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday includes the Trade Balance for May at 8:30 a.m. EDT, the ISM Services Index for June at 10 a.m., Crude Inventories for the week ended July 2, at 10:30 a.m., and minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's June 15 meeting at 2 p.m.

3. -- U.S. stocks on Tuesday declined as Wall Street returned from the long Independence Day weekend to find worries over Brexit again gaining traction.

The S&P 500 fell 0.68%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.61%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.82%.

4. -- U.K. industrial investor Melrose Industries said it would pay $2.81 billion for diversified manufacturer Nortek (NTK)

The transaction is the most significant cross-border deal by a U.K. company since the Brexit vote and will be financed by a fully underwritten £1.66 billion ($2.1 billion) rights issue by the buyer. Classified as a reverse takeover because of the size of the target, the deal gives Melrose a company which made 90% of its revenue in North America, allowing it to diversify in the wake of an expected Brexit-related slowdown in its home market.

Melrose agreed to buy Notek for $86 a share, a premium of 38% to Nortek's closing price on Tuesday.

5. -- Sanofi (SNY) - Get Report , the French drugmaker, reached a deal with the U.S. Army to speed up the development of a vaccine against the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Sanofi is the only major drugmaker working on a vaccine against Zika, which has been linked to birth defects and neurological disorders, according to Reuters. A number of smaller biotech firms and other groups are also active in the field.

The research and development agreement with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the U.S. gives Sanofi access to a promising new vaccine, made from inactivated virus, that has already produced impressive results in mice, Reuters reported.

6. -- Medivation (MDVN)  , the U.S. cancer drug company, reached a confidentiality pact with Sanofi as part of exploring a sale that would be open to other bidders

Reuters reported earlier that Medivation was in talks to provide confidential information to Sanofi, adding to similar agreements Medivation has with Pfizer and Celgene, which have also expressed interest in an acquisition.

The move comes after Medivation rejected Sanofi's $9.3 billion offer in April.

7. -- Tesla Motors (TSLA) - Get Report alerted regulators to a fatality in one of its electric cars in partial self-driving Autopilot mode nine days after it crashed, the company said Tuesday, defending its decision not to make the accident public before a federal investigation was announced.

Tesla learned about the crash of the Model S sedan in Florida "shortly" after the May 7 crash, and on May 16 it disclosed the accident to the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a probe on June 30.

Tesla raised at least $1.46 billion from investors on May 18-19 with a stock offering, as the Autopilot investigation was unfolding, according to Reuters.

The company knew of the crash by the time of the capital raising but its own investigation wasn't yet complete and it had not yet been informed by the government of its probe, according to a timeline described by a Tesla spokeswoman, Reuters reported.

8. -- Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Report said it's planning a small price increase on select beverages on July 12, but that price adjustment was prematurely entered into the point-of-sale systems late last week at its company-operated stores.

"As a result, some customers were charged incorrectly," Starbucks said in a press release. "The maximum any customer could have been overcharged is 30 cents per beverage."

Starbucks is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells SBUX? Learn more now.

9. -- Apple's (AAPL) - Get Report new iPhone, expected to be released in September, will start with 32GB of storage, replacing the 16GB tier, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with Apple's plans.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

10. -- Earnings are expected Wednesday from  Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) - Get Report .

Walgreens Boots Alliance is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells WBA? Learn more now.

Loading ...