Wake Up Wall Street: European Gains Held Down by Pound's Advance

Here are five things you must know for Wednesday, April 19.

Author:: TheStreet Staff
Publish date:: Apr 19, 2017 7:01 AM EDT

This is what you need to know before the bell:

1. European stocks traded mixed on Wednesday with shares in London off slightly. Gains were held down by the two-day advance of the pound, which has risen against a weaker U.S. dollar after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa called for an early national election

2. IBM (IBM) - Get Report was falling 4.5% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the computing giant said first-quarter earnings fell 13% to $1.8 billion and revenue declined for the 20th consecutive quarter.

3. Yahoo! (YHOO) posted earnings of 10 cents a share in the first quarter, a reversal from a year earlier loss of 10 cents a share. Adjusted earnings in the quarter were 18 cents a share, topping forecasts by 2 cents

4. Akzo Nobel (AKZOY) said Wednesday it will return up to €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) to shareholders this year and separate its Specialty Chemicals business within 12 months as part of its efforts to fend off a $26 billion takeover approach from PPG Industries (PPG) - Get Report .

5. The Murdoch family is leaning toward announcing that television host Bill O'Reilly won't return to the air at Fox News, according to various reports

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.