10 things we need to know before the opening bell in USA

1. Stocks are at record highs. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rallied into record territory on Tuesday.

2. Snap is below $15. Shares settled at $14.73 on Tuesday, making for the first close below the $15 mark. Snap is down 13.3% since its March 1 initial public offering.

3. IBM misses on revenue. IBM saw revenues of $19.29 billion in the second quarter, missing the $19.47 billion that Wall Street was expecting. Cloud revenue rose 15% versus a year ago to $3.9 billion.

4. United Continental beats, but rising labor costs weigh. The airline beat on the top and bottom lines, but says its results were impacted by a more than 3% jump in operating costs.

5. SolarCity's cofounder is leaving Tesla. Peter Rive, cofounder of SolarCity and Elon Musk's cousin, is leaving Tesla just months after his company was acquired for $2 billion.

6. Four Apple contractors are accusing Qualcomm of antitrust violations. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, Wistron Corp, Compal Electronics Inc and Pegatron Corp say that Qualcomm violated two sections of the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law, Reuters reports, citing a filing in US District Court for the Southern District of California.

7. BP is thinking about an IPO for its US pipeline assets. The oil giant is thinking about creating a master-limited partnership (MLP) for some of its US pipeline assets in the US Gulf and Midwest, Reuters says, citing a company release.

8. Stock markets around the world are higher. China's Shanghai Composite (+1.36%) led in Asia and France's CAC (+0.2%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed at 2,462.

9. Earnings reports flow. Morgan Stanley reports ahead of the opening bell while American Express and Qualcomm release their quarterly reports after markets close.

10. US economic data is light. Housing starts and building permits will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 2.27%.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Jr Trader Ivan Ivanov

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