Morning Brief

Wall Street poised to open higher as Dow tries to break losing skid

Key Points

BY THE NUMBERS

Wall Street was poised for a higher open as the Dow tries to break a four-day losing streak and avoid its longest skid since March. However, both the Dow and S&P 500 were on pace for a positive September and a sixth straight month of gains. Investors today will be focusing on the unveiling of the GOP's tax reform plan. (CNBC)

*Three signals investors should get 'cautious' (CNBC's Trading Nation)
*Cramer: Sell-off in top stocks isn't based on fundamentals (CNBC)

Shares of Dow component Nike (NKE) were sharply lower in premarket trading after the athletic footwear and apparel maker posted its slowest quarterly sales growth in almost seven years due to intensifying competition. Revenue was, however, essentially in line with estimates and earnings beat. (Reuters)

On the economic data front, the government is out with August durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. ET. The National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales for August at 10 a.m. ET. The Energy Department issues its usual Wednesday look at oil and gasoline inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET. (CNBC)

*Mortgage applications weaken as interest rates hit highest in a month (CNBC)

According to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) latest global competitiveness report, global economies remain at risk from further shock and are "ill-prepared" for the next wave of "automation and robotization." (CNBC)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

President Donald Trump supports the framework for tax reform that the so-called Big Six will unveil today, according to two senior administration officials, cementing Republicans' pivot to tax reform following the demise of the health-care bill. (CNBC)

*Some Republicans fear their health-care losing streak could carry over to tax reform (CNBC)

The Senate
will not hold a vote this week on the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, kicking the issue into possibly next year, or even later. "We're gonna come back to this after taxes," Sen. Lindsey Graham said. (CNBC)

Conservative former judge Roy Moore easily defeated Alabama's incumbent and Trump-backed candidate Sen. Luther Strange in a Republican Senate primary runoff, marking the first time in five years that a sitting U.S. senator has lost a primary. (CNBC)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the Trump administration's priorities as it prepares to tackle "bigger" and "more difficult" trade issues with China are better market access, less protectionism and protecting intellectual property rights. (AP)

*Ross praises China's 'gigantic' step on North Korea (CNBC)
*Ross: Tax reform will boost the US economy by a full percentage point (CNBC)

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was bitterly disappointed by a U.S. decision to slap heavy duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, which are partly made in Northern Ireland. The U.S. Commerce Department imposed a preliminary anti-subsidy 220 percent duty on the jets. (CNBC)

*US slaps high duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complains (CNBC)

Puerto Rico is rushing to patch up its health-care system, a week after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory. Puerto Rico is suffering from widespread power losses, damaged hospitals and few medical supplies. (WSJ)

*Why Puerto Rico faces a monumental recovery effort (USA Today)
*Devastation in Puerto Rico from Maria as seen from above (NY Times)

A San Francisco City Attorney has filed a lawsuit against Equifax for a massive data breach that affected 143 million people. The attorney, Dennis Herrera, said Equifax made a bad situation worse, preventing affected Californians from taking measures to protect themselves. (CNBC)

Ford (F), which has been criticized for not moving faster to develop a strategy for developing autonomous-drive vehicles, announced a partnership with ride-sharing service Lyft involving the deployment of self-driving cars. (CNBC)

Ride-hailing service Uber says it will stop operating in the Canadian province of Quebec next month, pulling out to avoid following tough new regulations announced last week. The company expects to cease operations in the province on Oct. 14. (CNBC)

*Uber shareholder sues rail-hailing firm and ex-CEO over alleged fraud (WSJ)

Twitter (TWTR) said it would begin testing the idea of doubling its current 140-character limit for tweets. It will let a random sample of users send out longer tweets, with the test running for an unspecified period of time in all languages except for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. (CNBC)

Apple told CNBC it will be releasing a fix for a disruptive sound in the earpieces of some iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus smartphones during phone calls, an issue reported by The Verge. (CNBC)

STOCKS TO WATCH

Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google unit are involved in a feud over videos from Google's YouTube unit. Amazon said its Echo Show devices can no longer play YouTube videos because Google has stopped supporting the service.

Sonic (SONC) may have suffered a credit card breach, with the restaurant chain saying it had been notified of "unusual activity" involving credit cards used for purchasing food.

Monsanto (MON) is having difficulty convincing weed scientists to attend a summit this week, according to a Reuters report, as it attempts to convince regulators that its dicamba herbicide is safe to use. Monsanto is fighting a number of lawsuits over crop damage linked to dicamba.

Micron Technology (MU) beat estimates by 19 cents with adjusted quarterly profit of $2.02 per share, and the chip maker's revenue also beat forecasts. Micron also gave an upbeat current quarter forecast, aided by a jump in memory chip prices.

WATERCOOLER

Happy 19th birthday to Google. Upon clicking today's Doodle, we invite you to explore 19 surprises we've launched over the past 19 years. (Google)