Morning Brief

Wall Street is set for a big drop at the open in a worldwide selloff

Key Points

BY THE NUMBERS

U.S. stock futures were sharply lower this morning, with the Dow poised for a triple-digit loss. Overseas stocks were down as well. Lower oil prices and the tax reform battle in the US are among the factors being assessed by investors. (CNBC)

* The catalyst that could push crude oil to $60 this week (CNBC)

Target (TGT) shares were losing about 5 percent in premarket trading after the retailer issued a . However, Target did report better-than-expected earnings, revenues, and same-store sales for its third quarter.

* (CNBC)

Quarterly SEC filings show that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) cut its stake in IBM (IBM) further; this time by 32 percent or just over 17 million shares. Berkshire also increased its stake in Apple (AAPL), adding nearly 4 million shares to its holdings. (CNBC)

* (CNBC)

General Electric (GE) was under pressure in the premarket, after falling more than 12 percent over the past two sessions following the unveiling of new CEO John Flannery's turnaround plans. GE touched its lowest level in nearly six years in Tuesday trading. (WSJ)

* GE's market cap surpassed by Boeing for first time ever (WSJ)

Airbus has turned its fortunes around at the Dubai Airshow with a mammoth order of 430 jets worth a total $49.5 billion. Investor Bill Franke of Indigo Partners signed the preliminary order this morning to buy planes, comprising 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos. (CNBC)

* (CNBC)

It's a busy day for economic data, starting with three reports at 8:30 a.m. ET: October retail sales, consumer prices, and the Empire State manufacturing index. September business are out at 10 a.m. ET.

* Mortgage applications rise as rates briefly fall back (CNBC)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

House Republicans will vote on their tax reform bill tomorrow, aiming to take a step toward overhauling the tax code, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed. President Trump plans to go to Capitol Hill tomorrow to make the case for tax cuts before the vote. (CNBC)

The proposed Republican tax reform bill will include repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate requiring most Americans to have some form of health insurance or pay a tax penalty, GOP leaders say. (CNBC)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that he wanted to work with the White House to explore ways to keep embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore from taking office if he wins a special election in Alabama. (Reuters)

* House Speaker Paul Ryan says Moore should 'step aside' (AP)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified that he only recalled a meeting with Trump campaign advisers, during which the prospect of a face-to-face Trump-Putin meeting was raised, after he read news reports about the event. (CNBC)

* Russia used hundreds of fake accounts to tweet about Brexit (The Guardian)
* US shares technical details on North Korean hacking campaign (Reuters)

Zimbabwe's military said today it had seized power in a targeted assault on "criminals" around President Robert Mugabe who were causing social and economic suffering, but gave assurances the leader and his family were "safe and sound." (Reuters)

A gunman carrying a semi-automatic weapon and two handguns opened fire at multiple locations across a small Northern California community on Tuesday, killing four people before he was slain by police. At least 10 other people were wounded. (Reuters)

Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting returned home, where they may be disciplined by the school as a result of the international scandal. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the school is weighing its options. (AP)

A couple of weeks after Papa John's CEO blamed the NFL leadership for sagging pizza sales, the company apologized, saying it supports players' right to protest. It also denounced neo-Nazis after a white supremacist publication claimed Papa Pap John's as its official pizza. (CNBC)

In response to system outages at CVS Health pharmacies, Non-Executive Chairman David Dorman the problems are due to an "internal network infrastructure issue." The cause is not known yet.

Fashion retailer Forever 21 says there has been unauthorized access to data from payment cards used at some of its stores. It said the results were part of an investigation it started after it received a third-party report suggesting the unauthorized access. (Reuters)

Amazon (AMZN) plans to launch an online streaming service bundling popular U.S. broadcast and cable networks because it believes it cannot make enough money on such a service. (Reuters)

* (CNBC)

STOCKS TO WATCH

U.S. buyout fund Cerberus has taken a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank (DB). The investment makes Cerberus the fourth-largest shareholder after China's HNA group, Qatar, and money manager Blackrock (BLK).

AstraZeneca (AZN) achieved another milestone in rebuilding its drug portfolio with U.S. approval of a drug for severe asthma as the company battles to put patent losses behind it. That follows a positive recommendation by European regulators last week.

Cardinal Health (CAH) sold its China drug distribution business to Shanghai Pharmaceuticals for $557 million. Shanghai is China's third largest drug distributor.

BHP Billiton's (BHP) annual meeting is set for tomorrow, and activist investor Elliott Management has received key support in its push for significant change at the mining giant. Fund management firm Aberdeen, the third biggest shareholder in BHP, said it fully supports Elliott as it pushes to get BHP to sell U.S. oil and gas assets and make other changes.

Alphabet's (GOOGL) flagship search engine Google is once again the default search engine for Mozilla's Firefox browser in the U.S. Verizon's (VZ) Yahoo had been the default search engine for Firefox.

Madison Square Garden (MSG) has put the WNBA's New York Liberty basketball team up for sale, saying it was actively seeking a buyer to take over immediate operations of the team.

WATERCOOLER

Taylor Swift's sixth studio album "Reputation" has become the top-selling album of 2017, outselling Ed Sheeran's "Divide." Swift sold 1.05 million copies in the U.S. over the first four days of the release. (Billboard)