10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

10 Things Before Opening Bell

May 02, 2014

Good morning! Here's what you need to know.

AstraZeneca Rejects New Pfizer Bid. The British firm rejected a ratcheted-up $106 billion offer from the NYC giant before 6 a.m. Eastern Friday, deeming it inadequate.

Jobs Day. Non-farm monthly payrolls for April come in at 8:30. Consensus is for 218,000 from 192,000 prior. "The continuing recovery in employment growth after the winter damage ought to be clearly visible in today’s April payroll report," Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macro writes in a note this morning. "We look for a 200K increase in both private and headline payrolls, the best since November, and we would not be surprised by a stronger performance."

Factory Orders. Consensus is for an increase of 1.4%, down slightly from 1.6% prior.

Berkshirefest. Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting kicks off today in Omaha. They'll also report earnings.

Spain Debt. Yields on Spanish notes fell below 3% for the first time since 2005.

Stocks Heavy. Stocks accounted for 67% of employees' new contributions into retirement portfolios in March, according to new Aon Hewitt data. That's the highest percentage since March 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Jerry Verseput, a financial planner in Folsom, Calif., said he has let the stock allocations in clients' 401(k)s ride well above normal levels as the market continues to rise. Though he said that big gains like those of the S&P last year would normally drive him to rebalance portfolios by selling stocks, he doesn't see places where he would rather put the money. 'What am I going to do, buy bonds?' he said. 'Equities are doing fine. But if interest rates rise, bonds could be hurt badly.'"

London Bubble. The penthouse at One Hyde Park sold for $236 million. "Grosvenor Group, the Duke of Westminster’s London-based property company, this week warned that the capital’s housing market might be facing a “bubble”, adding that it believed the likelihood of a market correction was increasing," the FT's Kate Allen reported. "Grosvenor has scaled back its London residential development plans by £240m as a result."

Germany's Russia Business. The Wall Street Journal reports large German firms like Siemens and BASF are resisting further screw-turning against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. "As the Ukraine crisis has worsened, German officials have faced a barrage of telephone calls from senior corporate executives, urging them not to take steps that would damage business interests in Russia, people familiar with the matter say."

Earnings. In addition to the aforementioned Berkshire, Chevron, and CVs all report. Expedia and LinkedIn reported earnings last night that missed expectations., and shares are down more than 2% pre-market.

Markets. U.S. futures are higher. Stocks in Europe and Asia were mixed. The dollar gained 0.22% against the yen.

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Below is a Q&A with Jeff Johnson, a meteorologist and the chief science officer at Schneider Electric.

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BUSINESS INSIDER: What is the connection between more extreme weather and climate change?

JEFF JOHNSON: The more volatile weather experienced in recent years seems to be most frequent when the jetstream buckles and stalls in a given location for an extended period of time. Recent research postulates that greater warming in the arctic region in the past decade is reducing the north to south temperature difference between the northern and middle latitudes. The weaker temperature difference can result in a slower, weaker jetstream that is more susceptible to becoming wavier and stalling. Extended warm and cold periods along with extreme rainfall are more likely to occur with these types of stalled patterns. These patterns are not new or unheard of; they just seem to be happening more lately. This could be a natural cycle or one that is also being influenced by human activities.

BI: What areas are most and least prepared to deal with this onslaught?

JJ: Extreme weather can impact many areas. These events have produced significant impacts as society faces greater risks from increasing exposure (growth) and vulnerability (sensitivity to weather and its impacts). Aging infrastructure, demands on limited resources and greater population exposure can be felt in many industries. Energy, transportation, agriculture, cities and water resources are especially impacted by extreme weather. Each area has shown increasing awareness to their vulnerabilities and are beginning to learn how to better plan for mitigation or adaption in the future.

BI: Are there yet any cost estimates for what the damage in this or the coming years might be?

JJ: Average annual losses have been increasing in recent years and are approaching $20 billion annually in the U.S. Experts disagree over what is driving the increase in damages. Contributing factors may include an increasing frequency and/or magnitude of extreme weather events, increasing population, disproportionate increase in disasters in poorer areas, urbanization and growth into more areas, economic globalization, aging infrastructure and environmental degradation. Exact damage totals each year will be highly dependent on the frequency and location of impactful severe weather events, but society faces growing vulnerability.

BI: Are there any technologies out there that can help mitigate the effects?

JJ: For longer term solutions the primary mitigation efforts revolve around building resiliency in the infrastructure. In shorter time frames the best approach is to install or deploy more sensors to better detect extreme weather events while they are happening. Decision support systems can then help in collecting, processing and displaying the data in real time as events unfold. Pre-planned responses can quickly be used to help deploy resources and manage the event in an efficient manner. Many different business sectors are increasing their use of weather monitoring and forecast technologies to help them plan for and react to severe weather.

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