Stock market news: Opening bell, October 5, 2018

U.S.
first lady Melania Trump looks at a zebra during her game drive
at the Nairobi National Park in Nairobi,
Kenya.
Reuters/Carlo
Allegri

Here is what you need to know. 

Here comes the jobs report. The US economy
is expected to have added 185,000 nonfarm jobs as the
unemployment rate slipped to 3.8%, according to economists
surveyed by Bloomberg. Average hourly earnings are expected to
have increased 2.8% year-over-year. 

The 10-year is testing 7-year highs. The
benchmark yield hit a high of 3.227% on Thursday — a level last
seen in the spring of 2011 — and is currently holding just below
3.21%. 

Stock markets
around the world are lower. Japan’s Nikkei
(+0.8%) trailed in Asia and Germany’s DAX (-0.78%) lags in
Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed near
2,902. 

Why a $603 billion investor is bracing for a rocky end-of-year
ride for markets. Neil Dwane, a portfolio
manager and the global strategist at Allianz Global Investors
explains why the conditions that rocked stocks in February
haven’t disappeared even though markets have rebounded, and why
they could soon make a comeback.

Elon Musk mocks the SEC. “Just want to that the
Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work,” the
Tesla CEO tweeted Thursday. “And the name change is so on point!”

Super Micro Computers crashes after report says it sold data
servers compromised by Chinese spies. Shares
plunged 41% after a Bloomberg report said Chinese spies
implanted tiny chips in server motherboards that were purchased
from the company by firms including Amazon and Apple.

Apple strongly denies bombshell report that Chinese spies were
able to secretly implant chips in its
servers. In a statement out Thursday afternoon,
Apple said it has never found any “malicious chips” or
vulnerabilities in “any server” and says it has not had contact
with the FBI about an investigation. 

Snap tumbles below $8 for the first
time. Shares fell as much as 7.8% Thursday — to
a record low of $7.56 apiece — after Evercore analyst Anthony
DiClemente said Instagram is “irreversibly” hurting the
company. 

Square is bankrolling merchants to let them extend credit to
shoppers. The company will extend credit to
customers of merchants for purchases of between $250 and $10,000
through its consumer-side lending service “Square Installments,”
Reuters reports.  

The owner of MoviePass just freed up room to sell more
stock. Helios & Matheson has reached an
agreement with creditors that would reduce the number
of shares it needs to set aside for notes it issued that can
be converted into stock, potentially paving the way for more
share sales. The MoviePass parent has increased its share count
by 80,000% since July.