10 things you need to know in markets today

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know in markets on Friday.

1. The European Commission’s chief negotiator has ruled out a key
part of Theresa May’s Brexit customs
plan, effectively killing her attempt to preserve
frictionless trade. Michel Barnier said
the EU could not agree to let another country collect
European customs duties on its behalf – a key principle
of the British plan for the future relationship.

2. Asian stocks struggled to gain traction on Friday, following a
mixed Wall Street finish and as the worsening Sino-U.S. trade
dispute kept investors in the region cautious, despite signs of
rapprochement between the United States and
Europe. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 percent. The CSI300 of Chinese
shares fell 0.5 percent.

3. Former Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne had reportedly been
undergoing treatment for an illness a year before his
death. According to the Wall Street Journal, the
hospital in Switzerland where Marchionne died issued a statement
saying that “[d]ue to serious illness, he had been the recipient
of recurring treatment for more than a year.” “Although all the
options offered by cutting-edge medicine were utilized, Mr.
Marchionne unfortunately passed away,” University Hospital
Zurich added.

4. Qualcomm’s proposed $44 billion acquisition of NXP
Semiconductors collapsed on Thursday — more than two years after
it was first announced. The deal fell apart after
Chinese regulators let the deadline for approval pass without
signing off. “There were probably bigger forces at play here
than just us,” Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said in an
interview prior to the deadline. “We are still fans of the deal
and the logic behind the deal.”

5. Young investors are betting that Facebook’s earnings
disaster and subsequent stock landslide are
presenting a buying opportunity to get the stock at an attractive
valuation. Data pulled from Robinhood — the
free stock-trading app popular with young adults — shows roughly
27,000 more users had snapped up the stock Thursday morning
compared to the same time a week ago.

6. Bank of America has filled one of its most senior investment
banking positions with a 25-year industry vet from
Barclays. Jill Schwartz is joining Bank of
America as the executive vice chairman of Global Corporate and
Investment Banking, according to a memo from investment bank head
Christian Meissner obtained by Business Insider.  

7. The proportion of voters who favor a referendum on the final
terms of any Brexit deal has overtaken those who do not for the
first time, according to a YouGov poll for The
Times. When they were asked whether there
should be a referendum on the final terms of any Brexit deal, 42%
said there should be a fresh vote while 40% said there should
not. 

8. BP has agreed to buy U.S. shale oil and gas assets from global
miner BHP Billiton for $10.5 billion, giving the British oil
major a much bigger footprint in oil-rich onshore
basins. BP also increased its quarterly
dividend for the first time in nearly four years and announced a
$6 billion share buyback, to be partly funded by selling some
upstream assets.

9. Improbable, the buzzy British tech startup backed by SoftBank,
has doubled its valuation after taking strategic investment from
Chinese gaming giant NetEase. The company has
raised $50 million (£38 million) from issuing new shares, and
NetEase has also acquired some existing shares, giving it a small
stake in the startup.

10. Chipotle surged more than 6% in after-hours trading
Thursday after the burrito chain posted earnings that topped Wall
Street expectations. For the second quarter,
Chipotle said it earned an adjusted $2.87 per share, while
analysts had expected $2.76. It also posted revenue of $1.267
billion, compared to the consensus Wall Street estimate of
$1.261. Cheaper avocado prices were to thank for the extra
earnings power, the company said, citing food costs that were
down 150 basis points to 32.6% of revenue.