Opening Bell, November 19, 2018

Scott
Olson/Getty

Here is what you need to know.

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn faces
arrest in Japan as Nissan ousts him over financial
misconduct. Nissan accused Ghosn and another board
member of misrepresenting salaries “over many years” and Ghosn of
using company assets for personal use.

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended taking
billions of dollars from Google to make it the default search
engine on the iPhone. The comments come amid
concerns that the partnership undermines Apple’s no-nonsense
approach to privacy.

Facebook comms staffers are
reportedly fuming at COO Sheryl Sandberg after they were thrown
under the bus over a smear campaign. Last week, a
bombshell New York Times report exposed the company’s chaotic
leadership, after which CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed the comms
team.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch says
stocks are ripe for a “flash crash.” The firm
outlines what final steps must occur for the market to be plunged
into widespread chaos.

One Wall Street strategist
says the stock market is past the no return. Barry
Bannister of Stifel says interest rates have moved past a
threshold that was exceeded before the equity bear markets in
2000 and 2008 — and that it’s already too late for the Fed to
act.

China’s former top trade
negotiator warns Beijing is hurting itself in Trump tariff
battle. Long Yougtu said on Sunday that China has
been too politically driven in its talks so far, and should take
a more pragmatic approach, focused on the economic realities of
the trade war.

Pessimism towards the Australian
dollar is starting to lift. Speculative short
positioning in the Australian dollar has reduced quite sharply in
recent months, according to data from the US CFTC.

NASA will retire its new
mega-rocket if SpaceX or Blue Origin can safely launch their own
powerful rockets. NASA is building
a super-heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System to send
astronauts back to the moon.

Stock markets around the world are
trading mixed. The Shanghai
Composite (+0.4%) declined in Asia, while Germany’s DAX (-0.1%)
led mixed performance across Europe. The S&P 500 is set to
open down 0.4% near 2,733.