Stock market news: Opening bell, August 30, 2018

Qantas
planes
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Here is what you need to know. 

US economic growth gets revised higher. The US
economy grew at an annual rate of 4.2% in the second quarter,
according to an advanced estimate released Wednesday by the
Commerce Department. 

Air freight volumes point to a continued slowdown in global
trade. Freight tonne kilometers — or the weight
of volume transported multiplied by distance traveled — grew a
seasonally adjusted 2.1% year-over-year in July, the smallest
increase since May 2016, according to data released Thursday by
the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

One of Wall Street’s most dreaded recession signals is being
wildly distorted. The 2y10y yield curve in
particular — and the difference between short and long-term bonds
in general — holds less predictive power than is widely believed,
according to new research from the San Francisco Fed, cited by
Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 

Salesforce earnings blow away Wall Street expectations, but
guidance disappoints. Salesforce beat on both
the top and bottom lines, but its adjusted third-quarter
earnings-per-share guidance of $0.49 to $0.50 fell short of the
$0.54 that Wall Street was expecting. It’s adjusted EPS guidance
beat for the full year.  

Panasonic is pulling its European headquarters out of the
UK. The Japanese electronics giant is moving
its European headquarters to Amsterdam in an effort “to avoid
potential tax issues” linked to Brexit, according to the Japanese
media organization Nikkei. 

Survey Monkey announces plans to go
public. SVMK, the parent of online polling
company Survey Monkey, filed for an initial public offering on
Wednesday. It does not yet know how many shares  it will
sell, or at what price. 

Qantas is convinced its new planes will fly non-stop from Sydney
to London in 20 hours. Qantas’ Project Sunrise
involves configuring an aircraft so that it can fly about 300
passengers and their luggage further than any regular service so
far, with fuel in hand for unexpected headwinds and emergencies.

Stock markets
around the world are lower. China’s Shanghai
Composite (-1.14%) led the losses in Asia and Germany’s DAX
(-0.96%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down
0.23% near 2,907.

Earnings season has a last hurrah. Abercrombie &
Fitch, Campbell Soup, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General report
ahead of the opening bell while American Outdoor Brands and
Lululemon release their quarterly results after markets close.

US economic keeps coming. Personal income and
spending and initial claims will all be reported at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.88%.