Stock market news: Opening bell, November 15, 2018

British
Prime Minister Theresa May in London on
Wednesday.
Matt
Dunham/AP

Here is what you need to know.

The British pound is under pressure. The pound
extended declines against the dollar Thursday, trading down 1.5%,
after a key cabinet member joined Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab
in resigning in protest of Theresa May’s plan to leave the
European Union.

Bitcoin tumbles to its lowest level in over a year.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell more than 13% Wednesday
to as low as $5,3222 a coin. On Thursday, bitcoin cash, the
fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is set to experience
a hard fork amid a fight that is playing out between its two
biggest proponents, Craig Wright and Roger Ver.

Warren Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway takes a new stake in JPMorgan.
The firm bought nearly $4 billion worth of the bank’s shares and
increased its holdings of other financial companies, according to
a third-quarter regulatory filing.

Apple slides into a bear market. The stock price of
the world’s most valuable company has dropped near $187, more
than 20% from its October peak, amid analyst downgrades and
concerns about weaker demand for iPhones.

Uber’s losses are widening and its growth is
slowing. While revenue is still climbing steadily,
the third-quarter increase of 38% was down from a 63%
year-over-year jump in the second quarter, according to data
released to select media outlets.

Traders haven’t been this worried about tech stocks for 14 years,
and it’s a negative signal. The spread between the
Cboe Nasdaq Volatility Index, or VXN, which tracks the tech-heavy
Nasdaq 100, and its S&P 500 counterpart, known as the VIX, is
its widest since 2004.

Levi’s is reportedly planning to go public. The
denim apparel maker aims to make its initial public offering in
the first quarter of 2019 at a valuation of about $5 billion,
according to CNBC.

US
economic data is on deck. Initial jobless claims,
retail sales, Empire State manufacturing, and the Philly Fed
manufacturing survey all cross at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Earnings
reporting continues. Ahead of the market open,
Walmart reported better-than-expected profits but missed on
revenue. Nordstrom, Nvidia, and Sonos report after the closing
bell.

Stock futures
are higher. Dow futures are up 102 points, or 0.4%,
while S&P 500 futures are up 0.3%.