Stock market news: Opening bell, October 16, 2018

U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Saudi Foreign Minister
Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Reuters/Leah Millis/Pool

Here is what you need to know.

The US budget deficit balloons. The deficit
jumped 17% to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018, according to the
Treasury Department. It was the largest deficit since 2012. 

Chinese inflation surged to its highest level in
months. Consumer prices in China grew at a 2.5%
year-over-year clip, the fastest since February, data released
Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. 

A $150 billion investment chief breaks down a ticking time bomb
in markets that traders are foolishly
ignoring. Brad McMillan — the chief investment
officer of the $150 billion Commonwealth Financial Network
explains why he is worried about the number of US companies
whose credit ratings are sitting dangerously close to junk
levels.

America’s biggest companies have larger worries than Trump’s
tariffs. Third-quarter earnings season is here
and America’s biggest companies that have already reported are
most concerned about FX headwinds impacting their results.

Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen is dead at
65. Allen, a philanthropist who owned the
Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, died after a battle
with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Twilio is spending $2 billion to buy one of its publicly traded
partners. The maker of communication tools
for websites has agreed to pay $2 billion — a 40% premium to
Monday’s closing value — for the email-marketing platform
SendGrid. 

Canopy Growth spikes to a record high as Canada gets ready to
legalize weed. The Canadian cannabis producer
soared more than 14% Monday — to as high as $57 a share — two
days before Canada is set to legalize marijuana.   

Stock markets
around the world are gaining ground. Japan’s
Nikkei (+1.29%) was out front in Asia and Germany’s DAX (+0.25%)
leads in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.18% near
2,756.

Earnings reporting picks up. Domino’s Pizza,
Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, and Morgan Stanley report
ahead of the opening bell while IBM and Netflix release their
quarterly results after markets close.

US economic flows. Industrial production and
capacity utilization will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET before the
NAHB Housing Market Index and JOLTS Job Openings cross the wires
at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 2 basis points at
3.17%.