Stock market news: Opening bell, October 30, 2018

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects Samjiyon County.Reuters/KCNAHere is what you need to know. 

Trump is readying tariffs on the final $257 billion worth of Chinese goods. The Trump administration is preparing to levy tariffs on the final $257 billion of Chinese goods in case trade talks at the G20 summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping fail in late November.

The Chinese yuan hits its lowest level in a decade. The onshore Chinese yuan fell to 6.9741 per dollar in overnight trading, its weakest since May 2008. 

The US is on track to issue the highest amount of debt since the depths of the recession. The federal government is projected to issue $1.34 trillion of new debt in 2018 — the most since the depths of the Great Recession — according to Treasury Department projections released Monday. 

Betting against FAANG stocks has made traders $5.5 billion during the brutal October sell-off. Short sellers of FAANG stocks have seen $5.52 billion in mark-to-market profits since the beginning of October, a return of 17.14% on an average short position of $32.2 billion, according to data from S3 Partners, a financial-analytics firm.

IBM is paying a “rich valuation” for Red Hat. “Rich valuation likely keeps others on sidelines,” Jefferies analyst John DiFucci said in a note sent out to clients on Monday. “At $190 per share, IBM is acquiring Red Hat at an EV/LTM subscription revenue of 12.3x, or 10.7x EV/NTM. We are surprised by this multiple given that historically IBM has been extremely disciplined with its acquisitions.”

Evan Spiegel named a new chief business officer and then gave someone else the job two days later. The Snap CEO named Kristen O’Hara, its vice president of sales, to the role of chief business officer and then two days later gave the position to Jeremi Gorman, who headed Amazon’s advertising sales effort. O’Hara has since left the company. 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway just made another fintech investment. Berkshire Hathaway made a $400 million investment in the Brazilian payments platform StoneCo, according to the Wall Street Journal. The deal comes just a few months after Berkshire invested $300 million in the Indian mobile-payment platform Paytm. 

Stock markets around the world are mostly higher. Japan’s Nikkei (+1.48%) led the advance in Asia and Britain’s FTSE (+0.14%) clings to gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.48% near 2,654.

Earnings season rolls on. Coca-Cola, Fiat Chrysler, General Electric, Mastercard, and Under Armour are among the names reporting ahead of the opening bell while Cheesecake Factory, EBay, and Facebook release their quarterly results after markets close. 

US economic keeps coming. S&P home prices will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and consumer confidence will cross the wires at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 3 basis points at 3.12%.