Stock market news: Opening bell, September 25, 2018

Participants
make human towers or “Castellers” during the Saint Merce
celebrations in San Jaime square in Barcelona,
Spain.
AP/Emilio
Morenatti

Here is what you need to know. 

Trump’s trade war with China takes on a military dimension with
fighter jet arms sale to Taiwan.  The US has
approved a $330 million arms sale to China’s neighbor Taiwan in a
move set to increase tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The
10-year is flirting with its highest level in more than 7
years. The benchmark yield is up 2 basis points
at 3.109% on Tuesday, and will be at its highest level since July
2011 if it clears 3.111%

The world’s super rich families are turning their backs on hedge
funds. The amount of money invested by family
offices into hedge funds fell for a third straight year, and now
accounts for just 5.7% of all investments in the sector,
according to UBS’ Global Family Office Report.

Ray Dalio outlines his scenario for the next
recession. “We’re about in the seventh inning
of a nine-inning game,” Ray Dalio, the founder and cochief
investment officer of Bridgewater Associates told Business
Insider CEO Henry Blodget. “We’re in the later part of the cycle,
the part of cycle in which monetary policy is tightening and
there’s not much capacity to squeeze out of the economy.”

Sirius XM agrees to pay $3.5 billion in stock for
Pandora. The deal, which has an implied price
of $10.14 a share — a 13.8% premium to Pandora’s 30-day
volume-weighted average price — and includes a “go-shop”
provision, will create the world’s largest audio-entertainment
company.

Sears’ CEO is making a last-ditch effort to avoid
bankruptcy. Sears CEO Eddie Lampert and
his hedge fund, ESL Investments, want creditors to restructure
$1.1 billion of debt that is coming due over the next two years
and the company’s board of directors to sell $1.5 billion
worth of real estate and divest $1.75 billion of
assets. 

Both of Instagram’s cofounders are
quitting. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the
cofounders of Facebook’s Instagram app who are currently the
company’s respective CEO and CTO, are leaving after “growing
tensions with Mark Zuckerberg over the direction of the product,”
Bloomberg says.

Nike reports after the closing bell. The
sneaker giant is expected to earn $0.63 a share on revenue of
$9.94 billion. 

Stock markets
around the world trade mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng (-1.62%) lagged in Asia and Germany’s DAX (+0.15%) leads a
quiet session in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.17%
near 2,924.

US
economic data flows. FHFA home prices and
Case-Shiller home prices will both be released at 9 .am. ET
before consumer confidence crosses the wires at 10 a.m. ET.