Stock market news: Opening bell, September 28, 2018

Ethnic
Miao women in traditional costumes take part in a tug of war to
celebrate a local festival at a village in Rongshui Miao
Autonomous County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
China.
Reuters/CHINA STRINGER
NETWORK

Here is what you need to know. 

The SEC sues Elon Musk. The Securities and
Exchange Commission is suing Tesla CEO Elon Musk on charges
that he made “false and misleading statements” when tweeting that
he had secured funding to take the electric-car company private
at $420 a share, and seeks to bar him from being the head of a
public company. 

Tesla plunges. Shares are down more than 10%
ahead of Friday’s opening bell. 

Stanley Druckenmiller lays out how the next financial crisis
might happen. The billionaire
investor says conditions are ripe for a financial crisis
that could put the last one to shame.

Howard Marks explains where we’ll find “ground zero” of the next
financial crisis. The legendary investor says
the seven worst words in investing are “too much money chasing
too few deals” and explains where things will go wrong during the
next crisis.  

Companies are sticking to a practice that Warren Buffett and
other business titans warn is damaging the
economy. Last year, S&P 500 companies
issued forward guidance at the fastest rate since 2008.

Investors betting against this year’s best-performing S&P 500
stock have lost $1 billion over the last few
months. Wagers against AMD, which has gained
115% in 2018 and is the top-performing S&P 500 stock this
year, have lost more than $1 billion since the beginning of July,
according to data from the financial-analytics firm S3
partners. 

Italian markets are getting hammered after its populist
government agreed to an EU-defying budget. The
benchmark FTSE MIB lost 3.8% and the 10-year yield spiked above
3.25% after the Italian government said it had agreed to set
Italy’s budget deficit at 2.4% of GDP — far above the 1.6%
level that technocratic finance minister Giovanni Tria had
lobbied for.

Stock markets
around the world trade mixed. China’s Shanghai
Composite (+1.06%) led the gains in Asia while the EURO STOXX 500
(-0.7%) is under pressure. The S&P 500 is set to open little
changed near 2,910.

Earnings reports trickle out. Blackberry
reports ahead of the opening bell.

US economic data is heavy. Personal income,
personal spending, and PCE prices will all be released at 8:30
a.m. ET before Chicago PMI and University of Michigan consumer
confidence cross the wires at 9:45 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET
respectively. The US 10-year yield is down 2 basis points at
3.03%.