Opening Bell: 10.9.18

Stocks Retreat as Treasury Yield Hits 7-Year High: Markets Wrap [Bloomberg]
As the yield touched 3.25 percent, both the S&P 500 and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index looked poised for a fourth day of declines. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index notched a seventh straight drop, even as stocks in Shanghai rose following their biggest selloff in more than three months. The yuan gained in onshore trading after sliding a day earlier -- a move that has prompted concern within the American administration. Japanese stocks slumped.

IMF cuts its global growth forecasts, citing trade tensions between the US and its trading partners [CNBC]
The IMF said the global economy is now expected to grow at 3.7 percent this year and next year — down 0.2 percentage points from an earlier forecast, according to the fund's latest World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
The report — published twice a year in April and October — is widely read by both public and private sectors globally for the IMF's assessment of the world economy. The latest edition was released as thousands of finance officials and professionals gather in Bali, Indonesia, for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

Google Plus Will Be Shut Down After User Information Was Exposed [NYT]
Google did not tell its users about the security issue when it was found in March because it didn’t appear that anyone had gained access to user information, and the company’s “Privacy & Data Protection Office” decided it was not legally required to report it, the search giant said in a blog post.
The decision to stay quiet, which raised eyebrows in the cybersecurity community, comes against the backdrop of relatively new rules in California and Europe that govern when a company must disclose a security episode.

US threatens to block trade talks with China at G20 [FT]
US officials have warned China that Donald Trump will not engage in trade talks with Xi Jinping at next month’s G20 summit if Beijing does not produce a detailed list of concessions, according to two people briefed on negotiations between the countries.
The Chinese, however, say they have such a list but would not present it without some guarantee of it being received in a stable political climate in Washington, including a point person with a mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Trump administration, according to the two people.
US officials have been frustrated by what they see as Beijing’s unwillingness to discuss substantive “structural issues” related to its economic and trade policies. Beijing has been similarly irritated by the erratic approach of the Trump administration, and the inability of US cabinet officials to negotiate binding deals.

Saudi Arabia Still Dreams of Taking Its Oil Company Public [DealBook]
For now, Saudi Aramco will remain private. And while the kingdom has turned to a patchwork of other solutions to replace the proceeds from the stock sale, its ambitions may have to wait.
“In the gulf, there’s a history of a head of state making some dramatic pronouncement that gets a lot of coverage in the press, then quietly rolling it back in months or years,” said Jim Krane, a fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University.
Referring to Prince Mohammed, he added, “I think he got ahead of himself.”

German firms would face billions in extra tariffs in hard Brexit: study [Reuters]
A hard Brexit would cause huge difficulties for tens of thousands of companies in Europe and hundreds of thousands of employees in Britain and the European Union, Lang said.
He noted that many companies were preparing for a hard Brexit and some wanted to suspend production in Britain from April as delivery routes could not be secured and some were moving their headquarters from Britain, adjusting their legal frameworks and looking for new transport routes.
Lang said there was no overall figure for how much companies had spent on preparing for Brexit but some individual pharmaceutical and chemical companies had spent up to 100 million pounds ($130 million) preparing for Brexit.

Trian Considers a Takeover Bid for Papa John’s [WSJ]
The activist hedge fund recently contacted the pizza chain to collect information as it explores a possible bid, the people said. Trian is one of several parties to express interest since Papa John’s put itself up for sale amid an acrimonious fight with its founder, John Schnatter, who remains on the board and owns nearly 30% of the company’s shares.
There is no guarantee that Trian will make an offer or that Papa John’s will ultimately be sold. There are several other potential bidders, some people familiar with the situation added, including companies and private-equity firms.

Police called to Domino's after family stage sit-in protest in row over cold pizza [Mirror]
"She said if I wasn't happy to ring customer services the next day as there was nothing else she could do.
"So we took our kids and the cold food back to the Barnwood store where it was delivered from.
"We walked in and my husband dropped the boxes on the counter and the manager refused to speak to us."
Ms James filmed what was going on and spent the next 90 minutes waiting around for a replacement or a refund of £21.16, with her 10-year-old daughter.
But nothing was forthcoming from the manager.
"Every now and again she would come over and tell us to wait or leave then ignore us," added the mum-of-two.
"Then at 11pm she told us to leave else she would press the panic button. I said if she gave us a refund or a replacement that we have been waiting for then we would leave.