Stock market news: Opening bell, November 13, 2018

A
firefighter battles a fire along the Ronald Reagan Freeway, aka
state Highway 118, in Simi Valley, California.
AP/Ringo H.W. Chiu

Here is what you need to know.

China is sending a senior official to the US to try and defuse
the trade war. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will
fly to Washington with the hopes of meeting senior officials
before the informal talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi
Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. 

Trump is once again moving closer to imposing auto
tariffs. Trump on Tuesday will meet with his
trade team to discuss a Commerce Department report on auto
tariffs, according to Bloomberg. He previously threatened to
impose a 25% tariff on all autos and auto parts coming into the
US as part of his negotiations with trading partners including
the European Union and Canada. 

Morningstar’s $207 billion CIO breaks down why investors have
‘significantly overpaid’ for the biggest tech stocks — and what
they should be doing with their money. In an
exclusive interview with Business  Insider, Morningstar
Chief Investment Officer Daniel Needham explains why investors
should be looking at defensive stocks right now.  

General Electric hits a post-financial-crisis
low. Shares touched $7.72 apiece — their lowest
since March 2009 — after CEO Larry Culp told CNBC that he felt a
sense of “urgency” to cut the company’s leverage. 

Creditors urge Sears to shut down all of its stores.
Unsecured creditors, in a filing, slammed the retailer’s
plan to stay in business as “nothing more than wishful thinking”
and “an unjustified and foolhardy gamble with other people’s
money.”

AT&T is ending contracts with a group of dealers who sell
DirecTV products. AT&T has notified many
longtime residential dealers, who sell DirecTV products and
services including satellite, broadband, and phone services that
their contracts will expire on December 1, 2018.

The world’s biggest maker of Bitcoin-mining hardware wants to go
public, but there are questions over its
profits. Bitmain, the world’s largest
manufacturer of chips in the machines used to mine bitcoin, in
its filing to go public in Hong Kong, reported 2017 profits of
$701.4 million, but the Financial Times reports previous funding
rounds showed profits that were significantly higher. 

Wall Streeters are probably going to get bigger bonuses this
year. Workers up and down Wall Street are in
line for bigger bonuses this year, with equity traders set to see
their extra pay up by as much as 20%, according to the
compensation consultant Johnson Associates.

Stock markets
around the world are mixed. Japan’s Nikkei
(-2.06%) was hit hard in Asia and Germany’s DAX (+0.64%) leads
the gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.55% near
2,741.

Earnings reports keep coming. Cronos, Home
Depot, and Tyson Foods report ahead of the opening bell while
Tilray releases its quarter results after markets close.