Stock market news: Opening bell, November 9, 2018

Riders
perform during a freestyle motocross show at the EICMA exhibition
motorcycle fair in Milan, Italy.
AP/Luca Bruno

Here is what you need to know.

The Fed holds, expects to keep hiking rates
gradually. The Federal Reserve held its key
interest rate in a range between 2% and 2.25% at the conclusion
of its two-day meeting on Thursday, and signaled it would
continue raising rates gradually amid stable economic
growth. 

Soybean inventories pile up amid US-China trade
battle. The Department of Agriculture on
Thursday lowered its projections for soybean exports by 160
million bushels to 1.9 billion for the 2018-2019 marketing year
as China has turned to South America and elsewhere for the legume
during its trade war with the US.  

A closely watched measure of market risk has reversed course for
the first time since the financial crisis. The
Sharpe ratio, which is used to evaluate the return of an asset
compared to its level of risk, has flipped “conclusively” and
strategists John Bilton and Karen Ward of JPMorgan Asset
Management explain how it’s a massive opportunity for investors.

Goldman Sachs’ former
CEO attended a meeting at the center of the $6.5 billion
Malaysian wealth fund scandal. The former
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was present at a meeting that
helped set up the $6.5 billion 1MDB Malaysian sovereign wealth
fund that is now the subject of a global corruption probe,
Bloomberg says. There is no evidence Blankfein knew that the
Malaysian businessman Jho Low, who has been implicated in a money
laundering scandal tied to the fund, would be attending the
meeting.

Disney beats. The entertainment giant beat on
profit and revenue as it saw success from its Marvel sequel “Ant
Man and the Wasp” and as more visitors went to its parks, Reuters
says. 

Dropbox’s guidance tops estimates. The
file-hosting company reported third-quarter results that beat on
both the top and bottom lines and gave Q4 revenue guidance of
$367 million to $370 million that was ahead of the $363.7 million
that analysts were expecting.   

An American has a shot at winning the World Chess
Championship. The 26-year-old Fabiano Caruana
will face three-time champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway as he
attempts to become the first American to since Bobby Fischer in
1972 to win the World Chess Championship.

Stock markets
around the world are in the red. Hong Kong’s
Hang Seng (-2.39%) led the losses in Asia and Britain’s FTSE
(-0.67%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down
0.55% near 2,791.

Earnings reporting slows down. Athenahealth
reports after markets close.

US economic data keeps coming. PPI will be
released at 8:30 a.m. ET while wholesale inventories and
University of Michigan consumer confidence cross the wires at 10
a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 3 basis points at
2.31%.