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Bitcoin cash appears to be successfully navigating a planned hard fork. At press time, the majority of the network nodes (roughly 82 percent) have transitioned to new software (version 0.16.0 or later) that includes rules aimed at making the protocol's reward distribution more attractive to the miners that secure its blockchain. Executed at roughly 21:00 […]

• Private-equity firm Roark Capital Group has offered to buy Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. 
• The news on Monday sent Buffalo Wild Wings shares up by as much as 28% in after-hours trading.

Buffalo Wild Wings shares surged by as much as 28% in extended trading on Monday following a Wall Street Journal report that the company received a takeover offer. 

The private-equity firm Roark Capital Group offered $2.3 billion for Buffalo Wild Wings, the WSJ's Dana Mattioli reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The restaurant chain was worth $1.8 billion as at the market close on Monday.

Barclays is reportedly working as Roark's financial adviser, while Goldman Sachs is working with Buffalo Wild Wings. 

In June, the company announced that CEO Sally Smith would step down at the end of 2017 amid an activist campaign by the hedge fund Marcato Capital Management. Marcato had accused Buffalo Wild Wings of ripping off franchisees, and nominated three directors to its board. 

Buffalo Wild Wings has been hurt by rising chicken-wing prices. Its cost of sales improved, however, after it ended a half-price wings Tuesday promotion and replaced it with a "buy-one, get-one" offer for boneless wings. 

The company raised its forecast for full-year earnings when it reported third-quarter results late in October.   

SEE ALSO: Buffalo Wild Wings killed one of customers' favorite deals — and it's paying off for the chain as chicken wing prices soar

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

• Tesla announced that it will reveal a big-rig semi-truck trailer in Los Angeles next week.
• The new vehicle could help place it ahead of its competitors, RBC Capital Markets said.
• View Tesla's stock price movements in real time here.

Tesla’s planned unveiling of its new line of semi-trucks may be an easy way for it to leverage its existing technology and capital and give it an edge over the competition, Joseph Spak, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said.

The commercial vehicle (CV) could give Tesla the "biggest bang for their buck" because the company need only tap into their Model 3 sedan's prototype, and recreate that for a bigger vehicle, Spak said, in order to deliver lower costs and higher reliability for the commercial truck driver. This also helps the company get closer to its mission of reducing emissions. 

"For CVs, the decision tends to be purely economic," in terms of cost of ownership and utilization, Spak wrote in a note.

Electronic trucks could cost less in terms of maintenance, as well as cost savings in fuel, he said. The biggest things to look out for at Tesla's November 16 event are the semi-truck's range, costs, weight and towing capacity, and its autonomous capabilities, Spak notes. He also said that its target for delivering the vehicles, as well as the associated costs, could play a large part in the truck's reception. 

This is welcome news for the company after the first half of the year has been marred by production delays of its Model 3 sedan, which has sent its shares on a roller coaster ride.

"While we don’t have meaningful reason to doubt that Tesla can eventually achieve its targets, doing so in a timely manner without some growing pains could prove challenging," Spak said.

He added that while the company's long-term prospects may not be impacted, the company's failure to hit its near-term targets could "hold back the stock" or offer a "more favorable risk/reward entry point."

Shares of Tesla are up 46.92% this year.

To read more about what analysts want to see in Tesla's future, click here.

SEE ALSO: MORGAN STANLEY: Tesla's future will be decided by 3 questions

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

• GiveDirectly, a charity focused on direct cash transfers, has launched its 12-year experiment on basic income.
• The charity will test whether giving people money, no strings attached, will help people and communities or leave them worse off.
• Other basic income experiments are popping up across the globe.

GiveDirectly, a charity that has been financing direct cash transfers to poor villages in East Africa since 2008, announced Monday that it has officially launched the largest universal basic income (UBI) experiment in history.

Beginning November 13, 40 villages (roughly 6,000 people) will receive roughly $22.50 per month, no strings attached, for 12 years. At the same time, 80 different villages will get the same amount for just two years, another 80 will get a lump sum equal to the two-year amount, and 100 villages will get no money.

The study will produce some of the most comprehensive data yet about what happens when people are given money for nothing. It'll help answer questions such as: Do people stop working? Do they start businesses? Are they more likely to spend money on drugs and alcohol — or education?

The study will also collect community-wide data to learn if the added financial security reduces negative aspects of poverty like violence and theft.

"The past 19 months since we announced our plans to test UBI have been remarkable," GiveDirectly CFO Joe Huston wrote on the organization's blog. "The debate over basic income continues to rage, from skeptics who call it 'a senseless act of preemptive self-sabotage' to optimists calling it 'to the 21st century what civil and political rights were to the 20th.'"

Basic income is so new that researchers have yet to collect good data about the system in the developed world. Other experiments have sprang up to address that gap.

In Oakland, California, the startup accelerator Y Combinator recently wrapped a pilot study in which several people received $1,000 to $2,000 a month. Y Combinator is preparing to launch a larger trial across two states sometime in 2018.

"Now it's time for us to do our jobs, and wait to learn," Huston wrote. "We expect to get the first round of results in within the next year or two, and then more than a decade of learning to follow as we track these communities."

SEE ALSO: A California city is launching the first US experiment in basic income — and residents will get $6,000 a year

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NOW WATCH: We just got a super smart and simple explanation of what a bitcoin fork actually is

• Roku, a video streaming platform and hardware company, blew past Wall Street estimates in its first earnings report as a public company on Thursday.
• Since then, the stock has more than doubled.
• Founder Anthony Wood, who owns 27.3% of Roku, is now a billionaire. 

Shares of Roku have skyrocketed 125% in the three days after the streaming-video platform company released its first earnings report as a public company.

Anthony Wood, the 51-year-old founder and CEO, owns 27.3% of the company, according to public filings. The surge in Roku’s stock price has grown Wood's net worth by $652 million to $1.07 billion, according to Bloomberg.

In its first earnings report as a publicly-traded company, Roku crushed estimates, reporting an adjusted loss of $0.10 on revenues of $124.78 million. Wall Street was expecting a loss of $0.40 per share on revenue of $118.75 million.

Shares rose 13% on Friday, and another 26% on Monday  after the company announced discounted streaming sticks ahead of the holiday season.

Shares of Roku have gained 82% since they began trading in September.

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Stocks inched higher as investors sought out more details around tax reform and the Federal Reserve's pace of interest rate hikes.

Slight gains in major indexes overshadowed a 7.5% decline in General Electric shares after the company cut full-year 2018 earnings guidance. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all climbed roughly 0.1%.

First up, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 23,439.70, +17.49, (+0.07%)
• S&P 500: 2,584.84, +2.54, (+0.10%)
• Nasdaq: 6,757.60, +6.66, (+0.10%)
• US 10-year yield: 2.40%, unchanged
• WTI crude oil: $56.73, -0.01, -0.02%

1. General Electric's turnaround plan has investors dumping the stock. The plan involves narrowing the focus of the company's core businesses, as well as trimming the size of its board and cutting its dividend in half.

2. Qualcomm rejected Broadcom's record-breaking $105 billion takeover attempt. But the company's decision to decline what would be the biggest-ever tech deal simply opens the door for the inevitable proxy battle that will ultimately decide the fate of the chipmaker.

3. Brookfield wants to buy mall owner GGP for $14.8 billion. The Canadian investor, which already has a 34% stake in GGP, is offering $23 a share for the outstanding shares it doesn't already own.

4. Roku's stock has more than doubled since its first earnings report — making its founder a billionaire. The shares have skyrocketed 125% over three days.

5. Chipotle's stock dropped after an actor said he 'almost died' after eating at the chain. The company denied any link between Jordan's illness and the chain, but the reaction shows just how susceptible Chipotle is to concerns about food safety.

ADDITIONALLY:

New analysis blows a huge hole in Steven Mnuchin's argument that Trump's tax plan will pay for itself

Trump threatens to pull out of NAFTA, but there's a reason he's probably bluffing

Apple will release 3 new iPhones next year — including a super-sized iPhone X

Another senior executive is leaving Uber — this time a top official in India, its second biggest market

It looks as if Janet Yellen issued a point-by-point rebuke of Trump without ever mentioning his name

'Wall Street has gone completely mad' — One market bear forecasts a decade of stock losses

SEE ALSO: General Electric's turnaround plan has investors dumping the stock

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

• Shares of Nvidia have skyrocketed this year, which has left those betting against the company hurting.
• One bearish analyst upgraded his outlook on the company and says he got his previous calls wrong.
• Strong performance in the data center and gaming businesses have been a point of pride for Nvidia.
• Watch Nvidia move in real time.

Nvidia has been on a crazy upward burn, gaining 109.69% this year thanks to its strength in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. The meteoric rise has left those bearish on the company in the dust, and on Monday, one of those bears decided enough was enough.

"We have had calls in the past that have not worked out and we are likely going to have calls in the future that may not necessarily work out," Ambrish Srivastava, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients. "We have been reluctant to change our view, but now recognize that our Underperform call did not work out, either."

Srivastava raised his price target from $135 to $200, a 48% increase, and upgraded his rating from a sell to a neutral based on strengths in business areas where Srivastava predicted weakness.

Srivastava said that he had expected Nvidia's gaming business to slow this year. But, a deal to power Nintendo's breakout Switch console has helped the company outperform Srivastava's expectations. Nvidia's GPU business has gotten a boost from cryptocurrency miners this year too. They have been buying up Nvidia graphics cards in great quantities, hoping to speed up their computers and mine currencies like ethereum faster.

In Nvidia's last earnings report, it reported revenue of $2.653 billion. The data center portion of Nvidia's business, which sells chips and software to be used in developing artificial intelligence applications, was one of the best performing, growing 175% year over year. Companies like Amazon and Google have been strong Nvidia customers as they look to improve their data centers' ability to handle a flood of new AI systems.

"Given what is now perceived as a blue-sky opportunity that the company has in front of itself in AI, we see investors continuing to value the stock at a high premium to the [semiconductor] group," Srivastava said.

Nvidia was down 1.08% trading around $213.88 a share on Monday after Srivastava released his note.

Read more about Nvidia earnings.

SEE ALSO: Nvidia is rising after crushing earnings

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

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• General Electric's stock dropped as much as 7.1% on Monday after the company outlined its turnaround plan.
• The company's earlier announcement that it would cut its dividend sent shares higher initially, but the stock dropped into negative territory once details around the restructuring emerged.
• GE is looking for a shot in the arm, having fallen 35% year-to-date through the end of last week.

General Electric's plan to reconfigure its flailing business is being met with skepticism by investors.

The company's stock dropped as much as 7.1% on Monday after it laid out a corporate restructuring plan and trimmed full-year 2018 guidance.

GE outlined turnaround measures in an investor presentation, and they included:

• Focusing on power, aviation and healthcare equipment while exiting legacy businesses like lighting and locomotives
• Trimming the size of the company's board
• Revamping the company's compensation program
• Slashing the company's dividend in half, to $0.12 a share

And a turnaround is certainly needed. Even before Monday's drop, the stock had fallen 35% year-to-date, wiping out more than $100 billion in market value over the period. It's been a sore spot for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the 30-company index that counts GE as its worst-performing stock in 2017.

Based on their reaction on Monday, investors are waiting to see how these changes trickle down to the bottom line before building positions.

It was a turbulent morning overall for GE shares, which actually rallied on initial reports that the company was cutting its dividend. It's possible that investors were thinking that GE would take the money used on dividends and reinvest it into core businesses — a practice they've been rewarding since the start of 2016.

But a couple hours later, once GE chief executive officer John Flannery laid out the rest of the details outlined above and announced the cut to 2018 guidance, the shares took a sharp downward turn. 

Gautam Khanna, an analyst at Cowen who has a market perform — or neutral — rating on GE, called the message conveyed by the company "underwhelming." He is particularly worried about the company's cash flow throw 2018, despite the scaling-back of the dividend.

Stifel analyst Robert McCarthy was nonplussed by much of what GE laid out, saying that the dividend cut was expected, as was the company's exit from several key verticals. He too reiterated his hold rating.

In an interesting twist of fate, traders betting against GE missed out on the opportunity to reap huge profits from the stock drop. Short sellers — or those wagering on a share decline — trimmed their position by $44 million in the two months leading up to Monday's decline, according to data compiled by financial-analytics provider S3 Partners.

They do, however, still have about $100 million held short. So going forward, it'll be important to keep an eye on how that level changes, to gauge sentiment shifts in GE's stock.

SEE ALSO: General Electric just slashed its dividend — and that could save its stock from free fall

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. Sign up here to get the best of Business Insider delivered direct to your inbox.

Broadcom announced its $130 billion takeover intentions for Qualcomm. Disney was revealed to be discussing a bid for most of 20th Century Fox, a deal that could cost $40 billion. Asset manager Brookfield proposed to buy the mall owner GGP for $14.8 billion.

All within a little over a week. 

Not long before that, power companies Dynegy and Vistra completed an all-stock merger worth more than $10 billion, and Rockwell Automation rejected a nearly $30 billion takeover bid from Emerson Electric. 

Is the mega-deal back? Here's our story.

In markets news, General Electric slashed its dividend by 50%, sending the stock lower. There could soon be a new way to bet on the rise of blockchain. And one market bear forecasts a decade of stock losses.

It looks like Janet Yellen issued a point by point rebuke of Donald Trump — without ever mentioning his name. And if Trump's new tax plan passes and you make $500,000 a year, you're about to get screwed.

In tech news, Apple's "geniuses" are straining under the iPhone's success, but revamped stores could ease the pressure. The current draft of the Senate tax reform bill would tax stock options and RSUs upon vesting. And Snapchat's latest feature converts its lenses and filters into shopping vehicles — and fixes its biggest flaw to date.

Bill Gates is investing $100 million to fight Alzheimer's, a deadly condition that becomes more common every year.

Lastly, Alibaba's shopping holiday that's bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined just brought in $25 billion — this is what it looked like.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I spent a day trying to pay for things with bitcoin and a bar of gold

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• Nasdaq has teamed up with Reality Shares to launch an index tracking companies in the booming blockchain industry.
• Blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, has become a popular buzzword on Wall Street as the prices of digital coins and tokens continue to climb. 

Exchange operator Nasdaq has teamed up with Reality Shares, an investment marketplace, to launch an index to track companies in the red-hot blockchain industry. 

The smart-beta index called the Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index, is planned to provide the basis for a ETF by Reality Shares, according to a press release on the news. 

The product has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Smart-beta products have been on the rise on Wall Street as investors seek out alternative investments that are more affordable than managed portfolios, but better-performing than passive index-tracking ETFs. 

"The smart-beta approach targets factors, rather than individual stocks," according to Cary Stier, the global investment management sector leader for Deloitte, the global consultancy and tax advisory firm."They're looking to profit off of momentum and volatility."

Blockchain is best known for being the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but it could have applications outside the market for digital coins.

As a decentralized ledger, blockchain can facilitate exchanges of assets without the need of a middle-man. As such, it has gripped the attention of Wall Street with companies such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley all participating in at least one blockchain consortium. 

IBM has partnered with a slew of businesses, including Walmart and Maersk, to help track everything from food safety to mango shipments using blockchain technology. 

Instead of every single party — manufacturer, shipper, buyer, and any other intermediary — all relying on their individual paperwork to track a shipment from beginning to end, a blockchain would allow all stakeholders to see every step in an open, secure ledger.

"As these new applications are deployed, we believe these companies will most likely become disrupters in their industries, with potential to profit at the expense of laggard companies that do not deploy blockchain applications," said Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares.

SEE ALSO: A small band of trading specialists are taking calls about $50 million bitcoin deals

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NOW WATCH: This is what separates the Excel masters from the wannabes

• Singles Day is celebrated in China as an alternative to Valentine's Day.
• Alibaba pulled in more than $25 billion during this year's event.
• Shares are down 0.31% early Monday.
• Watch Alibaba's stock price move in real time here.

On Saturday, Chinese shoppers celebrated their romantic independence by spending more than $25.3 billion on Alibaba's e-commerce site during "Singles Day."

Shares of Alibaba are down 0.31% to $185.84 on the first day of trading following the event.

For scale, Singles Day was more than 25 times the size of Amazon's most recent Prime Day, where the company boasted more than $1 billion in sales. 

Singles Day started as an obscure holiday celebrated by college students in China. Alibaba saw it as an opportunity, and in 2009, it offered its first discounts to celebrate the holiday, turning it into a country-wide phenomenon in only a few years.

The scale of Singles Day is just enormous. At one point, the company was processing 325,000 orders a second. In the first two hours, Alibaba raked in $12 billion. It processed more than 1.48 billion transactions in total and has processed 812 million total delivery orders.

Combining Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales would total just 30% of Alibaba's sales during the 2018 Singles Day celebrations.

Alibaba is up 109.99% this year.

Read more about how Alibaba kick-started the huge shopping holiday.

SEE ALSO: Alibaba raked in $12 billion in two hours during the shopping holiday it helped create

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NOW WATCH: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble

• Bitcoin crashed more than 25% from Wednesday's all-time high of $7,721 to a low of $5,617 on Sunday, according to data from CoinDesk. 
• Over the weekend, bitcoin appeared to give up market share to bitcoin cash, a clone coin created to improve bitcoin's slower transaction speeds
• Briefly, bitcoin's market cap as a percentage of the total cryptocurrency market dipped below 50%.
• It was trading at $6,544, up 10.9% at 9:40 a.m. ET, according to Markets Insider data.. 

After a shaky weekend, bitcoin is king again but issues still hang over the digital currency. 

Bitcoin crashed more than 25% from Wednesday's all-time high of $7,721 a coin to a low of $5,617 Sunday. During its fall, bitcoin's market cap as a percentage of the entire crypto-market dipped below 50% for the first time since early October, according to CoinMarketCap.com. 

Bitcoin cash, on the other hand, witnessed an impressive rally that propelled the coin to a record-high of $2,500 early Sunday morning.

By Monday morning, however, the situation was flipped.

At 9:40 a.m. ET, bitcoin was trading up 10.9% at $6,544 and had regained its more than 50% command of the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin cash was trading down 20% at $1,262 per coin. 

Bitcoin cash spun out of the original bitcoin network in August. Backers of the upstart coin thought its design would better help bitcoin's scaling problem. As more folks have poured into bitcoin, transactions have gotten more expensive and slower on bitcoin's network. That's made it difficult for bitcoin to mature and truly rival the scale of larger incumbent payment systems such as Visa and MasterCard. 

AllianceBernstein noted some of the issues facing bitcoin in a note out to clients November 10. 

The financial services firm test drove bitcoin to compare it to similar networks, like PayPal. The firm didn't think the coin was able to hold a candle to its reputation as a quick and cheap way to send money internationally. 

"The bitcoin transaction required more steps, took more time, and was less intuitive than traditional services," the note said.

"The process of using bitcoin was significantly more complex and less intuitive than using traditional cross-border remittance service," the firm added. 

Despite these difficulties, bitcoin's command of the market gives it a huge leg up over its rival cryptocurrencies.

Matthew Goetz, the founder of cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital, told Business Insider that bitcoin's massive scale would require a competitor coin to have substantially better capabilities.

"It's something like Facebook," Goetz said. "If someone creates a new Facebook that has slightly better features, say 10% better. That's great, but network effects are strong. So, that new thing isn't going to kill Facebook."

Out of the more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies in existence, bitcoin appears to be getting the most attention from traditional Wall Street firms.

Two of the largest exchange groups in the world, for instance, are preparing to launch bitcoin futures in the short term and big trading firms have indicated they would provide liquidity to such a market place. 

SEE ALSO: We just got a glimpse of how bitcoin futures will work

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NOW WATCH: Tesla's biggest problem is one nobody saw coming

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Former U.S. trading commissioner Bart Chilton has said that bitcoin is "not a scam or fraud," according to a news report.

• General Electric is undergoing a number of changes as its new CEO tries to turn the company around.
• Among the changes are a 50% cut to the company's dividend and a reduction in the number of employees.
• The company announced its fiscal year outlook for 2018, which was lower than Wall Street's expectations. 
• Watch GE's stock price move in real time.

General Electric shares are down 5.03% to $19.47 on Monday after the company announced disappointing earnings guidance and a dividend cut of 50% to $0.12 per share, among other changes.

The company announced that it expects adjusted earnings of $1.00 to $1.11 per share for 2018, which was lower than Wall Street's expected $1.18.

The dividend cut is the latest in a string of decisions to reorganize the company with a focus on increasing profitability. CEO John Flannery announced on Friday that he would be cutting jobs across the company, focusing on the power and software arms of the business.

GE said it wants to cut $3 billion in costs by the end of next year, and investors seem to like the plan. Cutting dividends doesn't sound like a plan that would make shareholders happy, but companies that spend capital on the business instead of paying shareholders tend to perform better.

GE was one of the biggest dividend-paying companies before its cuts, distributing more than $8 billion to shareholders annually.

General Electric is down 34.66% this year.

Read more about the dividend cut at GE.

SEE ALSO: General Electric just slashed its dividend — and that could save its stock from free-fall

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Dave Lutz, head of ETFs at JonesTrading, has an overview of today's markets.

• Most global markets are red Monday morning.
• The US dollar is gaining in anticipation of a tax deal.
• Bitcoin is taking back some of the heavy losses from last week.

Here's Lutz:

 

Good Morning!  US Futures were higher, but leaking lower into the Red.  We have a heavy slate ahead of us this week – Fed, BoE, and BOJ heads speaking – Countries reporting GDP and CPI, and 30+ Sell-Side conferences to cope with.  It’s a wide sea of red in Europe, where the DAX is falling 0bp+ with every sector in the red.  Banks remain weak, with SX7E off 1%, while Utilities under pressure on EDF.  Weaker Sterling buoying FTSE, where Yield Sensitive sectors are bid.   In Asia, Nikkei continues to bleed, off 1.3%, not down over 4% from high tick 3 sessions ago - Hang Seng up 20bp and Shanghai up 40bp - KOSPI lost 50bp, but KOSDAQ ripped nearly 3% higher - Aussie down small, while All of Asia EM under pressure 

10YY retreating from 2.4% as last week’s heavy selling in Bunds subsides – Germany’s 10YY down 2bp and back under 40bp.  Tax Deal hopes have the DXY in rally mode, but the Greenback was just rejected from Friday’s highs against the basket.  All eyes on Sterling smashing south $1.31 and 100dma on potential leadership challenge to Theresa May, while the Euro is drifting around unch.  Yen firming to the dollar, while Commodity currencies are seeing some pressure.  Ore gained 50bp in China, adding to last week’s 5% pop – Notable Gold is bid despite the Dollar, maybe flows from Cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin off 25% in 4 days.   Lack of headlines from Saudi this weekend has Oil drifting near Friday’s lows into the OPEC monthly report, while Natty is firmly red, off 1.5%

Read about the 10 things you need to know today...

SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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NOW WATCH: A $6 trillion investment chief reveals the one area of the stock market to avoid

Dave Lutz, head of ETFs at JonesTrading, has an overview of today's markets.

• Most global markets are red Monday morning.
• The US dollar is gaining in anticipation of a tax deal.
• Bitcoin is taking back some of the heavy losses from last week.

Here's Lutz:

 

Good Morning!  US Futures were higher, but leaking lower into the Red.  We have a heavy slate ahead of us this week – Fed, BoE, and BOJ heads speaking – Countries reporting GDP and CPI, and 30+ Sell-Side conferences to cope with.  It’s a wide sea of red in Europe, where the DAX is falling 0bp+ with every sector in the red.  Banks remain weak, with SX7E off 1%, while Utilities under pressure on EDF.  Weaker Sterling buoying FTSE, where Yield Sensitive sectors are bid.   In Asia, Nikkei continues to bleed, off 1.3%, not down over 4% from high tick 3 sessions ago - Hang Seng up 20bp and Shanghai up 40bp - KOSPI lost 50bp, but KOSDAQ ripped nearly 3% higher - Aussie down small, while All of Asia EM under pressure 

10YY retreating from 2.4% as last week’s heavy selling in Bunds subsides – Germany’s 10YY down 2bp and back under 40bp.  Tax Deal hopes have the DXY in rally mode, but the Greenback was just rejected from Friday’s highs against the basket.  All eyes on Sterling smashing south $1.31 and 100dma on potential leadership challenge to Theresa May, while the Euro is drifting around unch.  Yen firming to the dollar, while Commodity currencies are seeing some pressure.  Ore gained 50bp in China, adding to last week’s 5% pop – Notable Gold is bid despite the Dollar, maybe flows from Cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin off 25% in 4 days.   Lack of headlines from Saudi this weekend has Oil drifting near Friday’s lows into the OPEC monthly report, while Natty is firmly red, off 1.5%

Read about the 10 things you need to know today...

SEE ALSO: 10 things you need to know before the opening bell

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Investors are running out of money — and that's bad news for stocks

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Bitcoin is in a recovery mode today, bouncing back from a sell-off that occurred after the suspension of the Segwit2x hard fork last week.

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After historically opposing changes to the Communications Decency Act's Section 230, web giants came out in favor of a proposed amendment to the law, which would punish a website for knowingly facilitating sexual exploitation. But, unlike the Interne...

• General Electric's board of directors announced it was cutting its dividend 50% to $0.12 a share.
• The company is said to be considering other cost-cutting measures. 
• This was the first dividend cut by GE since 2009.

General Electric's board of directors announced on Monday it is cutting its dividend in half  — from $0.24 to $0.12 a share.

“We understand the importance of this decision to our shareowners and we have not made it lightly.  GE Chairman and CEO John Flannery said in the release. "We are focused on driving total shareholder return and believe this is the right decision to align our dividend payout to cash flow generation.

Monday's announcement comes amid cost-cutting efforts at the company as Flannery looks to improve the bottom line. In its latest quarterly report, released in October, GE cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year to $1.05 to $1.10 a share, from its previous forecast of $1.60 to $1.70.

In addition to the dividend cut, the company is considering job reductions "across all of its diverse businesses," Reuters reports, citing sources. Layoffs of sales staff and other employees in its software division are said to be coming.

GE last cut its dividend in 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis. 

The company will discuss additional business and strategy updates at the GE Investor Update, beginning at 9 a.m. ET on Monday.

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Here is what you need to know. 

Trump touts progress on trade. "We've made some very big steps with respect to trade, far bigger than anything you know," Trump told reporters in Manila on the sidelines of a summit with leaders of Southeast Asian and East Asian nations.

The pound gets whacked following report Theresa May's leadership is in jeopardy. The British pound trades down 0.79% at 1.3092 following a report 40 Conservative members of parliament have agreed to sign a letter of no confidence in UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

China's banks are tightening lending. In October, Banks extedned 663.2 billion yuan ($99.83 billion) in net new yuan loans, Reuters reports, citing People's Bank of China data released on Monday. 

Venezuela meets with its creditors. The meetings are a last-ditch effort for the debt-ridden country to avoid default, Reuters says. 

Bitcoin is all over the place. The cryptocurrency hit a low of $5,605 late Sunday, down nearly 29% from Wednesday's high, as backers of Segwit2X sold the cryptocurrency in favor of bitcoin cash. Bitcoin has recouped a good portion of its losses and trades near $6,520.

Wall Street bonuses are going up. Bonuses could climb as much as 10% this year, Reuters says, citing a report from compensation firm Johnson Associates. 

Uber and Softbank finally reach a deal. While Uber hasn't disclosed Softbank's investment, Reuters reports that Uber will receive $1 billion (£765 million) in funding and SoftBank will purchase $9 billion (£6.8 billion) of existing shares.

Alibaba's Singles Day sets a record. The 24-hour event raked in $25.3 billion worth of sales, making for a 40% increase from last year's record. 

Stock markets around the world are lower. Japan's Nikkei (-1.32%) trailed in Asia and France's CAC (-0.24%) lags in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.14% near 2,579.

Earnings reports trickle out. Tyson Foods reports ahead of the opening bell. 

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Here is what you need to know.

Trump touts progress on trade. "We've made some very big steps with respect to trade, far bigger than anything you know," President Donald Trump told reporters in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of a summit with leaders of Southeast Asian and East Asian nations.

The pound gets whacked following report Theresa May's leadership is in jeopardy. The British pound trades down 0.79% at 1.3092 following a report that 40 Conservative members of Parliament have agreed to sign a letter of no confidence in UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

China's banks are tightening lending. In October, banks extended 663.2 billion yuan, or $99.83 billion, in net new yuan loans, Reuters reports, citing People's Bank of China data released Monday.

Venezuela meets with its creditors. The meetings are a last-ditch effort for the debt-ridden country to avoid default, Reuters says.

Bitcoin is all over the place. The cryptocurrency hit a low of $5,605 late Sunday, down nearly 29% from Wednesday's high, as backers of SegWit2X sold the cryptocurrency in favor of bitcoin cash. Bitcoin has recouped a good portion of its losses and trades near $6,520.

Wall Street bonuses are going up. Bonuses could climb as much as 10% this year, Reuters says, citing a report from the compensation firm Johnson Associates.

Uber and SoftBank finally reach a deal. While Uber hasn't disclosed SoftBank's investment, Reuters reports that Uber will receive $1 billion, or £765 million, in funding and that SoftBank will purchase $9 billion (£6.8 billion) of existing shares.

Alibaba's Singles' Day sets a record. The 24-hour event raked in $25.3 billion worth of sales, making for a 40% increase from last year's record.

Stock markets around the world are lower. Japan's Nikkei (-1.32%) trailed in Asia, and France's CAC (-0.24%) lags in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open down 0.14% near 2,579.

Earnings reports trickle out. Tyson Foods reports ahead of the opening bell.

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• Pound drops as worries over May's premiership grow.
• Tory MPs are reportedly plotting to oust May.
• Sterling falls below 1.31 against the dollar as a result.

LONDON — The pound slipped below the $1.31 mark on Monday morning, as rumours grew that a number of Conservative MPs are planning an attempt to oust Prime Minister Theresa May, further complicating the already muddy picture of UK politics.

Reports emerged over the weekend that 40 Conservative MPs have agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in May, just eight short of the number needed to force a party leadership contest, the mechanism through which May could be forced from office and replaced by another Tory.

With Brexit talks ongoing, and May's government already dangerously weak following a series of resignations from high profile ministers in the last weeks, any further sign of weakness would likely spell bad news for the pound, which has fallen significantly recently as Brexit uncertainty continues to put investors off the currency.

On Monday morning, Sterling has dropped more than 0.7%, falling to a level of 1.3072 against the dollar by around 10.35 a.m. GMT (5.35 a.m. ET), as the chart below shows:

"There’s A LOT for May to fret about at the moment. She could be facing defeat on part of her Brexit Bill later in the week, with Tory Remainers likely to team up with Labour to try and secure Parliament a meaningful vote on any deal with the EU, something the PM is keen to avoid," Connor Campbell, market analyst at Spreadex said in an email a little earlier.

"There’s also threats from Michel Barnier – who stated at the weekend the EU was preparing for a ‘no deal’ scenario – that if Britain doesn’t spell out how far it intends to ‘honour its obligations’ within the next 2 weeks then any trade talks will have to be ‘put back’."

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• CEO of Bet365 paid herself a salary of nearly £200 million as well as £18 million in dividends.
• The company's profits rose 15% and revenue jumped 39% for the financial year ending March.
• Coates grew the company from nothing and is now the best paid boss in Britain.

LONDON — Billionaire Denise Coates, founder and CEO of gambling company Bet365, paid herself £217 million last year, according to annual company filings.

Coates, who has surpassed Sir Martin Sorrell as the best paid boss in Britain, received a salary of £199 million and £18 million in dividend payments. The company made £527 million in profit, and total bets soared to a record £47 billion, up more than £10 billion from the previous year.

Coates' huge salary was justified by the company's "significant growth" in gambling profits, which rose 15% to £514 million. Revenue for 2016/17 also soared 39% to a record £2.15 billion.

Sorrell earned £48.1 million last year, while Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival, was the next highest paid FTSE 100 boss with earnings of £22.4 million.

Coates began her career as a cashier in her father's betting shops, but after graduating from Sheffield University she expanded the family business, Provincial Racing, to nearly 50 betting shops.

Realizing the future of betting lay online, she bought the domain Bet365.com on eBay for $25,000 in 2000.

"We mortgaged the betting shops and put it all into online," she told the Guardian in 2012, "we were the ultimate gamblers if you like."

The results come as the government tries to crack down on fixed-odds betting terminals, criticised for being addictive. In August, the Gambling Commission said two million people in the UK are addicted to gambling or at risk of addiction.

Responding to Coates' salary, Mike Dixon, chief executive of charity Addaction, told the Guardian, "It cannot be right that the CEO of a betting company is paid 22 times more than the whole industry donates to treatment."

The Coates family own 93% of Bet365, and were listed in the Times Rich List as the 22nd richest family in Britain, with a fortune of £5 billion.

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• More than four in ten London home sellers are cutting asking prices, says Rightmove
• The property website said the cuts were driven by said was driven by "initial over-optimism and a tougher market."

LONDON — More than four in ten London home sellers are cutting asking prices as the capital's housing market continues to slump, according to a Rightmove report.

The property website said on Monday sellers were cutting asking prices by an average 6.7%. The report said the cuts were driven by "initial over-optimism and a tougher market."

House prices continue to grow nationally but have fallen in London this year, and Rightmove director Miles Shipside said a recent interest rate hike and a prediction of further price falls could lead to bigger price cuts in future.

Rightmove said a drop in new seller asking prices has been the norm in the run-up to Christmas, with falls recorded in six of the last seven years, but this month's figure is the highest since 2010.

"Buyer demand has cooled and to warm up their interest both new-to-the-market sellers and those already on the market need to tempt them on price," said Shipside.

"The effect is an impromptu autumn sale with the largest proportion of sellers on the market having reduced their initial asking prices at this time of year since 2010."

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• Visa/IHS Markit data shows 2% decline in October consumer spending, fastest drop since September 2013.
• High Street sales down 5% and clothing sales down 9%.
• Separate BRC/Springboard survey finds 2% decline in "footfall" on UK High Streets in October, which Springboard exec calls "a black trading cloud."

LONDON — Concerns about retail sales over the crucial Christmas period have been heightened by new figures showing a big slump in spending in October.

IHS Markit and Visa's UK consumer spending index for October shows:

• Spending down 2% compared to the same month a year earlier, the fastest annual fall since September 2013;
• High Street sales fell by 5%, the second-steepest drop since April 2012;
• Clothing and footwear sales fell by 9%, the worst ever drop recorded by IHS and Visa.

The data covers all of the spending across the Visa network, which accounts for £1 in every £3 spent across the UK. It's the fifth time in sixth months the survey has registered a decline in consumer spending, highlighting the on-going consumer squeeze and the tough environment many retailers are battling against.

Mark Antipof, Visa's chief commercial officer, said in a statement: "The pre-Christmas trading season got off to a poor start for retailers with October spending falling at the fastest rate in over four years. The figures are a stark indicator of the strain on household budgets even before the Bank of England’s recent interest rate rise.

"Retailers will now be pinning their hopes on strong performance around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. November’s data will, therefore, provide the first real clue on how Christmas is shaping up."

Visa highlighted a rapid decline in shopping on the High Street as the main driver for October's fall. A separate survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and retail consultancy Springboard on Monday found a 2% drop in footfall — the number of people visiting — High Streets in October.

Diane Wehrle, Springboard's marketing and insights director, said in a statement: "October delivered a black trading cloud ahead of the Christmas sales storm.

"Not only was the -2% drop in footfall the worst result for October since 2013 when it declined by -2.9%, but it was also higher than the result for the month of October in subsequent years which ranged between -0.8% and -0.2%. "

High Street bell weather Next recently warned of "extremely volatile" trading conditions and Marks & Spencer last week announced plans to speed up store closures as shoppers increasingly move online.

Annabel Fiddes, principal economist at IHS Markit, said: "The data add to evidence that falling real wages, muted consumer confidence and lingering uncertainties over the direction of the UK economy are having a substantial impact on spending."

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Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Monday.

1. 40 British members of parliament from Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party have agreed to sign a letter of no-confidence in her, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. That is eight short of the number needed to trigger a party leadership contest, the mechanism through which May could be forced from office and replaced by another Conservative.

2. May is set to meet with major UK and European business leaders later on Monday, with those leaders expected to express worries about the future of UK-EU trade. "Experts from groups including the CBI and BusinessEurope will stress the need for a transitional deal that preserves the status quo after Brexit," according to a report from the BBC.

3. US President Donald Trump suggested easing sanctions on Russia. Trump chatted with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday at the APEC summit in Vietnam, and the two countries have agreed to continue joint efforts to stabilize Syria. 

4. Trump also said on Monday he had made significant progress on trade issues during a fruitful trip across Asia that saw governments roll out red carpets "like nobody has ever seen." "We've made some very big steps with respect to trade, far bigger than anything you know," Trump told reporters in Manila on the sidelines of a summit with leaders of Southeast Asian and East Asian nations.

5. Venezuela opens talks with creditors on Monday to renegotiate a crippling debt, as the OPEC nation seeks to avert a default that would plunge its economy into deeper uncertainty. President Nicolas Maduro's government has summoned investors who hold some $60 billion in junk bonds to Caracas in a desperate bid to shore up public finances that have been squeezed by the unraveling of the socialist economy.

6. Japan's Nikkei dropped to a near two-week low on Monday as many sectors, including real estate and brokerage firms, languished after recent rallies, offsetting gains in companies with strong results such as Nissin Foods. The Nikkei ended 1.3% lower to 22,380.99, the lowest closing level since Oct. 31 and its fourth straight daily decline.

7. Amazon is "really close" to opening in Australia, its country manager said on Monday, as the U.S. e-commerce juggernaut prepares to shake up an already-fragile brick-and-mortar retail sector in the world's No. 12 economy. While Amazon did not give an exact start date, the remarks from Rocco Braeuniger suggest the company will ship goods from its first Australian warehouse in time for the end-of-year holiday season, a moment seen by analysts as a tipping point for Australia's staid retailers.

8. Wall Street bonuses may climb as much as 10% this year, in the first meaningful jump for the industry since 2013, according to a closely watched report. Bankers who advise companies on issuing stock or bonds could see an even bigger pay jump, as much as 20% compensation firm Johnson Associates said on Sunday.

9. Bitcoin cash reached an all-time high of $2,500 a coin early Sunday morning, surpassing Ethereum as the second largest cryptocurrency on the market. Bitcoin cash, which notably split from the original bitcoin in August, was gaining on its sister coin up until around 2 a.m. ET. It later shed about $1,000 and by 11:35 a.m ET was only trading up 14.7% at $1,525, slipping back below Ethereum's market cap.

10. Mega-deal M&A transactions worth over $10 billion are surging back after a largely dormant first half off the year. Wall Street bankers say an improving global economy and confidence in the regulatory environment are playing a role.

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Bitcoin gold, the latest fork of the bitcoin blockchain, is officially live after a rocky start.

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