10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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10 Things Before the Opening Bell

Here's what you need to know before the markets open.

1.'It's amputation': Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War II, the latest sign of the brutal crisis decimating the oil industry. Shell slashed its dividend for the first time since the Second World War on Thursday, cutting shareholder payments by 67% as coronavirus torpedoes demand for commodities and shatters the oil-producing industry.

2. Oil prices are bouncing despite warnings that global energy demand in 2020 is set to slump 7 times more than during the financial crisis.Oil prices are rising once again on Thursday, shrugging off comments by the International Energy Agency that energy demand is set to fall the most on record this year amid coronavirus, as lower than expected demand for storage boosted prices for the commodity.

3. The horrendous impact of coronavirus on Europe's economy is growing clearer as GDP shrinks 3.8%, and Germany, France, and Spain report catastrophic data. The eurozone economy declined at the fastest rate on record, shrinking by 3.8%, according to the preliminary estimates from Eurostat on Thursday.

4. Warren Buffett's favorite stock-market indicator hits record high, signaling a crash could be coming.Warren Buffett's favorite stock-market indicator has climbed to a record high, signaling stocks are overvalued and another crash could be coming.

5. Dow, S&P 500 futures dip at end of strong month; jobless data awaited.Dow and S&P 500 stock index futures dipped on Thursday as nerves kicked in at the end of an overall strong month for stocks with investors awaiting the weekly jobless claims data, while Nasdaq futures rose after upbeat earnings from Facebook and Tesla.

6. Twitter tops sales estimates, sees rebound from Asia's eased coronavirus rules.Twitter Inc on Thursday said that its ads sales had slightly rebounded in Asia after a plunge due to the coronavirus outbreak and that it had accelerated work on tools to attract key advertisers, becoming the latest tech company to report a lighter blow from the pandemic than forecast.

7. The European Central Bank left interest rates in the eurozone unchanged. The central bank left its key interest rate at -0.5%, but announced a series of new measures to deal with the pandemic known as "non-targeted pandemic emergency longer-term refinancing operations," or PELTROs.

8. Stocks are mixed. In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.24% , Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.76%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 fell 035. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.44% , Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.54% , and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.82%. In the US, futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.21%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.06% and the S&P 500 rose 2.66%.

9. First-quarter earnings coming in. Amazon and Apple are coming in.

10. Economic data releases today. Russia's HSBC Manufacturing PMI is due.