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2. Brexit deadlock: The United Kingdom continues to march towards Brexit without a viable exit plan.

Shares in Airbus (EADSF) were up 5% in Paris after the company announced the A380 news and said its profits grew 30% over the previous year in 2018.

The European plane maker announced it will stop delivering A380s in 2021 after its key customer, Dubai-based airline Emirates, slashed its orders for the huge jetliner.

“It’s a painful decision,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders said during a conference call with analysts. “We’ve invested a lot of effort, a lot of resources and a lot of sweat into this aircraft.”

“But obviously we need to be realistic,” he added. “With the decision of Emirates to reduce orders, our order backlog is not sufficient to sustain production.”

3. Bayer damages: A federal jury has awarded $80 million to a California man after determining that the popular Monsanto weedkiller, Roundup, was a substantial factor in causing his cancer.

The maker of KitKat, Smarties and Nespresso has struggled in recent years to keep up with changing consumer tastes. But it said Thursday that a shift to growth areas such as plant-based products was paying off.

“We saw revived growth in our two largest markets, the United States and China, as well as in our infant nutrition business,” CEO Mark Schneider said in a statement.

3. Trade talks: A third round of high-level trade talks between the United States and China is underway in Beijing.

Talks between US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and China’s Vice Premier Liu He could yield a breakthrough that would prevent higher tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

Investors have been optimistic about the negotiations, especially after President Donald Trump said he would be willing to stretch his March 1 deadline if it appeared the two sides are close to a deal.

5. Global market overview: US stock futures were flat.

European markets opened mostly higher. Stocks in Asia finished the session mixed.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed 0.1% lower on Wednesday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.5% and the Nasdaq shed 0.6%.

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6. Companies and economics: Shares in Swedbank dropped 3.7% after the Swedish bank fired its CEO amid a widening money-laundering probe.

CBS (CBS), Ellie Mae (ELLI) and NVIDIA (NVDA) will release earnings after the close.

The US Census Bureau will publish its retail sales report for December at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Germany has narrowly avoided a recession by posting 0% growth in the fourth quarter. Economists are hopeful that Europe’s biggest economy will recover its momentum, but there are major risks ahead.

“While the risks loom large, chances are that a brighter spring could still follow the grey winter if trade tensions do not escalate badly, China escapes a hard landing and the UK avoids a hard Brexit,” economists at Berenberg bank wrote in a note to clients.

7. Coming this week:
Thursday — US final estimate Q4 GDP
Friday — Huawei earnings; Carmax (KMX) earnings