London CNN Business  — 

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

“We have a welcome respite this morning, but the August mood is fearful,” said Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes. “The sky could fall in at any moment!”

US stock futures point slightly higher after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished a volatile trading session Wednesday in positive territory. The Dow gave up some last-minute gains and finished with a loss.

Promising trade data from China and a stable yuan sent Asian markets higher Thursday. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.9% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 0.5%. Japan’s Nikkei increased 0.4%.

European markets also opened higher. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2%, while Germany’s DAX advanced 0.4%.

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 ride sharing company, which reported earnings after markets closed on Wednesday, now expects revenue for the full year to hit as much as $3.5 billion due to strong rider growth. That’s $200 million higher than it had previously forecast.

Shares are up 4% in premarket trading. Gains were pared after the company said in a regulatory filing that insiders will be able to sell off more than 250 million shares of the company’s stock sooner than expected.

Want more markets? Watch CNN’s “Markets Now” digital live show Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. ET.

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

Futures of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 2.3% Thursday to $57.52 a barrel, recovering some of the week’s losses. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC producers are looking at ways to prop up prices.

Brent crude is still off more than 20% from its recent April peak due to persistent fears about slowing global economic growth and the US-China trade war. That’s outweighed concerns about geopolitical tensions in Venezuela and Iran that could hit supply.

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

Wednesday — US crude oil inventories; SoftBank (SFBTF), CVS (CVS), Lyft (LYFT), Roku (ROKU) and Zillow (Z) earnings
Thursday — China imports and exports; AMC Entertainment (AMC), Viacom (VIA), CBS (CBS), Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Uber (UBER) and Yelp (YELP) earnings
Friday — China inflation data; Japan GDP; US Producer Price Index