 Good morning and welcome to Five Before the Bell, TheStreet.com's daily market update and U.S. market preview right here from the heart of the financial district in central London and the studios of Core TV on Martin Backerdach's London Bureau chief here at TheStreet.com. I'm going to take you through those five things you need to know before the bell today. We're back from an investor conference that we held yesterday here in the city of London on Monday and we're back in the game with some interesting moves in financial markets. And look what's happening in Europe because we are mixed at the moment as global investors pull back from those all-time highs that we saw yesterday and 10-year highs that we're seeing in Asia ahead of the Fed's two-day rate-setting meeting in Washington. Interesting overnight in that we saw the Nikkei 225 in Japan rise 2% over the 20,000 barrier today was the standout performer of all global markets. They were off yesterday owing to one of the national holidays. So they came back and played catch up. The M was a little bit weaker and therefore we saw the Nikkei 225 rise. Another reason for that rise though and it's worth mentioning is that there could be a snap election announced later this week which would take place next month if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe follows on from speculation that we're seeing in the media. That could ignite some speculation of maybe even easier fiscal policy and that could lift stocks even further. That's definitely one to watch. Didn't necessarily filter through here into Europe however. We are mixed as I say largely off the back of some profit taking and the moves that we're seeing in currencies both on the continent and here in the United Kingdom. We're looking at a pound which is just under that 136 mark but it has eased a little bit and that gave a boost to the FTSE 100. The Euro however is bumping its head against that 120 mark against the US dollar and that's held down gains across the continent even though we had some decent numbers from an investor sentiment survey out of Germany today that does suggest Europe's largest economy is on pace to continue its growth momentum but really you can't do much of anything on a day like today because investor focus is now on what the Fed is going to say about its economic projections and the plans to trim down its 4.2 trillion dollar balance sheet. So we'll see where that takes us. All three futures are a little bit higher right now but mixed at the moment with a cautious but positive sentiment is really what we're seeing around the world. In the United States one of the big stories today is going to be the bankruptcy filing of Toys R Us. It's the biggest toy retailer in the United States and this will be the second largest ever retail bankruptcy filing second only to Kmart back in 2002. Now the company listed debts and assets of more than a billion each but we're looking at an asset base of around 8 billion US dollars and the debt level is going to be significantly higher than the 1 billion threshold that the company needs to use when it's reporting to the court. Now again this is simply another example of a bricks and mortar retailer which is falling foul of the online shopping rush and the ways in which consumer patterns and behaviors are changing with such kaleidoscopic speed. It really is quite an incredible story and one that is even more troubling when you consider the fact that the company did seem to be a lot more optimistic about the ways that it can draw customers into its stores. It really only expanded that big central Manhattan store earlier this year. The company has been looking at different ways that it can use apps to find toys within the store to attract younger clientele and therefore bring their parents with them and hopefully spend more money but nonetheless the ways in which it's just trying to tinker with the business model have failed at least at the moment. Now we don't know what is going to happen to the 1600 locations or probably more importantly the 64,000 people that worked for the company it's two early days yet in order to make that assessment and the company hasn't made any announcement but the fact that it did seem to secure about 3 billion US dollars in funding from a JP Morgan led consortium of banks probably does mean that the people who are in charge of the company are pretty confident that it can maintain its status as much as we know it. The bankruptcy laws in the United States do allow for a bit of a breather from creditors in order for the company to try to steady the ship and exit with maybe a little bit better financial mechanics. I do think this is going to come out with a positive result though because of the commitment that the company that the company's owners have made to it but also the fact that it is heading into that key US shopping season into November and obviously December it would be a poor time to try and wrap up the operations whilst there is still so much money left on the table if they can you know maybe recalibrate the business proposition with a little bit more debt friendly balance sheet whilst at the same time attracting customers to an online strategy you might have something we don't know exactly what's going to happen yet but we do seem to believe that considering the financing that's in place this might not be the dramatic bankruptcy story that first appears but nonetheless it's just another example of the troubling times that the traditional retailers are having as the landscape changes amongst them almost on a daily basis. The story that's also changing on a daily basis and not for the good is Equifax their shares are called down about 2.2% in pre-market trading that would indicate an opening price of around $92.25 and that would mean the company has lost more than one-third of its market value since the 7th of September when they told us about that data breach that affected 143 million customers of its credit providing service it's an absolutely astonishing story biggest data breach in US history and it has reached the upper echelons of the United States government with respect to the troubling allegations and indeed the investigations that have followed now the newest reports that we're seeing now come first come from Bloomberg but they have also been reported by the Washington Post that actually Equifax first data breach happened in March of this year and not in July as the company told us back on the 7th now curiously Equifax issued a statement that seemed to accept the March breach although they haven't made that public is yet that in and of itself is troubling enough for people to wonder whether or not this company has its hands around the situation but furthermore the fact that the data breach may have happened back in March also puts into focus the stock sales of senior executives within the company some of which occurred in May and others which occurred on the first days of August now again the company has been steadfast in its allegation that it didn't that the executives who sold the shares did not know about the data breaches and therefore haven't run afoul of insider trading rules that is being looked into at the moment certainly by the Department of Justice potentially by the Securities Exchange Commission but the fact that the company isn't disclosing a March breach that it does seem to accept took place puts that may stock sale certainly into sharper focus and definitely puts the August sales into focus because they were significant enough for investors to dump the stock at the time if they were dumped on the basis of material insider information that is a really significant problem now there's a whole host of other problems within the company of course as a result of the breach and as a result of maybe looser regulations than are needed for these data providers particularly when you consider the role that data plays in our everyday lives so I do think this story has a lot of legs to go forward and at the moment at least it is very troubling to read some of these statistics and the timeline of the alleged hacks and of course the breach the March breach doesn't appear to have lost any data but the fact that hackers seem to have been testing the vulnerability of the system seems to suggest that the company wasn't able to get its defenses in order for the breach that took place in July that again ultimately led to the loss of a hundred and forty three million customers data furthermore it just raises once again the question as to why the company waited until the 7th of September to tell us about a breach that took place in July and hasn't told us yet about a breach that took place in March troubling questions indeed shares called about 2.3% lower as I say in pre-market trading I'm gonna move on to a story with a little bit more good news a little bit more fun actually and that is the development of shoe sales in the United States particularly when it comes to athletic footwear NPD which is an analytics firm that looks at the trends that take place in consumer spending in the United States has said that Adidas has actually vaulted over the Jordan brand and into second place in the athletic footwear rankings in terms of its sales based on what happened in the month of August Adidas now has a 13% market share in the United States still well below that of Nike but nonetheless it is gaining ground it seems each and every month and each and every quarter and it is the first time that it's vaulted over the Jordan brand which is also one to the Nike stable it's one of the four Nike Hurley Converse and Jordan that are all within the athletic apparel company but again it's interesting Nike is still the top dog there's no question about it the fact that Adidas is in second place on Nike's home turf is really quite an amazing development it's interesting too in the fact that we are seeing basketball footwear sales fall significantly in the month of August down about 40% by some estimations and that has of course troubling implications for companies like Under Armour which are making such a big deal out of their superstar signings particularly with Steph Stafan Curry with the Golden State Warriors in California and of course others and its association it should be said with the University of Maryland sports teams as well but Adidas has been having some excellent success it would seem in signing the right superstars James Harden and others with the Houston Rockets and also developing its market not only in the United States but further afield particularly in China where it has a significant foothold in probably the fastest growing sportswear apparel market in the world and it's far ahead of Nike in that respect that's interesting too because Adidas has actually hit a record high earlier this year stocks a pair to gain a little bit but in a year today basis Nike is up a little bit more than 5% on a year today basis Adidas is up 31.5% a little bit lower today maybe some profit-taking and maybe just investors a bit sanguine about the data points that they're seeing in the United States but the way in which Adidas has challenged Nike's dominance in the last couple of years is really quite extraordinary largely again and reflecting back to the Toys R Us story on the basis of its online platform and that's something that the company intends to continue to expand in the months and years ahead Nike is trying to play catch up is trying to get associations with Amazon and others in order to move its gear more quickly and more efficiently but it has lost ground and on the basis of these numbers from MPD continues to lose ground to its chief rival we're going to watch that with interest going in to the peak Christmas period but Adidas stealing a march no question about it and jumping over the jump man the Jordan brand for the first time in 30 years Wall Street as I say called a little bit higher as I speak we're looking at about a 25 point gain for the Dow Jones industrial average at the start of trading today we'll probably get a little bit softer gains for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ according to what I'm seeing in the US futures prices but nonetheless we probably will extend the all-time highs that we're seeing both on the big board and indeed on the Dow as well fifth consecutive high yesterday it turns out for the Dow as a result of the investor optimism maybe some slightly higher crew prices are part of the reason too now I did mention the US dollar and the Federal Reserve of course that is going to be key for market developments in the coming days we won't get anything today but the anticipation is that tomorrow interest rates are going to stay unchanged but the anticipation is that the Fed will probably make its final hike of the year at its December meeting there's a 55.3% chance based on futures prices at the moment that that's exactly what's going to happen what we're going to wait for of course is clues as to when how and how quickly the Fed is going to unwind that 4.2 trillion dollar balance sheet that will lift US bond yields and of course will have implications for consumer borrowing costs in the months ahead but we don't know exactly where it's headed a lot will be based on the four projections for the US economy that Jenny Yellen explains at her press conference tomorrow but as I say Wall Street looking relatively good right now you're looking mixed dollar a little bit weaker but it's all to play for tomorrow and we'll watch that with interest that's it from us and five before the bell in central London and Martin Backerdachs London bureau chief at the street.com thanks for watching we'll see you guys tomorrow.