Good morning. Uber Technologies Inc. is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as stocks are posting sudden and steep losses, highlighting the challenges finance chiefs face when pulling the trigger on a public debut: There are plenty of things they can’t control.

Lower expectations. Uber is pitching investors across the country on its shares, which are set to price Thursday ahead of a Friday trading debut. The ride-hailing giant set a range of $44 to $50 share, or about $80 billion to $90 billion. That’s down from last year, when lead underwriters Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had pitched the company on a valuation of as much as $120 billion.

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Big winners. In 2015, Uber raised $1.6 billion from Goldman’s private-wealth clients by selling them debt that would convert into stock at a discount to the eventual IPO price. The discount grew the longer Uber stayed private and now stands at 40%, including accrued interest, according to investor documents and people familiar with the matter.

Reputation is a risk. Protests over pay by ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft Inc. on Wednesday highlight a key risk factor in Uber’s initial public offering filing: its reputation, particularly as it relates to drivers. The company risks losing drivers or customers if its image takes additional hits, it said in its filing. While the protests were aimed at the ride-hailing industry as a whole, the timing, tenor and location of the press conference in lower Manhattan—a few blocks from Wall Street—made Uber the primary target.

The Commerce Department is scheduled to release U.S. trade deficit data at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal predict that the trade gap widened to $50.2 billion in March from $49.38 billion in February.

The Labor Department is scheduled to publish the U.S. producer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists forecast producer prices ticked up 0.3% in April, compared with a 0.6% increase a month earlier.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., Choice Hotels International Inc., Dropbox Inc., Yelp Inc., Zillow Group Inc., Equifax Inc. and Symantec Corp. are among the companies scheduled to report earnings today.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office filed paperwork to formally raise tariffs to 25% from 10% on about $200 billion a year of Chinese imports effective on Friday, carrying through on a threat made by President Trump over the weekend as talks with Beijing deteriorated. China responded Wednesday by saying it will retaliate if the U.S. moves forward.

Markets: The S&P 500 fell for a third consecutive session Wednesday, as investors continued to fret over the potential impact of billions of dollars in tariffs due to hit Chinese imports later this week.

Impact: While the U.S. administration is threatening to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, many companies in the S&P 500 are saying they had already factored the increase from 10% to 25% into their earnings guidance for the year. Despite the turmoil in the stock market, CEOs have expressed less uncertainty because they were prepared for the worst.

Analysis: If President Donald Trump raises tariffs on Chinese imports, there is little doubt that the U.S. economy would take a hit. The question is how big the hit would be, writes WSJ’s Justin Lahart.

Forecast: Goldman Sachs sees a 60% chance that President Trump is going to go through with a massive tariff increase on China. “While this would clearly be a negative outcome, we continue to think the risks of further trade escalation are fairly low,” the bank said in a note to clients, adding that a final round of tariffs isn’t likely. “By the time those tariffs would take effect, the issues that caused the most recent tensions might be resolved, and further escalation does not appear to be in either side's interests,” Goldman said.

Walmart Inc. store managers in the U.S. earn an average of $175,000 a year while full-time hourly workers make an average of $14.26 an hour, the retail giant disclosed Wednesday. Separately, Walmart is raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 in all its stores and will stop selling fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, amid pressure from regulators to curb use by children and teens.

General Motors Co. said it is in talks to sell its shuttered assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, to an electric-truck maker, a development that drew praise from President Trump for creating jobs in the politically pivotal state.

General Electric Co. shareholders approved the company’s executive-compensation plans and rejected a proposal to appoint an independent chairman, but both measures garnered high levels of protest votes after two difficult years for the conglomerate.

Communications infrastructure company Zayo Group Holdings Inc. has agreed to go private, a move that comes two months after activist investor Starboard Value criticized the firm for poor performance.

To compete in a tight labor market, more employers are rethinking the paycheck. According to a new study by the ADP Research Institute, 78% of employers surveyed said that companies will need to customize their payment options in order to remain competitive in the talent market.

Employees feel similarly: 62% of employees say off-cycle pay options—such as the ability to choose how frequently they're paid—would make a difference when weighing job offers.

Workers are also showing more of an appetite for less conventional forms of payment, with 97% saying they prefer not to receive paper checks, and 93% saying they believe employers will pay them via mobile wallets or digital platforms 10 years from now.

—Te-Ping Chen

• A consumer-data privacy breach by Facebook Inc. is spurring Congress to rewrite rules for how tech companies safeguard personal information, but a hearing with regulators Wednesday highlighted the hurdles ahead.
   
• The White House expanded its pressure campaign against Iran by imposing sanctions for the first time against its industrial-metals sector, hitting one of the largest nonpetroleum segments of Iran’s economy just hours after Tehran warned it may restart parts of its nuclear program.
   
• The Trump administration completed its rule requiring drugmakers to include list prices for most drugs in television ads, pushing ahead with efforts to improve transparency in health-care costs despite opposition from pharmaceutical companies.

• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s slow-moving effort to get a pension overhaul approved in Congress has left the country’s already struggling economy in limbo as businesses, consumers and markets wait to see when, and in what form, the proposal will finally be approved.
   
• Brazil’s central bank kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged Wednesday amid sluggish economic growth and expectations of slowing inflation.
   
• Companies like are scrambling to hire hundreds of thousands of corporate hackers to defend their networks and data, pursuing workers without traditional four-year degrees or formal experience.

Fox Corp.’s profit rose in its first quarterly earnings since the company’s spinoff from 21st Century Fox, driven by stronger performances in its cable network and broadcast TV segments.

New York Times Co. added 223,000 digital subscribers in the first quarter as the publisher continued to spend aggressively in pursuit of its goal of reaching 10 million total subscriptions by 2025.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. posted stronger revenue in the latest quarter as the television station owner looks to its purchase of a suite of sports networks to bolster its business.

Mr. Neppl is joining from commodities processor Green Plains Inc., where he has been chief financial officer since September 2017.

Separately, Green Plains said Patrich Simpkins will take over as chief financial officer of the Omaha, Neb., company and Green Plains Partners LP, effective May 13.

Mr. Simpkins has been chief development officer since October 2014, Green Plains said.

—Colin Kellaher

Write to Tatyana Shumsky at tatyana.shumsky@wsj.com.

Michael Derby contributed to today’s Ledger.

Follow the WSJ CFO Journal Team on Twitter: @CFOJournal, @MissShumsky, @nina_trentmann, @zekeminaya.

The CFO Journal editor, Jack Hagel, can be reached at jack.hagel@wsj.com.