accused of gender and pregnancy discrimination from his own chief of staff. his assistant was demoted twice. she says she was marginalized by neumann as a vacation or retirement. the company will vigorously defend itself and has zero tolerance for discrimination. there were a number of complaints about the culture under his leadership. he stepped down as chief executive in september. >> she says he called her maternity leave a vacation. of course, it is not. let's get a check on cnn business this morning. mixed performance around the world and global markets. asian shares mostly higher, despite fears of a long-term u.s. trade deal not happening. a survey of factor activity in china was higher than expected. on wall street, the futures will try to rebound after falling thursday on the last trading day of the month. the chicago purchasing index showed a slower factor activity in the midwest. the lowest readings since december 2015.