Panel on markets
U.S. stock futures were modestly lower Monday as investors readied for the start of earnings season.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 37 points, or 0.11%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were lower by 0.15% and 0.29%, respectively. Both the Dow and the S&P finished at all-time highs on Friday as the Nasdaq escaped bear-market territory.
Earnings season is set to kick off on Wednesday with big banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. set to release their quarterly results.
Elsewhere, Uber Technologies Inc. reported gross bookings hit a record high in March as ride hailings snapped back to pre-pandemic levels and food delivery more than doubled from the previous year.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holdings was fined a record 18 billion Chinese yuan ($2.75 billion) by Chinese regulators for anticompetitive behavior. However, the fine was smaller than feared.
In deals, Microsoft Corp. is reportedly in talks to buy Nuance Communications for about $16 billion, or $56 a share, a 23% premium to Friday’s closing price. A deal would be Microsoft’s second-largest, behind the $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016.
In commodities, West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed 81 cents or $60.13 per barrel and gold slipped $1.80 to $1,743 an ounce.
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Overseas markets were mixed.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX 30 and France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.17% and 0.15%, respectively, while Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.31%.
Asian markets were lower across the board with China’s Shanghai Composite index losing 1.09%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declining 0.86% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 sliding 0.77%.
