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Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Stocks set to fall after record closings for Dow and S&P 500
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Source: NYSE
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi speaks at a product launch event in San Francisco, California on September 26, 2019.
Philip Pacheco | AFP via Getty Images
Uber on Monday posted record gross bookings for March, signaling a pick-up in demand for ride hailing. The tech giant’s rides business was hit hard by pandemic lockdowns last year. However, Uber benefited from a boom in food delivery, which helped to limit losses in 2020. Shares of Uber rose 2% in Monday’s premarket.
2. Powell says ‘highly unlikely’ the Fed will raise rates this year
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a virtual news conference in Tiskilwa, Illinois, on Dec. 16, 2020.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reaffirmed the central bank’s commitment to keep easy monetary policy in place, despite what he sees as a rapidly recovering economy from the depths of the pandemic. “I think it’s highly unlikely that we would raise rates anything like this year,” Powell told “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday. “I’m in a position to guarantee that the Fed will do everything we can to support the economy for as long as it takes to complete the recovery,” he added. That support includes near-zero short-term borrowing rates and $120 billion a month in bond purchases.
3. Covid variant evades some vaccine protection
A health worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a mobile clinic near Moshav Dalton in northern Israel on February 22, 2021.
Jalaa Marey | AFP | Getty Images
The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa is able to evade some of the protection of the two-shot vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, according to a new Israeli study. The researchers found the prevalence of the strain among patients who received both doses of the vaccine was about eight times higher than those who were unvaccinated.
View of Corporate and Research and Development Headquarters of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Old Saw Mill River Road in Tarrytown, New York.
Lev Radin | LightRocket | Getty Images
Regeneron plans to ask the FDA to allow its Covid antibody therapy to be used as a preventative treatment. In a phase three clinical trial, the company said the drug cocktail reduced the risk of symptomatic infections in individuals by 81%. The therapy was given to then-President Donald Trump shortly after he was diagnosed with coronavirus last year.
4. CEOs meet for White House chip summit; Biden meets lawmakers on infrastructure
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he announces executive actions on gun violence prevention in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, April 8, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
5. Microsoft buys Nuance for about $16 billion
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bengaluru, India, on Feb. 25, 2020.
Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft has agreed to buy speech-recognition firm Nuance Communications. Shares of Nuance soared nearly 21% in Monday’s premarket to roughly $55. Buying Nuance could expand Microsoft’s capabilities in voice software. At $16 billion, Nuance would be Microsoft’s second largest acquisition, after its $27 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016. Shares of Microsoft were little change.
— Follow all the market action like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with CNBC’s coronavirus blog.
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