5 things to know before the stock market opened on March 8, 2021

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

US stock futures fell mainly on Monday, with a sharp drop in Nasdaq and the tech names indicated to start the new week after Friday’s big turnaround. Tesla lost an additional 2% in the premarket after closing on Friday below $ 600 per share for the first time since early December. The stock has lost a third of its value since its biggest intraday hike in late January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Friday broke three-session losing streak, with strong advances. For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 gained 1.8% and 0.8%, respectively. However, the Nasdaq fell 2% last week. The Dow and S&P 500 have risen by almost 3% and 2.3%, respectively, since the beginning of the year. Nasdaq was slightly above break-even before Monday’s opening.

Senate approval of Covid’s $ 1.9 trillion relief bill on Saturday was not enough to put stocks on green Monday, as more economic stimulus over an already recovering economy continued to feed inflation concerns. This is raising bond yields on Monday, with 10-year Treasury yield trading around 1.6%, close to a year’s high on Friday. The 10-year yield has increased rapidly since the end of January, adding more than 0.5% in just over a month.

The Democratic-controlled House plans to approve the Senate-approved Covid stimulus package on Tuesday and then send it to President Joe Biden for his signature. The bill passed in the Senate on Saturday comes with a minor increase in federal unemployment insurance and without an increase in the federal minimum wage. The legislation includes direct payments of up to $ 1,400 for most Americans, which Biden said on Saturday that they could start leaving in two weeks.

Disney shares were up more than 1% in Monday’s pre-market after California officials released theme parks on Friday to open with reduced capacity on April 1. They closed almost a year ago due to the pandemic. The order includes Disneyland in the southern part of the state, Comcast’s Universal Studios Hollywood and others. Disney World in Florida and Universal Studios Orlando opened with a capacity limit during the summer. Shares of Comcast, the parent of NBCUniversal and CNBC, fell in the premarket.

GameStop’s shares rose about 12% in Monday’s premarket after Bloomberg reported that the company hired board member Ryan Cohen to guide the video game retailer’s transition to an e-commerce business. Cohen, a major GameStop investor and founder of online pet retailer Chewy, will lead a council task force on digital change.

General Electric is approaching a deal worth more than $ 30 billion to combine its aircraft leasing business with Ireland’s AerCap Holdings, according to The Wall Street Journal. GE Capital Aviation Services is one of the largest jet leasing companies in the world and leases passenger aircraft made by companies such as Boeing and Airbus. GE’s shares were up about 2.5% in Monday’s pre-market.

Brent crude, an international benchmark for oil, rose above $ 70 a barrel on Monday for the first time in more than a year. The increase came after Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that its Saudi Aramco facilities were the target of missiles and drones. Yemen’s Houthi movement, aligned with Iran, took responsibility for the attack. West Texas Intermediate oil, the US benchmark, also rose, trading above $ 66, up almost two years.

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