10 things you need to know before the opening bell

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10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Here's what you need to know before the markets open.

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  1. Oil prices surge to 2-month high on hopes of demand rebounding and output cuts paying off. Investors also cheered early evidence of a global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as countries begin easing lockdowns.

  2. Global stocks rise despite Fed's Powell warning that the coronavirus downturn could last until late 2021. Investors cheered easing lockdowns and data showing a slowdown in the number of new coronavirus cases.
  3. Saudi Arabia plowed billions into US stocks including Boeing, Disney, and Facebook last quarter. The kingdom's sovereign-wealth fund revealed almost $10 billion in US holdings, up from about $2.2 billion at the end of December.

  4. Jack Ma is stepping down from the board just as SoftBank announced a record $13 billion loss. Ma is stepping down after 13 years on SoftBank's board of directors.

  5. SoftBank posts record $13 billion operating loss as tech bets slide. The conglomerate's disastrous result, caused by a 1.9 trillion yen loss at the Saudi Arabian-backed fund, compared with a group operating profit of 2 trillion yen a year earlier.
  6. Huawei says expect business impact from U.S. move to cut off chip supply. Huawei said its business will be inevitably impacted by the latest U.S. move to restrict chip sales to the Chinese technology company, but it is confident of finding solutions soon.

  7. U.S. auto industry to begin reopening plants in recovery from pandemic. Vehicle assembly plants are scheduled to reopen Monday as the sector that employs nearly 1 million people seek to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

  8. Global stocks are up. In Europe, Germany's DAX rose 3.1%, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 2.5%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 2.5%. In Asia, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6%, and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5% at the close. In the US, futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq rose between 1.4% and 1.7%.

  9. Fourth-quarter earnings expected. Panasonic Corp and Ryanair are highlights.

10. On the data front today. National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index is due.

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