US stocks rise as investors assess widespread tech layoffs and brace for more earnings

• US stocks moved higher on Monday as investors assess corporate earnings and more tech layoffs.
• Spotify said it would cut 6% of jobs, or about 600 employees, after job cuts from Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.
• Meanwhile, activist investor Elliott Management took a multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce.

US stocks were mostly higher to start the week, looking to extend big gains from Friday as investors assess a stream of corporate news and earnings results.

More layoffs hit the tech sector on Monday, with Spotify cutting 6% of its workforce, or about 600 employees. The job cuts from Spotify are after Amazon, Alphabet, Salesforce, and Microsoft all cut jobs in recent weeks. Shares of Spotify jumped more than 5% after the news.

In other corporate news, activist investor Elliott Management took a multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce after the stock fell 50% from its peak. Shares of Salesforce jumped 4% in early Monday trades.

Investors have their eyes on fourth-quarter earnings, with 89 S&P 500 companies set to report this week. Of the 57 companies that have reported earnings so far, 67% beat profit estimates by a median of 5%, while 67% beat revenue estimates by a median of 2%, according to data from Fundstrat.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Monday:

• S&P 500: 3,973.67, up 0.03%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,340.46, down 0.1% (20.33 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 11,179.88, up 0.3%

Here's what else is happening this morning:

• FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried held just under $50 million in an account with little-known Farmington State Bank, located in rural Washington state, according to a court filing published Friday.
• Janet Yellen has crushed hopes the US Treasury could mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to help cover the country's bills as it struggles with a debt default.
• "It truly is not by any means to be taken as a given that the Fed would do it, and I think especially with something that's a gimmick," Treasury Secretary Yellen said in a Wall Street Journal interview published Sunday.
• Billionaire Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel surpassed rivals by earning a record $16 billion in profit for investors last year – the largest gain in history.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.43% to $81.99 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped 0.72% to $88.26.
• Gold fell 0.43% to $1,920.00 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose five basis points to 3.53%.
• Bitcoin rose 0.15% to $22,793, while ether dropped 0.87% to $1,622.