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Both The U.S. and China noted points of tension, and issued public statements after the meeting that emphasized ways to avoid conflict.
Xi said during the meeting that for China and the U.S. to get along “in a new era,” three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should be followed, according to China’s official English-language readout.

US President Joe Biden meets with China’s President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 15, 2021.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

BEIJING — U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met virtually Tuesday in the closest communication between the two countries’ leaders since Biden took office in January.
Both sides noted points of tension, and issued public statements after the meeting that emphasized ways to avoid conflict.

Biden said there was a “need for common-sense guardrails to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict and to keep lines of communication open,” according to White House readout after the meeting.
Xi said during the meeting that for China and the U.S. to get along “in a new era,” three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should be followed, according to China’s official English-language readout. Beijing typically uses language like “mutual respect” in calling for more favorable terms from the U.S.
Xi also compared the two countries to two large ships, which need to move forward together without colliding, according to a Chinese release.
“The meeting itself was really about the two leaders discussing ways to manage the competition between the United States and China responsibly,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a call.
On Taiwan, there was “nothing new established in the form of guardrails or other understandings,” the official said adding that the Beijing Winter Olympics and visa issues did not come up during the virtual meeting. “We were not expecting a breakthrough. There were none to report,” the official said.

“The meeting [was] wide-ranging, in-depth, candid, constructive, substantive and productive,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said in English on Twitter. “It helps increase mutual understanding.”

As expected, economic issues were part of the two leaders’ conversation, without any specific conclusions.
Biden “underscored the importance of China fulfilling its Phase One [trade deal] commitments,” the official said, adding that trade was not a dominant part of the conversation.

U.S.-China tensions

Tensions between the two nations escalated under former U.S. President Donald Trump, beginning with trade and tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods.
The leaders ended the meeting shortly before 12:30 p.m. Beijing time (11:30 p.m. ET Monday), almost four hours after it began, according to Chinese state media.
The virtual meeting kicked off with a positive tone and cordial remarks. Xi said he was “very happy” to see his “old friend,” while Biden said the two “have never been that formal with one another,” according to a White House readout of the meeting’s opening remarks.

Our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended.

U.S. President

Biden said the leaders’ responsibility was “to be clear and honest where we disagree, and work together where our interests intersect, especially on vital global issues like climate change.”
“Our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended,” the U.S. president said. “Just simple, straightforward competition.”
Both leaders said it would be better to meet in person, and called for increased communication.
The Chinese leader also “expressed his readiness to work with President Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction,” according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Xi emphasized the necessity of a “sound and steady” relationship between the two countries, the press release said.
The two leaders’ meeting also covered a number of issues on international relations, but not the South China Sea, according to official readouts.
The White House said the U.S. discussed North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran. The Chinese side emphasized the importance of the United Nations, and said “multilateralism without China-US cooperation is incomplete.”

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China’s Vice Premier Liu He, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng joined the virtual meeting, along with Ding Xuexiang, director of the general office of the CCP’s central committee, and Yang Jiechi, director of the committee’s foreign affairs office.
On the U.S. side, attendees included Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Three representatives from the National Security Council also joined: Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for the Indo-Pacific; Laura Rosenberger, special assistant to the president and senior director for China; and Jon Czin, director for China.

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Former Federal Reserve economist Stephen Roach sees only one way to contain inflation: immediate rate hikes.
If the Fed doesn’t act, he warns rising prices could send shockwaves through the economy.

“They’re in denial. They continue to harbor the view that these are transitory Covid-related rebound effects,” the Yale University senior fellow told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “I would just put the burden of responsibility on the Fed. The longer they defer a more meaningful monetary tightening, the great the risks of stagflation.”
Roach has been warning stagflation was one supply chain accident away. Now, he contends the U.S. is in the throes of a broken supply chain while consumer demand is at a fever pitch.
“The level of aggregate demand is much, much stronger than the Fed had thought when assessing inflation prospects in recent policy meetings,” he said. “So that supply-demand imbalance is going to be persistent. Enduring.”
According to Roach, the Fed has its priorities wrong. He questions the central bank’s intention to taper its balance sheet before lifting rates.
“They need to raise rates first and worry about the balance sheet later,” said Roach, who also served as Morgan Stanley Asia’s chairman during the 2003 SARS outbreak. “They need to use the most impactful tool they have, not the least impactful tool, which is the balance sheet.”

Roach worries the Fed is too cowardly to stand up to inflation, and he believes there’s nothing lawmakers can do to materially ease its effects. So, the onus is on the central bank.
“I learned the painful lessons focusing on transitory special factors when I worked at the Fed in the early ’70s, and that was a recipe for disaster,” he said. “The Fed today has really no institutional memory. No policymakers in the control room have any firsthand experience with the types of shocks that we’re seeing right now.”
Last week, the Labor Department reported U.S. consumer prices saw jumped 6.2% in October, the highest level since December 1990.
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THE SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST (SMIT) is run out of an office a mile down the road from Edinburgh Castle. Aside from that it has little to do with Scotland, and nothing at all to do with mortgages. This makes it an apt flagship fund for Baillie Gifford, a British investment manager that prides itself on its unconventionality. Baillie Gifford’s 12 trusts and 33 funds together oversee assets worth £346bn ($466bn). But it is best known as the manager of the £22bn SMIT, one of the star vehicles of asset management in Britain.Among the previous jobs of members of the investment team are ballerina, soldier and concert pianist. One partner likes to tell potential clients that their equity-fund managers aren’t much interested in the stockmarket. Another describes her enthusiasm for a founder who is so focused on developing a breakthrough medical technology that he refuses to discuss what his company could be worth. But even those investors who insist on vulgar bean-counting will be impressed by the fact that £1,000 invested in the SMIT ten years ago would be worth around £11,600 today. By contrast, the same amount invested in the FTSE All-World stock index would be worth around £3,800.The author of this success is James Anderson, who took the helm of the SMIT 21 years ago and will step aside in April. The iconoclastic Mr Anderson participates in a long tradition of fund managers pouring scorn on their own industry. Conventional asset management, he said in his latest annual review of the SMIT, is “irretrievably broken”. Markets are in thrall to the “near-pornographic allure of news such as earnings announcements and macroeconomic headlines”.Mr Anderson has used his tenure to mould the SMIT to his liking. When he took over, the trust, then 91 years old, held shares in hundreds of listed firms, around half of which were British. Today it invests in a few dozen public and private companies based all over the world. The meteoric rise in the trust’s share price was fuelled by backing companies like Alibaba, Amazon, Tencent and Tesla early and then hanging on to them.Along the way, the amount of money Baillie Gifford oversaw grew by a factor of ten. That still places it well below the heavyweight category for global fund managers, whose members hold assets in the trillions. But the challenges it faces as Mr Anderson leaves are emblematic of those that confront the wider industry.The first is how to prevent a run of extraordinary performance from becoming pedestrian. Under Mr Anderson, the SMIT broadened its horizons to include new geographies and unlisted companies. It also placed bets on firms with unconventional business models and maverick founders. That does not mean that the route to future success lies in finding more privately owned companies run by irascible bosses. The SMIT’s outperformance in fact came from Mr Anderson’s early recognition of trends, such as the growing dominance of internet retailers and the increasing importance of electric vehicles. There is no set of rules for arriving at such insights, and so no guarantee of repeating them.The second challenge is to square the opportunities for returns with investors’ demands for social responsibility. The firm’s “health innovation” strategy attempts to do this, by betting on a hoped-for megatrend that will deliver both profits and improved medical care. But elsewhere in Baillie Gifford’s portfolio is BGI Genomics, a Shenzhen-based firm. It is part of a group that had two subsidiaries placed on an American watch list last year for “conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities” in Xinjiang, according to the Commerce Department. Even the most quixotic aim can end up in a moral quagmire.The final challenge is timeless and universal: succession. In announcing Mr Anderson’s departure, Baillie Gifford emphasised continuity. His replacement, Tom Slater, has managed the SMIT jointly with him since 2015. The philosophy and investment process of the trust, it insists, will not change. Yet it is losing an uncommonly prescient investor. Mr Anderson himself has written of his waning enthusiasm for Amazon as Jeff Bezos, its founder-CEO, stepped aside and it ceased to feel like “Day One”. Having been founded in 1908, Baillie Gifford’s first era passed a long time ago. As another day draws to a close, replicating its successes will be a tall order.For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

U.S. stock index futures were unchanged in overnight trading Monday, after the major averages started the week with muted moves as investors digested a jump in yields.
Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18 points. S&P 500 futures were up 0.03%, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.04%.

During regular trading the Dow dipped about 13 points, or 0.04%, for its fourth negative session in the last five. At the high of the day the 30-stock index gained about 136 points. The S&P 500 finished the day unchanged at 4,682.87. The benchmark index moved between gains and losses during the session, at one point gaining 0.3%, while also trading 0.21% lower. The Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.04%. The Russell 2000 was the relative underperformer, declining 0.45%.
Stocks’ move came as interest rates rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note topping 1.62% while the 30-bear Treasury bond rose above 2%.
Inflation fears are weighing on the market after last month’s consumer price index posted its largest annual increase in more than three decades. Paul Christopher, head of global market strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said he believes inflation will moderate in 2022, but that “the path to lower inflation [will] begin with higher inflation in the front half of the year.”
“The stickier drivers of inflation are likely to persist, but our base case is that they will not outweigh the improvement we expect in the transitory elements,” he wrote in a note to clients.
Walmart kicks off a busy week of retail earnings on Tuesday before the market opens, which will give investors a look at how much consumers are spending. Home Depot also reports before the market opens, while Target will post results on Wednesday.

A slew of economic data will be released on Tuesday, including retail sales figures for October. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones are expecting sales to have jumped by 1.5% last month, compared with 0.7% in September. Industrial production numbers will also be released, as well as the NAHB housing market index survey.
On Monday afternoon President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law. The package includes funding for transportation, broadband and utilities.
The major averages are coming off their first negative week in six, but stocks are still trading around all-time high levels. As Wall Street strategists look to 2022 some, including Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, believe the picture looks muted.
“With financial conditions tightening and earnings growth slowing, the 12-month risk/reward for the broad indices looks unattractive at current prices,” he said Monday in a note to clients. “However, strong nominal GDP growth should continue to provide plenty of good investment opportunities at the stock level for active managers,” he added. His 12-month base target for the S&P 500 is 4,400, which is 6% below where the index closed on Monday.

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A Boeing 737 MAX 7 aircraft lands during an evaluation flight at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, September 30, 2020.
Lindsey Wasson | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Boeing — Shares of the jet maker jumped 5.5% after a company executive said Sunday it’s “getting close” to resuming deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner, after suspending them to deal with production issues. He did not specify timing, but said it depends on the results of ongoing talks with regulators.

Tesla — The sell-off in Tesla shares continued Monday after declining more than 15% the week prior, marking the stock’s worst one-week performance in 20 months. Shares slid 1.9% on Monday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold about $6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock over the course of last week.
Dollar Tree — Shares of the discount retail chain jumped 14.3% after Dollar Tree revealed the activist investor Mantle Ridge has built a more than 5% stake in the company. Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to buy following the news, saying the activist could unlock value for shareholders.
Oatly — Shares of the oat milk producer plunged 20.8% after the company warned about pandemic challenges. Oatly said it is experiencing issues related to various Covid-related restrictions. However, the company posted a narrower-than-expected loss for the latest quarter, losing 7 cents per share versus the 10 cents a share loss anticipated by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
Tyson Foods — Tyson shares added 3.6% after the beef and poultry producer beat earnings expectations. The company posted a quarterly profit of $2.30 per share, 27 cents a share above Refinitiv estimates. Revenue also topped analysts’ forecasts.
EVgo — Shares of the electric vehicle charging company dipped 14.3% after Credit Suisse cut the stock to a neutral rating. In a note to clients the firm said that upside from the infrastructure bill is already priced in following shares’ more than 70% rally in November.

CrowdStrike — The cybersecurity stock dropped 10.6% on Monday after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of CrowdStrike at underweight. The investment firm said in a note to clients that rising competition and slowing industry growth meant that CrowdStrike shares could fall.
WeWork — Shares of WeWork popped 3.4% after the company announced third-quarter earnings, the company’s first report since going public in October. Total revenue for the quarter was $661 million, up 11% from the previous quarter, WeWork said. The company also saw a loss of $4.54 per share. That’s an improvement from the loss of $5.51 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Warner Music Group — Warner Music Group shares declined 6.2% after the company missed on analysts’ earnings expectations. The company posted quarterly earnings of 5 cents per share, 10 cents lower than the Refinitiv consensus.
Vita Coco — Shares of the coconut water company soared 21.2% in midday trading after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating, saying the trend toward coconut water should continue and that a potential decrease in shipping costs should improve Vita Coco’s profitability outlook. Goldman set a price target of $22 per share for Vita Coco.
23andMe — 23andMe declined 11.5% after Citi downgraded shares of the genetic testing company to neutral from buy. Citi said 23andMe’s current valuation was “too rich” and “leaves little room for upside.”
Chevron — Shares of Chevron added 2.3% after UBS upgraded the stock to a buy rating from neutral. The firm said high oil prices should persist and boost the stock.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, contributed reporting

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Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:
Oatly (OTLY) – The oat milk producer lost 7 cents per share for its latest quarter, smaller than the 10 cents a share loss anticipated by analysts. Revenue came in below forecasts, however, and its shares tumbled 14.1% in premarket action. Oatly said it faced challenges related to various Covid-related restrictions, but that it continues to scale up production.

Tesla (TSLA) – Tesla slid 2.1% in premarket trading after a weekly loss last week ended an 11-week winning streak. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold nearly $7 billion in stock last week.
Dollar Tree (DLTR) – Dollar Tree surged 8.3% in the premarket after activist investor Mantle Ridge took a stake in the discount retailer. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mantle Ridge wants Dollar Tree to take action to boost its stock price and is focusing on pricing strategies at the company’s Family Dollar chain. The news prompted Deutsche Bank to upgrade the stock to “buy” from “hold,” citing potential improvements.
Tyson Foods (TSN) – The beef and poultry producer earned $2.30 per share for its fiscal fourth quarter, 27 cents a share above estimates. Revenue topped Wall Street forecasts as well. Tyson also announced a new productivity program that it says will save $1 billion annually by the end of 2024.
American Tower (AMT) – The communications infrastructure real estate investment trust is buying data center REIT CoreSite Realty (COR) for $170 per share in cash, or about $10.1 billion. CoreSite rose 2.6% in premarket action.
Deere (DE) – The heavy equipment maker and striking workers reached a third tentative contract agreement after the first two were rejected. Neither side gave details on the new agreement and it is not yet clear when a vote will take place. Workers have been off the job since Oct. 14.

Evgo (EVGO) – The operator of public EV charging networks saw its stock tank by 7.7% in the premarket, after Credit Suisse downgraded it to “neutral” from “outperform.” The company said a recent rally in the stock has likely priced in benefits from the infrastructure bill as well as recent partnership announcements.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa, RDSb) – Royal Dutch Shell plans to scrap its dual share structure and also drop the “Royal Dutch” part of its corporate name. The announcement comes amid calls by activist investor Third Point to split up the energy giant into several companies to increase shareholder value. Class “A” shares gained 1.5% in premarket action, while class “B” shares rose 1.1%.
Boeing (BA) – Boeing Senior Vice President Ihssane Mounir said the jet maker is “getting close” to resuming deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner, after suspending them to deal with production issues. Mounir said the exact timing depends on the outcome of ongoing talks with regulators. The stock added 2.7% in the premarket.
Petco (WOOF) – The pet products retailer’s stock slid 2.9% in premarket trading after Jefferies downgraded it to “hold” from “buy.” Jefferies cited valuation after a 26% rise over three months, as well as challenging labor conditions in Petco’s veterinary business.
CrowdStrike (CRWD) – Morgan Stanley began coverage of the cybersecurity company with an “underweight” rating, noting increasing competition and pricing pressure. Crowdstrike slid 4.6% in the premarket.

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FEW CRISES highlight China’s weight in commodity markets as clearly as the global energy crunch. Though analysts attribute the shortages to many different causes, all mention China. Its post-covid economic recovery coupled with a hot summer produced a surge in demand for power. Supplies of its two main sources of electricity, coal and hydropower, were curbed by environmental crackdowns and droughts, respectively.At first, China tried to supplement power generation with liquefied natural gas (LNG). Its imports of LNG so far this year are 14% higher than in the same period last year. That has caused prices to surge and had ripple effects around the world. As LNG cargoes have been rerouted east, for instance, Europe has found itself short of gas. Rising gas prices have only underscored the importance of coal in China, which already consumes 55% of the world’s supply of the stuff. In October China imported nearly twice as much coal as it had in the same month in 2020, causing prices to boom. Even oil has risen on expectations that China will burn that too, if necessary, to keep its electricity plants running. As usual in commodity markets, other factors are also at play. But China still shakes the world.China’s heft is partly the result of its size. As a huge consumer and in some cases producer of materials, it can disrupt global markets even with modest tweaks to policy. Its clout is growing on the financial side of commodity trading too, thanks to its three big futures exchanges. International traders say that you cannot be successful without dealing on these exchanges. Now China wants to extend its influence over commodities further still. Officials are aiming to turn the proliferation of local contracts, for instance, into international price standards.The rule of thumb for commodity traders is that China consumes “half of everything”. For some materials, such as iron ore, even this is an understatement (see chart 1). China’s big appetite alone gives it influence in markets. But it also means many commodities are deemed strategically important by the authorities. They are therefore not shy about intervening.Take maize. A glut in China in 2010-15 pushed government inventories up to unprecedented levels and led the authorities to reduce some financial incentives to corn farmers. But the resulting fall in output was too sharp, forcing China to look overseas to replenish stocks. Corn imports jumped from less than 5m tonnes a year in 2013-18 to almost 30m tonnes in 2020. Partly as a consequence, American corn prices doubled over the first half of 2020.China’s strategies can also involve boosting supply to keep prices low. In order to keep a lid on infrastructure costs in the 2000s, it invested in a huge number of aluminium smelters and encouraged producers to raise output. Graeme Train of Trafigura, a trading firm, estimates that the smelters cost around $70bn. But without them, the price of aluminium would probably have increased in line with that of copper, says Mr Train. And that would have raised China’s infrastructure costs by an extra $1trn or so between 2000 and 2015.In some cases China’s appetite has helped create new financial systems. Take iron ore, the main ingredient of steel. Between 2003 and 2016 China’s imports of the ore increased tenfold as it built masses of steel-intensive infrastructure. Today it is the world’s biggest consumer of iron ore, for which it has also become “the world’s most sophisticated” market, says a manager at a big mining firm.Buyers in other countries, such as Japan and South Korea, tend to prefer long-term contracts. In China a dynamic spot market has emerged, which gives punters opportunities to resell excess ore and informs the price of long-term contracts. Dozens of seaports act as mini iron-ore exchanges. They have storage facilities and serve as places where customers can buy and sell ore. Analysts look at the portside price to gauge the outlook for the iron-ore market.Chinese trading firms are becoming more sophisticated, too. The biggest, such as PetroChina and Sinopec, two state-owned oil companies, are getting better at strategically steering the market, notes Michal Meidan of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. They mimic tactics used by European traders. That includes placing bets to shift the price of the Dubai benchmark which, in part, informs the prices in their long-term contracts. Other Chinese traders are scaling up. In March COFCO, a food giant, announced plans to float its trading arm.China’s commodity-futures exchanges are now world-beating. The three big ones are in Dalian, Shanghai and Zhengzhou. The number of contracts traded on these in 2020 was six times higher than on America’s CME Group’s exchanges (see chart 2). In terms of value they were roughly equivalent. From January to June this year the ten most-traded agricultural futures contracts were all Chinese. So were eight of the top ten metals contracts and five of the top ten energy contracts.Chinese exchanges look different from Western ones. They are dominated by retail investors (who are nicknamed “chives” because when they get cut down, they soon grow back). Estimates from 2016 suggest that this group holds around 85% of open positions, compared with 15% on Western bourses. They trade smaller lots too and hold them for less time, which adds to liquidity. A lack of expertise means retail investors tend to accentuate price swings. For the most part, they are losing money, says Xiao Jin of Orient Futures, a broker.For officials in Beijing, the next step in the development of China’s commodity markets is to turn the country’s benchmarks into international standards. One reason for this is to boost use of the yuan, which at present accounts for 2-3% of cross-border commodity trades, compared with the dollar’s share of 38%. Another is that officials are wary of Western benchmarks, suspecting that they may have been manipulated.Until now China’s way of protecting producers from price volatility had been through isolation. Only select state-owned firms could trade on foreign commodity-futures exchanges, and only a small group of international traders could access Chinese ones. Those exchanges have no warehouses—which are where physical commodities are delivered—outside the mainland. Foreign exchanges are not allowed warehouses inside China.But the new strategy of benchmark nationalism is leading China to slowly loosen the rules for international traders. Around 80 commodity-futures contracts are traded on the big Chinese exchanges, nine of which are available to foreign punters. That covers mostly imported commodities, such as copper and oil. Some of these trade on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, a subsidiary of the city’s Futures Exchange designed to appeal to traders abroad. As more investment firms take advantage of arbitrage opportunities, the prices of futures contracts on Western and Chinese exchanges are more often moving in tandem.More opening up is in the works. In September the State Council, China’s cabinet, said it would launch more futures contracts, accelerate the participation of overseas traders in Chinese markets and build another yuan-denominated exchange aimed at such punters.Two big problems stand in the way of these ambitions, though. One is shifting commodity demand. Over the next decade this is likely to become more evenly spread around the world, argues Jeffrey Currie of Goldman Sachs, a bank. Climate-friendly policies require vast amounts of metals to build wind turbines and power grids. Meanwhile, China’s economy will slowly become more services-oriented, reducing the need for commodities. Its consumption of some metals, such as aluminium, is expected to peak in the next few years.Another hurdle is trust. China’s commodity exchanges are closely tied to the state. Senior managers move between exchanges and government departments. Authorities intervene readily in markets. Investors point to China’s intervention in equity markets after a downturn in 2015. Back then, it banned short-selling and told investors with big stakes in companies that they could not sell shares. All this makes commodity investors worry about the predictability of Chinese markets.Indeed, China has dabbled with commodity-market intervention in the past year, as prices have gone berserk. Authorities worry that rising costs will squeeze the manufacturing sector. To offset this, in the summer they sold some of their metal reserves and cracked down on speculative hoarding. In September they auctioned off oil reserves, too. In both cases the extra supply was so small that it had no lasting effect on prices. But analysts think the goal was not to move the market but to signal to investors that regulators are watching it.The energy transition will probably make commodity prices much more volatile, as demand and supply adjust over time and one occasionally overshoots the other. Chinese authorities will have to decide whether to interfere or let markets respond. The path they choose will determine the future of commodity markets far beyond their borders. More

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) November 8, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters

U.S. stock futures were steady in overnight trading on Sunday as investors prepared to start the week after the S&P 500 broke a five-week winning streak.
Dow futures rose about 40 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.14% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.14%.

Stocks are coming off a losing week after last month’s consumer price index made its largest annual increase in more than three decades. The major averages snapped a five-week winning streak.
October’s CPI jumped 6.2% from a year ago, well above the 5.9% estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones. The index, which tracks a basket of consumer products, increased 0.9% on a month-over-month basis, also hotter than expected.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.6% and the S&P 500 eased 0.3% last week. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite was the main underperformer, dropping 0.7% as rising bond yields dented growth pockets of the market.
Treasury yields rose, as investors bet the Federal Reserve may be forced to raise interest rates sooner than expected to combat inflation.
Also denting sentiment was a report that workers left their jobs in record numbers in September, with 4.43 million people quitting, the Labor Department reported Friday. The exodus occurred as the U.S. had 10.44 million employment openings that month, according to the report.

Still, the major averages are not far from their record highs. The Dow is 1.3% off its all-time high. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq sit 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively, away from their records.
Investors will be focused on Tuesday’s retail sales report and several major retailers’ earnings this week. Walmart and Home Depot release results on Tuesday, and Target and Lowe’s report on Wednesday.
On Monday, President Joe Biden will host a bipartisan bill signing ceremony for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

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