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Investing.com – U.S. futures point to a lower start on Monday, with traders awaiting key economic data releases later in the week and a raft of corporate earnings reports. Warren Buffett reassures investors of Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:) resilience and remembers the conglomerate's late vice chairman Charlie Munger. Elsewhere, Ant Group is reportedly making a higher bid than Ken Griffin's market-making firm Citadel Securities for Credit Suisse's Chinese investment banking division.
1. Futures lower
U.S. stock futures fell slightly on Monday as investors hoped for the staying power of an artificial intelligence-fueled tech rally and the prospect of delayed interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
As of 03:11 ET (08:11 GMT), the contract had lost 8 points or 0.2%, was down 43 points or 0.2% and had lost 35 points or 0.1%.
Wall Street's major averages were mixed on Friday. Both the benchmark and the blue chip rose to new record closing highs, driven in part by continued strength in AI darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:). The chip designer's market capitalization briefly reached $2 trillion for the first time in the previous session.
Despite a slight decline in the tech-heavy index, all three indices ended the week with a gain.
2. US inflation data, more gains on the way this week
U.S. inflation will likely continue to be the focus of markets this week, especially when January personal consumption spending price data is released on Thursday.
Recent economic data points to continued price increases in the world's largest economy, a prospect that has largely wiped out bets that the Fed will soon cut interest rates from more than two decades of highs. The central bank previously launched a tightening campaign to bring inflation down to its 2% target, and although prices have cooled, they are still above that mark.
In an interview published Friday, New York Fed President John Williams expressed caution about early rate cuts, saying the Fed is on track to reduce borrowing costs “later this year.”
The weekly economic calendar also includes durable goods orders data, the ISM manufacturing purchasing managers' index, new and upcoming home sales metrics, and consumer confidence reports from the Conference Board and the University of Michigan.
On the earnings front, home improvement retailer Lowe's (NYSE:), cloud software company Salesforce (NYSE:) and technology company Dell Technologies (NYSE:) will report this week.
3. Buffett reassures investors, recalls Charlie Munger
Billionaire investing icon Warren Buffett told investors that his $900 billion Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate was “built to withstand even the worst financial disasters.”
But in his closely watched annual shareholder letter released over the weekend, Buffett indicated that Berkshire's share price was unlikely to see a “surprising” move given its already enormous size. He added that only a handful of companies have the ability to “move the needle” at Berkshire, “and they have been teased endlessly by us and others.”
Berkshire posted a record operating profit of $37.4 billion in 2023, helped by a 28% rise in fourth-quarter profit to $8.48 billion.
Buffett also took time to honor his longtime colleague Charlie Munger, who died in November at the age of 99. Buffett called Munger the “architect” of Berkshire.
4. Ant Group outbids Citadel for Credit Suisse's China division – Bloomberg
As Bloomberg reported on Monday, Jack Ma-backed fintech firm Ant Group outbid Citadel Securities for Credit Suisse's investment banking unit in China.
Ant wants to build a securities business using the division, although people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Chinese authorities would be more inclined to favor a foreign buyer for the unit.
The Bloomberg report did not provide details on the value of Ant's bid. Citadel, founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, had reportedly bid between 1.5 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan for the company at the end of 2023.
Ant's approach could cause some problems for Swiss bank UBS Group AG (NYSE:) (SIX:UBSG), which acquired smaller rival Credit Suisse last year. UBS needs to find a buyer for the Chinese unit because it already controls a securities firm in China and cannot have two licenses for the same company, Bloomberg reported.
5. Oil prices are falling
Oil prices fell in European trading on Monday, extending the previous session's sharp losses caused by uncertainty over demand.
Traders are focusing on a range of key economic data this week, as well as further signals from the Federal Reserve on the direction of interest rates.
Concerns about weakening demand, particularly after the Fed's recent hawkish signals, weighed heavily on crude oil prices last week, pushing them down about 3% on Friday and also erasing all of the week's gains. These concerns far outweighed signs of ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which have heightened fears of supply disruptions and provided some support to oil prices.
April crude fell 0.5% to $81.23 a barrel, while it fell 0.5% to $75.70 a barrel by 3:10 a.m. ET.
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