Elon Musk announced at an investor event Monday that he expects Tesla (TSLA) to operate full self-driving robo-taxis next year.
It’s an aggressive prediction from Musk, whose company has missed a previous deadline to have a self-driving Tesla drive across the country. Musk also said he expects to convince regulators by the end of next year that self-driving Teslas are safer than human drivers.
Monday’s trading session is over, and investors are getting ready for what’s next. So are we.
Stocks ended Monday’s trading day mixed.
Marathon Oil (MRO) was the S&P’s strongest gainer, closing up 6.6% after oil rallied to settle at its highest level in nearly six months.
Kimberly-Clark (KMB), the consumer products brand, was another strong performer on the S&P, finishing up 5.4%.
The biggest Dow gainers were ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX), but the index nevertheless finished lower as a whole. It was dragged down by losses in cyclical consumer brands and industrial shares. Nike (NKE) was the biggest loser of the day, dropping 2.1%.
Oil futures settled at their highest level since late October on Monday.
With European markets still closed for the long Easter weekend, oil’s jump was the biggest story of the day. Oil popped in the morning after the US announced that it would no longer grant sanction waivers to five countries that buy oil from Iran – China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.
The anticipated squeeze in available supply boosted the price today.
WTI crude oil futures settled at $65.70, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, up 2.7% from Thursday’s close. Futures have have rallied 54.5% since their December lows.
US oil prices climbed nearly 3% on Monday to $65.90 a barrel — a spike of 55% since prices closed at $42.53 a barrel on Christmas Eve.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged 3.4% on Monday and touched $74 for the first time since early November.
Gasoline prices, meanwhile, continued to climb. The national average hit $2.84 a gallon on Monday, up from $2.61 a month ago, according to AAA.
About halfway through the trading day, US stocks are mixed to lower.
The energy sector is leading gains in the Dow and the S&P 500, but the best Dow stock of the day so far is consumer brand Kimberly-Clark (KMB). Shares of the maker of Kleenex are up 5.6% after the company reported first quarter earnings before the opening bell.
In the energy space, Exxon Mobile (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Marathon Oil (MRO) and Diamondback Energy (FANG) registered the strongest gains so far.
A rally in oil prices is the big driver on Monday, leading everything higher from energy stocks to currencies in countries that rely heavily on the energy sector.
The Canadian dollar, Norwegian krone and Russian ruble all climbed higher versus the US dollar, after the US government said it will no longer grant waivers to countries that buy oil from Iran.
Russia’s ruble even touched its best level since August on Monday, according to Refinitiv.
Kraft Heinz (KHC) has announced a new CEO to help turn the company around.
The stock is down more than 20% for the year:
Bernardo Hees, the current CEO, will leave the company in June and and will be replaced by Miguel Patricio. He was previously the global chief marketing officer for Anheuser-Busch (BUD).
Kraft Heinz hasn’t recovered from its most recent earnings report in February, which was extremely bleak:
Stocks in the energy sector were the biggest gainers in the Dow and the S&P 500 Monday as oil prices tracked higher.
The US announced it would no longer grant waivers to countries that buy oil from Iran. Last year, the government granted exemptions to sanctions for doing business with Iran to five countries buying oil from Teheran – China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.
WTI Crude Oil futures were up 2.4%, while Brent Crude futures were 2.8% higher in anticipation of tighter supply without Iranian oil on the market.
Exxon Mobile (XOM) was the biggest gainer in the Dow, closely followed by Chevron (CVX). In the S&P, exploration and production companies Marathon Oil (MRO) and Diamondback Energy (FANG) were among the fastest climbers.
Stocks kicked off the week lower on Monday following the long Easter weekend.
Earnings season continues to be the name of the game this week. Consumer products brand Kimberly-Clark (KMB) shot up 5.6% at the open, after reporting earnings before the bell.
Elsewhere, Tesla (TSLA) is in focus, after one of its vehicles seems to have exploded in China. The company is holding its investor day today, and is due to report earnings later this week. Tesla shares kicked the week off 2.4% lower.
Chinese stocks had one of their worst trading days of the year on Monday, with the CSI 300 index falling 2.3%.
It was one of its worst one-day percentage drops in 2019, exceeded only by two separate occasions in March, according to Refinitiv.
The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP) closed 1.7% lower.
Analysts attribute the stock slide to a statement from China’s Politburo on Friday, in which the government committee said the economy was on stable footing. Last week, China reported first quarter GDP growth at 6.4%, better than expected.
The Politburo’s comments “implied to markets that the authorities would be less inclined to support growth,” wrote Scotiabank FX strategists Shaun Osborne and Eric Theoret.
The New York Stock Exchange will hold a minute of silence before today’s market open for the victims of the attacks in Sri Lanka over the weekend.
The stock exchange “extends its deepest sympathies to those affected by the devastating bombings,” it said in a statement. The moment of silence will be held at 9:20 a.m. ET.
The death toll from multiple bombings on Easter Sunday has risen to 290.
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) announced that it’s bowing to shareholder pressure and shaking up its board.
The stock is spiking nearly 5% in premarket trading.
Last month, activist investors pushed for Bed Bath & Beyond to revamp its board. The company has fallen behind rival retailers in recent years.
This is shaping up to be a very big week for Tesla (TSLA).
The company is likely to face tough questions from investors and customers after one of its vehicles appeared to explode in China.
A short video circulating on social media shows white smoke emerging from what looks like a white Tesla car parked in Shanghai. After a few seconds, the vehicle bursts into flames.
On Monday, the electric carmaker will hold its investor day.
On Wednesday, it will report earnings. It’s expected to reveal a major loss.
Tesla said last Friday that four directors will leave the company — shrinking the size of its board to seven. One departing board member, Steve Jurvetson, is considered a close ally of CEO Elon Musk.
The stock is down more than 2% in premarket trading.
Crude oil futures have spiked after the Washington Post reported that the United States will end sanctions waivers that had allowed some countries to continue buying Iranian oil.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will announce Monday that the US will no longer grant waivers as of May 2, the newspaper reported.
Pompeo is set to announce that countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to make up for lost supply from Iran, according to the Washington Post.
Chinese tech giant Huawei reported Monday that its sales jumped 39% to 179.7 billion yuan ($26.8 billion) in the first quarter.
The private company did not reveal its profits, but it did say that its net profit margin had increased slightly to 8%.
Huawei sells more telecommunications equipment than any other company in the world, and its smartphone business is growing faster than that of Samsung or Apple (AAPL).
But it has come under intense pressure from a US campaign to curb its ambitions to become the global leader of next generation wireless technology, or 5G.
Huawei touted its 5G business in its statement on Monday, saying it has signed 40 commercial contracts for 5G with leading global carriers.
