1. Tesla reaction: Shares in Tesla shot up as much as 15% premarket after Elon Musk agreed to step down as chairman and pay a $20 million fine to settle a case brought last week by US regulators.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Musk last week, claiming he misled investors by claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private. Shares in the electric car-maker plunged 14% on Friday.
Musk, who remains CEO, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing under the settlement announced on Saturday.
With the lawsuit settled, investors will turn their focus on whether the company can sustain and surpass its long-promised target of building 5,000 Model 3s per week. A critical production report is due Tuesday.
2. Ryanair warning: Shares in Ryanair opened 8% lower after the company issued a profit warning.
The discount carrier slashed its earnings guidance for the current fiscal year to between €1.1 billion ($1.27 billion) and €1.2 billion ($1.39 billion), down from an earlier range of €1.25 billion ($1.45 billion) to €1.35 billion ($1.56 billion).
Ryanair said that strikes and flight cancellations in September had resulted in lower traffic and higher costs. It warned that customer fears of further cancellations had led to reduced bookings, forcing the airline to cut fares in the third quarter.
The stock is down more than 20% in 2018.
3. Change at Goldman: Monday marks the end of an era at Goldman Sachs, with Lloyd Blankfein being replaced as CEO by David Solomon.
Solomon, who has served as the company’s president and chief operating officer, comes in at a tricky time. He will need to deal with lower revenue from Goldman’s trading desk, which collects client fees to buy and sell bonds, commodities and currencies.
4. NAFTA revamped: Canada agreed Sunday to sign on to a trade deal between the United States and Mexico, revamping the three-country North American Free Trade Agreement after more than a year of tortuous negotiations.
The new deal will give US farmers greater access to Canada’s dairy market and address concerns about potential US auto tariffs, officials from both countries said.
The agreement with two of the United States’ biggest trading partners fulfills President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA and avoids his threat to exclude Canada if the talks failed.
The Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso were trading lower against the US dollar on Monday.
5. Global market overview: US stock futures were pointing higher.
European markets opened with gains.
Stocks in Asia were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei ended the session higher, while Korea’s Kospi and India’s Sensex were down. Markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for a holiday.
The Dow Jones industrial averageand theNasdaq closed 0.1% higher on Friday. The S&P 500 was flat.
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6. Earnings and economics: Stitch Fix plans to release earnings after the close.
The Institute for Supply Management will publish data on September manufacturing at 10 a.m. ET.
General Electric, mired in a deep slump, unexpectedly ousted CEO John Flannery on Monday. Shares in GE shot up 10% in premarket trading after the announcement.
Flannery is being replaced by H. Lawrence Culp Jr., the former CEO of Danaher, an industrial company.
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7. Coming this week:
Monday — Stitch Fix and WageWorks earnings; David Solomon becomes Goldman Sachs CEO; Eurozone unemployment rate
Tuesday — PepsiCo earnings; US auto sales for September
Wednesday — Lennar and Pier 1 earnings; ADP employment report
Thursday — Costco earnings; CNN Business launches
Friday — US jobs report
