5 things to know before the stock market opens on Monday

Here are the key news investors need to start their trading day:

Stock futures are lower on Monday, as Wall Street starts a new month after strong gains in July. All three major US stock indexes recorded their best months of the year. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 9.1[ads1]% and 6.7%, respectively, in July, their biggest monthly gains since November 2020. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, ending a three-month losing streak. The index rose 12.35% in July for its best month since April 2020, driven by robust gains in the technology sector.

Crude oil prices fell on Monday as energy markets digested poor factory data from China and Japan and prepared for OPEC and its oil-producing allies to decide on September output later this week. West Texas Intermediate futures, the US oil benchmark, were trading lower by about 1.5% on Monday, while international benchmark Brent crude futures fell around 1.1%. WTI and Brent fell for a second month in a row in July as recession worries weighed on prices, their first two-month losing streak since October 2020. The group known as OPEC+ is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss whether to hold September production plans steady or increase production modestly, according to Reuters.

It’s another full week for earnings on Wall Street, after tech heavyweights including Apple and Amazon posted quarterly numbers in recent days. In all, 148 companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report results over the next five days, including Caterpillar, JetBlue and Starbucks on Tuesday, followed by the likes of Yum Brands and Booking Holdings on Wednesday. In addition to the jam-packed earnings report, July’s nonfarm payrolls report is due Friday morning. Investors are anticipating this key labor market announcement as they look for more insight into the health of the US economy amid recession worries.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Sunday he is focusing on inflation data — not the argument over whether the U.S. economy is in recession. While that discussion intensified late last week when an advance estimate of second-quarter GDP showed a negative reading, the central bank official told CBS he is paying more attention to other economic data right now. “Whether or not we’re technically in a recession doesn’t change my analysis,” Kashkari said in an interview on “Face the Nation.” “I’m focused on the inflation data. I’m focused on the wage data. And so far, inflation continues to surprise us to the upside. Wages continue to grow.” CNBC’s Cameron Albert-Deitch has more on Kashkari’s comments here.

In a recent all-hands meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees at the tech giant that their productivity needs to improve and asked for help in creating a culture that is “more mission-focused,” among other things. “Clearly we face a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead,” Pichai said, adding later: “There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be relative to the number of employees we have. ” Read the full report from CNBC’s Jennifer Elias here.

— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias, Cameron Albert-Deitch, Patti Domm and Christopher Hayes contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed.

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