Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Futures rise
U.S. stock markets were primed to open slightly higher Monday morning, as investors sought momentum from last week's gains. All three major indexes had been mired in a three-week losing streak as markets grappled with the reality of yet another big rate hike coming from the Federal Reserve. The central bank's policy-setting committee is expected to raise its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a point next week, even as inflation has shown signs of cooling off somewhat. Investors will get the latest read on inflation Tuesday, when the government is scheduled to report August's consumer price index.
2. Ukraine strikes back
The Ukrainian military has Russia on the run in two portions of the country. After making significant gains in Ukraine's south, the nation's armed forces, bolstered by weaponry from the U.S. and other Western allies, unleashed a lightning counteroffensive in the northeast. According to one Russian official, "the situation is becoming more difficult by the hour" for the Kremlin's forces, in what's become a humiliating few weeks for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine claims it has retaken this month more than 1,100 square miles of territory that had been occupied by Russia. Follow live updates here.
3. Chapek casts a spell at D23
Disney CEO Bob Chapek went on a charm offensive over the weekend at the D23 Expo, sending positive messages to fans, employees and investors alike. It appeared to work, too, at least for one big-time activist investor. Third Point CEO Dan Loeb had been pushing the entertainment and media giant to spin off its ESPN operations, but he backed off on this point with a Sunday morning tweet. "We have a better understanding of @espn's potential as a standalone business and another vertical for $DIS to reach a global audience to generate ad and subscriber revenues," he said. Chapek had told Variety that Disney has "a vision" for where ESPN fits into the company's plan for the next 100 years. "We've not shared that plan," he added.
4. JPMorgan buys another fintech firm
In a move to counter fast-growing Stripe and Block, JPMorgan Chase has agreed to buy fintech payments startup Renovite, CNBC's Hugh Son reports. Chase is already the world's top merchant services provider. It processes about $9 trillion in transactions each day. But executives at the legacy bank, particularly CEO Jamie Dimon, have sounded the alarm about upstart competitors. Since late 2020, when the Covid pandemic was raging, JPMorgan has acquired at least five fintech startups in a tech spending spree that has been met with some criticism. The Renovite deal allows the bank to expand more quickly in global markets since it doesn't require as much coding, Mike Blandina, JPMorgan's global head of payments technology, told CNBC.
5. New chip restrictions
The Biden administration is set to unveil next month a fresh set of restrictions on U.S. semiconductor shipments to China, Reuters reported, citing multiple people familiar with the matter. The limits will focus on chips used for artificial intelligence, as well as tools for making semiconductors. KLA, Lam Research and Applied Materials were notified of the coming changes in letters earlier this year, and the companies acknowledged the communication. Reuters also reported that some of its sources for the article said the administration could also unveil additional actions against China, as President Joe Biden pushes to make the United States more competitive with its rival.
Money Report
— CNBC's Carmen Reinicke, Holly Ellyatt, Jeff Cox and Hugh Son contributed to this report.
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