1. Wall Street tries to build on recovery from last week
U.S. stock futures were pointing to further gains at Tuesday's open as the Federal Reserve begins its two-day September meeting. Optimism toward a coronavirus vaccine sparked a broad market rally Monday after last week's declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 327 points or 1.2%. The 30-stock benchmark also closed higher Friday.
The S&P 500 was up 1.3% on Monday. The Nasdaq, led by a bounce in tech stocks after last week's rout, was the big winner on the day, up 1.9%. Apple shares, which gained 3% on Monday, rose again in the premarket ahead of the tech giant's virtual product launch event Tuesday afternoon. After the stock market close, FedEx is set to report fiscal first-quarter earnings.
2. Fed on hold until 2023, according to CNBC survey
In the first CNBC Fed Survey since the Federal Reserve announced its new, more dovish monetary policy strategy, respondents now forecast no interest rate hikes from the central bank until 2023. The results are a potential first sign that the Fed's new strategy of allowing inflation to run above its 2% target for an unspecified time have had an immediate impact on the rate outlook. The new average forecast, which has the Fed on hold until February 2023, is six months later than July's CNBC survey.
3. IEA cuts 2020 oil demand forecast
The International Energy Agency on Tuesday cut its forecast for 2020 oil demand growth, citing what it calls a "treacherous" path ahead due to weakening market sentiment and an upsurge in the number of coronavirus cases reported across the globe. U.S. oil prices have lost more than 25% in value this year as pandemic business lockdowns in the spring and uneven reopenings in states that saw new spikes in cases kept consumers off the roads. The IEA report comes after OPEC on Monday cut its own forecast for oil demand growth in 2020, citing a weaker-than-expected recovery in India and other Asian countries.
4. Gates says coronavirus vaccine unlikely before election
Bill Gates, whose foundation works on difficult global health issues, said he does not believe any of the coronavirus vaccines currently in development are likely to seek U.S. approval before the end of October. That would be bad news for President Donald Trump, who has hinted at news of a viable vaccine before Election Day on Nov. 3. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in March announced a collaboration to develop a Covid-19 vaccine with several companies including Pfizer. On Monday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC its vaccine in late-stage trials could be distributed to Americans before the end of the year if its found to be safe and effective.
5. TikTok relying on Trump to back off original demandÂ
China-based ByteDance is banking on Trump backing off comments that a full sale of TikTok's U.S. operations would be needed to avoid an American ban of the wildly popular social media service. The biggest loser from the proposed Oracle deal, as a "trusted technology partner," could be former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer. He was instrumental in bringing Oracle to the table to challenge Microsoft as an interested buyer, sources say. After joining the company in June, Mayer resigned last month. Sources told CNBC that he didn't want to run a U.S.-only company as a division, and he didn't want to be CEO of TikTok without the U.S.
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