Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Turn the page
Stocks are coming off a strong April, which gave the Dow its best month since January, and May is going to test those positive vibes right out of the gate. This week brings a ton of corporate earnings report (see below) as well as the Federal Reserve's latest decision on interest rates. Wall Street expects the Fed to raise its benchmark rate by a quarter point Wednesday. After that, though, observers expect the central bank to ease off on rate hikes as the economy continues to absorb the aftershocks of the crisis that has now claimed three prominent regional U.S. banks with the seizure of First Republic on Monday. Follow live market updates.
2. JPMorgan scoops up First Republic
First Republic on Monday became the third prominent U.S. bank to fail within the past two months. Regulators seized the ailing regional lender after an absolutely crushing week that started with a revelation that it suffered more withdrawals than expected during the first quarter. By the end of Friday, First Republic's stock was down 97% for the year and major banks were circling to pick up the pieces in case the company went into receivership. JPMorgan Chase emerged as the buyer after several banks reportedly made bids. First Republic clients at 84 branches throughout the U.S. will now be JPMorgan customers, and they'll have "full access to all of their deposits," according to the FDIC. For its part, JPMorgan sees the acquisition as a positive. "This acquisition modestly benefits our company overall, it is accretive to shareholders, it helps further advance our wealth strategy, and it is complementary to our existing franchise," CEO Jamie Dimon said.
3. More earnings coming right up
This earnings season is halfway over, and so far it's been fairly positive. Nearly 80% of companies that have already reported posted profits that topped Wall Street's expectations. Likewise, profits have declined less than feared. Much of the relative strength has come from tech companies such as Meta and Microsoft after a brutal 2022 for Silicon Valley and the Nasdaq. Three more tech giants are on the schedule this week – Apple, AMD and Qualcomm – but investors will have plenty to sort through from other industries, as well. Here's when the major names report this week:
- Tuesday: Uber, Restaurant Brands, Pfizer (before the bell); Ford, Starbucks, AMD (after the bell)
- Wednesday: CVS, Yum Brands (before the bell): Qualcomm (after the bell)
- Thursday: Moderna, Paramount Global (before the bell); Apple (after the bell)
- Friday: Warner Bros. Discovery (before the bell)
- Saturday: Berkshire Hathaway
4. Dorsey rips Musk
It was just over a year ago when Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder and former CEO, said Elon Musk was the "singular solution" to take over and improve the social media company. Now Dorsey says he thinks Musk is the wrong person for the job and that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO should have walked away from his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. "It all went south," he said. (Musk did try to get out of the deal, and the matter eventually went to court before the billionaire went through with it.) Dorsey was responding to users on Bluesky, a Dorsey-backed emerging social media network that is shaping up to be an alternative to Twitter.
5. Munger has a warning
The U.S. commercial property market is headed for some rough times, according to Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger. "It's not nearly as bad as it was in 2008," he told the Financial Times, referring to the housing meltdown and subsequent financial crisis of that era. "But trouble happens to banking just like trouble happens everywhere else." Munger said banks are loaded up with "bad loans" that will be vulnerable if the economy hits a bad patch. "A lot of real estate isn't so good anymore," Munger added, according to the FT. "We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. There's a lot of agony out there."
– CNBC's Samantha Subin, Hugh Son and Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.
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