Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Short week ahead
Earnings and economic data could drive stocks in a shortened U.S. trading week. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will headline the week's results when they report Tuesday morning. U.S. December retail sales data due Wednesday will also offer a glimpse into the health of consumers and whether spending tapered off during the critical holiday season. Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 1.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 3.1%. Follow live market updates here.
2. Bank blitz continues
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley's earnings reports add to a string of mixed bank quarterly results posted over the last two trading days. Goldman, in particular, is looking for signs of strength in its core investment banking and trading businesses as it moves away from CEO David Solomon's consumer banking efforts. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America both reported lower fourth-quarter profits due to large one-time charges, while Wells Fargo said its earnings rose during the period. Citigroup, meanwhile, reported a quarterly loss after it booked multiple charges, and the bank also said it planned to cut 20,000 jobs as part of a massive restructuring program.
3. It's Trump's party
Donald Trump is projected to win Iowa's Republican presidential caucus, the party's first 2024 nominating contest, as expected. The result showed just how much control the GOP frontrunner has over the party — and how the window for his rivals to mount a real challenge is closing. With 99% of expected votes in, Trump had garnered about 51% of support, compared with roughly 21% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and about 19% for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The four criminal cases Trump faces, including two related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, did not faze many caucusgoers. Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of respondents said Trump would be fit to be president even if he was convicted of a crime, while 31% said he would not be, according to NBC News entrance polls. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump after he finished fourth.
4. Musk maneuvers
Elon Musk wants more sway over Tesla. The electric vehicle company's CEO said he wants to have about 25% voting control over the company, up from 13% now. In a Monday post on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk said, "I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned." Musk previously sold tens of billions of dollars in Tesla shares to help finance a $44 billion buyout of the platform previously known as Twitter.
5. The robots have arrived ... at Davos
Executives and politicians arrived at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week to find a landscape filled with AI promotion. In recent years, cryptocurrency companies dominated the main area at the alpine gathering of the corporate world's most influential people. That changed this year. From a building dubbed the "AI House" to an ad declaring "The future is AI," Davos showed just how much the technology has worked its way into business strategy and marketing following the rise of generative AI and ChatGPT. Corporate leaders will have a lot to grapple with as they adopt AI. The International Monetary Fund on Sunday said 40% of jobs globally could be affected by the technology. "We are on the brink of a technological revolution that could jumpstart productivity, boost global growth and raise incomes around the world. Yet it could also replace jobs and deepen inequality," said Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF managing director, said.
– CNBC's Pia Singh, Hugh Son, Samantha Subin, Kevin Breuninger, Brian Schwartz, Dan Mangan, Rebecca Picciotto, Lora Kolodny, Arjun Kharpal, MacKenzie Sigalos and Sam Meredith contributed to this report.
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