24 hours, raising the mainland’s total to 40,171. The death toll grew by 97 to 910, surpassing the 774 attributed to the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a 2003 viral outbreak that originated in China.
*Meanwhile, the director-general of the World Health Organization warned Sunday that countries outside of China should be prepared for the spread of the coronavirus to accelerate.*
Earnings season also is in the final stretch this week. With nearly two-thirds of S&P 500 companies having reported through Friday, FactSet now expects profits to grow in the fourth quarter. With 324 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 70.7% have beat Street estimates. Analysts now see aggregate year-on-year fourth-quarter earnings growth of 2.3%, a reversal from the 0.3% decline analysts projected on Jan 1.
*Tesla Inc.* +3.10% shares jumped above $800 Monday after its Shanghai factory resumed production, and iPhone maker Foxconn re-started a key plant in China with 10% of its workforce., then Tesla pulled back, after Morgan Stanley said the shift to electric vehicles from internal combustion engines could be worth $25 trillion over the next few decades.
That is cold comfort for *Apple* (fell as much as 1.9%), whose iPhone sales in China could plunge by as much as 50% due to the virus, according to analysts.
Shares of *Amazon.com, Inc*. rose 2.6% to score a third straight record close.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.60 billion shares, compared with the 7.66 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
The euro declined after the region was buffeted by political headlines. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s succession plan collapsed, and polls put Sinn Fein in place for a possible role in Ireland’s government, depressing the country’s banking stocks. European equities closed higher. In corporate news, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Sunday that German carmaker Daimler planned to cut up to 15,000 jobs as it intensified cost-cutting measures.
Elsewhere, extreme weather conditions caused by Storm Ciara led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, railway services and sports matches across the U.K. and northern Europe on Sunday. Energy companies said hundreds of thousands of British homes lost power during the storm, the BBC reported on Monday.
*Here are some key events coming up:*
• Earnings season continues with reports including: MGM Resorts and Cisco Systems on Monday; Softbank on Wednesday; Thursday will bring Alibaba, Nissan, Credit Suisse, Airbus, Nestle and AIG.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivers his semiannual testimony in Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday; ECB President Christine Lagarde speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Tuesday.
• Thursday brings a gauge of underlying U.S. inflation, the core consumer price index. It’s expected to increase to 0.2% in January, a faster pace than in December.
• China and the U.S. on Friday lower tariffs on billions of dollars of respective imports, as part of the trade deal signed last month.
*Currencies*
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed at 1,207.56, the highest in more than 10 weeks.
• The British pound climbed 0.2% to $1.2912.
• The euro dipped 0.3% to $1.0913, hitting the weakest in 19 weeks with its sixth consecutive decline.
• The Japanese yen was little changed at 109.74 per dollar.
• The offshore yuan strengthened 0.3% to 6.9854 per dollar, the largest increase in four weeks.
*Bonds*
• The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased three basis points to 1.56%, the lowest in a week.
• Germany’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to -0.41%, the lowest in a week on the largest drop in more than a week.
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 0.557%, the lowest in a week.
*Commodities*
• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $49.58 a barrel, the lowest in more than 13 months on the largest fall in a week.
• Gold strengthened 0.2% to $1,573.67 an ounce, the highest in a week.
• LME copper dipped 1.3% to $5,663 per metric ton, the largest decrease in two weeks.
By: via @AlliesFin Serve T.ME/ALLiESFiN
