5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday

Here are the most important news investors need to start their trading day:

Stock futures were flat on Monday as Wall Street focused on debt ceiling talks in Washington. The three major U.S. stock indexes climbed last week, with borrowing-restriction talks, earnings and several economic data points helping to determine whether they rose for a second straight week. The minutes of the last Fed meeting, which could shed light on future interest rate policy, are due on Wednesday. The government will give a second reading of first-quarter GDP on Thursday. The personal consumption expenditures price index, a key inflation measure the Fed watches closely as it makes interest rate decisions, is due on Friday. Follow live market updates here.

Policymakers in Washington have just 10 days to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, or they risk the first-ever U.S. default on its debt as early as June 1.Negotiations between the White House and House Republicans restarted during the presidency on Sunday Joe Biden returns from the G-7 summit in Japan. Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon, a positive sign of discussions that drove markets throughout last week. It was not clear when they met as of Monday morning. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday that a U.S. default would hurt the U.S. and global economies and force the Treasury to make “difficult choices” about which bills to pay. Raising the debt ceiling would not authorize new spending, but Republicans have urged Democrats to cut new spending as part of a deal to raise the borrowing limit.

With the first-quarter earnings season wrapping up, the retail sector will once again dominate the list of companies reporting this week. Big names to announce results include Lowe’s and Best Buy. But other retailers, from Kohl’s to Gap, will also provide more information on how consumers are spending their money and what businesses are doing to keep shoppers buying. Reports last week, including from Home Depot, Target and Walmart, indicated that inflation was still holding back households, and some companies said sales slowed as the first quarter progressed. Here are some of the major companies reporting this week:

European regulator Meta fined 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for allegedly sending EU user data to the U.S. for alleged breaches of landmark digital privacy rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force in 2018 maximum fine.Regulators order Facebook owner to suspend future data transfers to US Yuan It plans to appeal the decision.

shares micron The stock slipped in premarket trading after China said it would ban purchases of some of the U.S. chipmaker’s products. Chinese semiconductor stocks jumped on the news. The ban, sparked by censorship by China’s Cyberspace Administration of China, was extended to operators of “critical information infrastructure”. The U.S. government said in a statement that Micron’s chips “present serious cybersecurity risks, pose a significant security risk to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, and affect China’s national security.” Rising economic and political tensions between the U.S. and China The virus has extended to semiconductor supply, which is critical to a range of industries. Micron said it would continue to engage with Chinese authorities, Reuters reported.