Futures point to Wall Street edging lower
The U.S. stock market is tipped to start the trading week lower, reversing Friday’s gains, following a stellar jobs report.
Investors appear concerned about a report on the Financial Times, saying China has ordered all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign personal computer equipment and software within three years.
The directive seems a retaliatory measure in response to Donald Trump’s push against Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies.
According to the report, work to remove between 20 to 30 million pieces of hardware will kick off next year. This is likely to hurt U.S. tech companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), HP (NYSE: HPQ), and Dell (NYSE: DELL).
At 4:30 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures dropped 37 points, or 0.13% to 27,977. The S&P 500 futures were down 4.38 points, or 0.14% to 3,141.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures declined 12.63 points, or 0.15% to 8,387.62.
China hopes to reach trade deal with U.S. ‘as soon as possible’
China’s Assistant Commerce Minister Ren Hongbin says his country hopes to secure a trade agreement with the U.S. as soon as possible.
“On the question of China-US trade talks and negotiations, we wish that both sides can, on the foundation of equality and mutual respect, push forward negotiations, and in consideration of each others’ core interests, reach an agreement that satisfies all sides as soon as possible,” Ren told reporters on Monday at a press conference in Beijing.
The two side have been engaging in intense trade talks, with the U.S. expected to impose fresh tariffs on Chinese goods on December 15.
ArQule skyrockets 99% after Merck agrees to buy the company for $2.7 billion
ArQule (NASDAQ: ARQL) stock price surged in pre-market trade Monday, after Merck (NYSE: MRK) agreed to buy the biopharmaceutical company for $20 per share in cash or an equity value of about $2.7 billion.
ArQule focuses on research and development of targeted therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer and rare diseases.
The companies issued a press release saying they expect to finalize the transaction in the first quarter of 2020. At the time of writing, shares of ArQule were up 99.69% to $19.30 apiece.