Futures tilt lower
U.S. stocks look set to start the week slightly lower after Reuters reported that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering adding China’s leading chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC to a list of companies blocked from U.S. investment because of their ties to Chinese military.
China International Engineering Consulting Corp. and China Construction Technology Co. Ltd. are also set to be included in the list, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified people familiar with the matter and a document seen.
The move will cut off the companies’ access to American investors and worsen tensions with China weeks before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
As of 6:20 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow were indicated 164 points, or 0.55% lower to 29,710. Those for the S&P 500 dropped 13.38 points, or 0.37% to 3,623.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
OPEC+ two-day meeting in focus
Today, traders will be keeping a close eye as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as allied non-members like Russia and Mexico kick off their two-day meeting to discuss the next phase of its production policy.
The group, known as OPEC+, is expected to consider postpone its production increase, planned for January 2021 as it weighs resurgent shale drilling in the United States and new coronavirus lockdowns against positive vaccine news.
By 6:20 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $44.86, down 67 cents, or 1.47% a barrel. International Brent crude futures gave away 75 cents, or 1.55% to $47.50 a barrel.
S&P 500 acquires IHS Markit for $44 billion
On the M&A front, S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) announced early Monday that it has agreed to acquire London-based IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) in an all-stock deal that values the latter at $44 billion, including $4.8 billion of net debt.
According to a press release published by the companies, S&P Global shareholders will own approximately 68% of the combined company. IHS Markit shareholders will receive 0.2838 share of S&P Global stock for each IHS share under the deal.
Douglas Peterson, the president and CEO of S&P Global, will serve as chief executive of the combined company that will be based in New York.
Once closed, the deal will bring together two of the biggest data providers to Wall Street and create a fierce rival to data giants Refinitiv and Bloomberg.
As of this writing, IHS Markit stock was up 3.77% in pre-market trading. S&P 500 Global shares were down 2.80% to $332.00 each.
