US equity futures slipped from record highs, European stocks held steady at the start of a new week and Chinese stocks soared the most in five weeks, as investors awaited a fresh round of corporate earnings with global shares sitting at record highs. The dollar slid following the crypto rout over the weekend. Gold rose and oil was flat.

At 07:30 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 81points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 10.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 46points, or 0.3% after briefly rising above Friday’s close during the European morning. Notable movers included Activision Blizzard and PayPal which fell in premarket trading. Tesla slid 1.6% following a deadly crash involving a 2019 Model S that no one appeared to be driving. IBM and United Airlines are due to report.

Chinese stocks drop after SEC delisting measures

Looking at global markets, the MSCI world equity index climbed to a new peak, up 0.2% despite the weakness in US futures. Blockbuster economic data from China and the US last week pushed the MSCI All-Country World Index to another record despite concerns surrounding the spread of Covid-19 variants. New infections in the past week surpassed 5.2 million, the most since the pandemic began, with emerging markets (i.e. India, Brazil) getting hit the hardest.

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