Stock Market Today: Dow Futures Fall, Bond Yields Rise, Earnings Season Picks Up

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Stock futures traded lower Monday, bond yields rose, and Wall Street braced for a busy week of earnings reports from the likes of

Tesla
,

Netflix

and

Bank of America
.

Contracts linked to the

Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell 63 points, or 0.2%, to 34,295, the

S&P 500
futures declined 0.5% and

Nasdaq
futures were down 0.8%.

Asian shares finished Monday’s session with losses after China released mixed economic data. China’s gross domestic product in the first quarter rose a more than expected 4.8%, while retail sales fell 3.5% in March, wider than expectations.

Markets in Hong Kong remained closed for the Easter holiday as was most of Europe.

Investors in the U.S. get back to work Monday after a three-day holiday weekend. Wall Street had a rough week before going on an extended break. The Dow fell 0.8% last week, the S&P 500 slid 2.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq, hurt by the rapid rise in bond yields, declined 2.6%.

Treasury yields rose Monday amid heightened inflation worries and expectations that the Federal Reserve will move aggressively to try to cool an overheated economy. The 10-year Treasury yield rose early Monday to 2.866%, the highest since late 2018.

Bank of America (ticker: BAC) is the earnings highlight Monday. The report comes amid what already has been a tough earnings season for the biggest banks in the U.S. Netflix (NFLX) reports after the closing bell Tuesday, and Tesla (TSLA) reports Wednesday. Sixty-seven companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report earnings this week.

Ryan Belanger, managing principal and founder of Claro Advisors, a wealth management firm based in Boston, said this week will be an important one for the stock market, with investors “eager for more earnings data to gauge how well companies are navigating inflation and rising labor costs.”

Belanger said the while the U.S. may be approaching “peak inflation” it doesn’t mean inflation rates are headed lower.

“We expect elevated inflation for the next year amid increased consumer demand and continued supply-chain disruptions,” Belanger added.

Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com