Stock futures are flat as Wall Street focuses on tense debt ceiling negotiations – CNBC

Wells Fargo and Citi upgraded shares of Norfolk Southern on Monday morning on a more optimistic outlook, lifting shares 1.5% before the bel.

“We see a period of elevated growth from 2025-2029 that justifies a multiple premium for the Eastern Rails, of which we view NS to have the most leverage for expansion given its lagging multiple, high relative intermodal exposure and lagging OR,” said Wells Fargo analyst Allison Poliniak-Cusic.

Meanwhile, Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee sayid Norfolk could perform similar to “more cyclical companies” that are “likely to react more positively to improving TL [truckload] dynamics” in his upgrade note.

Read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Shares of PacWest, one of the regional banks in focus for traders following the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic, were higher on Monday after a real estate deal.

PacWest Bancorp sold $2.6 billion in construction loans to a subsidiary of Kennedy-Wilson Holdings.

PacWest shares were up 2% in premarket trading, following a 25% gain last week. The stock is down 75% this year.

—John Melloy

Meta shares were lower after the social network was fined a record $1.3 billion by European regulators.

The fine was over the transfer of European Union user data to the U.S. and comes after the Irish Data Protection Commission, which oversees Meta EU operations, alleged the company infringed the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, known as ‘GPDR.’ It’s the biggest fine for violating the GPDR.

Meta said it would appeal. The shares were off by about 1% in early trading.

—John Melloy, Arjun Kharpal

Apple shares were lower after Loop Capital downgraded the iPhone maker to hold from buy.

Loop see Apple missing its revenue guidance for this quarter.

Read the full details here on CNBC PRO.

Apple shares were lower by about 1% in premarket trading.

Shares of Micron tumbled after China’s Cyberspace Administration barred operators of “critical information infrastructure” in China from buying products from the U.S. memory chipmaker.

Micron is a “major security risk” to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, a statement said.

Micron shares shed nearly 6% in premarket trading. The iShares Semiconductor ETF lost more than 1% in early trading.

—John Melloy

European stocks lacked direction Monday morning as investors waited for the latest news on U.S. debt ceiling talks, with the Stoxx 600 index up 0.07% at 8:12 a.m. London time.

Mining, oil and gas and banking stocks suffered the worst losses, all down around 0.5%.

Household goods and health care were more upbeat, gaining 0.5%.

Germany’s DAX slipped 0.12% from Friday’s record close, while France’s CAC dipped 0.08%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 added 0.25%.

Thai stocks are the worst performers in Southeast Asia this year, but UBS says Thailand is its “top pick” in the region. Thailand’s SET index fell 0.5% on Monday’s afternoon and is down by more than 9% this year.

Thailand stands to be a “big beneficiary” of a tourism boost from China once the latter’s employment numbers increase, said UBS Global Wealth Management’s Kelvin Tay told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

However, Thailand’s elections are a “potential game changer” and monarchy-linked companies could be set back by a change in government, he said.

— Audrey Wan

Japan’s core machinery orders fell 3.9% in March compared to the previous month, falling further than expected.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected the reading to rise by 0.7% month-on-month.

Compared to a year ago, machinery orders also fell 3.5%, against expectations for the print to rise by 1.4%

Japan’s machinery orders rose 9.8% year-on-year in February.

— Jihye Lee

China’s Cyberspace Administration has barred operators of “critical information infrastructure” in China from purchasing products from U.S. memory producer Micron.

This comes as the Cyberspace Administration of China said that Micron products have failed its network security review, citing “serious potential network security issues.”

It added that this “poses a major security risk to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain and affects [its] national security.”

The cyberspace administration did not specify which products will be prohibited or what security issues Micron’s products had in its release.

Shares of Micron’s rivals in South Korea rose Monday morning after the announcement, with SK Hynix rising 1.54% and Samsung Electronics gaining 0.5%.

— Lim Hui Jie

The People’s Bank of China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged for the ninth consecutive month.

China left its 1-year loan prime rate unchanged at 3.65% and its 5-year loan prime rate unchanged at 4.30%, in line with expectations by economists polled by Reuters.

The Chinese onshore yuan weakened 0.2% to 7.0205 against the U.S. dollar.

— Jihye Lee

Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian hiked her year-end target for the S&P 500 to 4,300 from 4,000 on Sunday evening.

The new target is more than 2% above where the index closed on Friday. Subramanian said in a note that the recent focus on efficiency from major companies should help make earnings more stable going forward.

For more on this call and other Wall Street forecasts, check out CNBC Pro.

— Jesse Pound

Federal leaders are expected to continue with negotiations on the U.S. debt ceiling on Monday as the country approaches a potential default.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are scheduled to meet in person at the White House.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that “hard choices” will need to be made about which bills will go unpaid if the debt ceiling is not raised and reaffirmed her warning that the United States could default on its debt as early as June 1,

— Jesse Pound, Ashley Capoot

Stock futures fell on Sunday evening, with Dow futures dipping about 0.2% and S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures losing about 0.3%.

— Jesse Pound