By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- Stocks fell despite vaccinations starting in the U.S. on Monday, as the prospect of more Covid-19 shutdowns in major cities like New York weighed on sentiment.
It should have been a positive day for stocks after the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control cleared the way for the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX). Another vaccine by Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) could be approved soon, as well.
But cases are still surging throughout the country, and the U.S. death toll from the virus crossed 300,000. New York’s governor and the mayor of NYC warned a complete shutdown of nonessential activity would be ordered if hospitals started to get overwhelmed.
Stimulus might ignite stocks, but agreement on Capitol Hill has remained elusive.
Here are three things that could affect the markets tomorrow.
1. Oil prices in view on Brexit negotiations and inventory data
The American Petroleum Institute is set to report its weekly inventory numbers for the industry at 4:30 PM ET (2030 GMT), after last week’s surprisingly massive 15 billion-barrel build.
Oil prices have inched higher in recent days, with international benchmark Brent Oil Futures reaching above $50 a barrel, on demand concerns as well as on-again, off-again Brexit talks. {8849|Crude Oil WTI Futures}}, the American benchmark, is trading above $46.
2. Congress waffles around on stimulus, again
With the Federal Reserve’s periodic two-day meeting this week, Congress is still going back and forth on a new stimulus to help ailing businesses and households.
Now lawmakers are talking about splitting the $908 billion stimulus bill into two parts: a $748 billion proposal that has bipartisan support including aid for vaccine distribution and unemployed benefits, and the other, a $160 billion bill for state and local support and temporary Covid-19 liability protection.
The catch here is they have to get it done by Friday, when Congress goes on recess.
3. Three more stock debuts this week
Last week, investors were dazzled by the public stock debuts of Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ:ABNB) and DoorDash Inc (NYSE:DASH), both of which soared to ridiculous heights and then came back down closer to Earth.
On tap this week are three deals: BioAtla, which makes antibody therapies for cancer, is looking to price an IPO around $15 to $17 a share and raise $150 million.
Cloud-based lending platform Upstart is looking to raise $252 million in an IPO set to price around $20 to $22 a share. The parent of ecommerce platform Wish -- Context Logic -- is looking to raise $1.1 billion in an IPO of $22 to $24 a share.