stock futures declined on monday as earnings season is set to kick off this week and investors worried about the impact of inflation on corporate profits were in a backdrop where central banks are going to continue raising interest rates and the underlying market narrative continues to be one of potentially rising recession risks were going to see markets react to different data points react to earnings said laura cooper a macro strategist at blackrock that sets us up for quite a volatile period ahead were cautious on equities were not advocating for buy the dip at this current juncture cooper said many householdname firms are set to post earnings this week including pepsico on tuesday and delta air lines on wednesday these are going to be huge bellwethers on consumer confidence on spending the guidance will be really important these guys have incredible insight about how the consumer is behaving and how they expect this to evolve over the rest of the year said fahad kamal chief investment officer at kleinwort hambros overseas the pancontinental stoxx europe 600 slid 12 while most major asian benchmarks declined chinese stocks dropped after shanghai reported its first case of the ba5 omicron subvariant on sunday and the country recorded more than 3300 locally transmitted covid19 cases nationwide over the weekend the shanghai composite index fell 15 and hong kongs hang seng index dropped 3 i still think the worst is behind us said david chao global market strategist for asia pacific at invesco but this new variant could potentially portend to possible social distancing restrictions being brought back out to places like shanghai this is certainly a worry that i have officials in macau set a weeklong shutdown of casinos and other businesses to combat the surge in cases gambling stocks tumbled with sands china sliding 72 wynn macau shedding 59 and galaxy entertainment group down 61 on monday beijing fined some of the countrys largest internet companies for failing to make proper antitrust declarations weighing on tech stocks alibaba tencent and ping an healthcare  technology which were named in the latest executive punishment notices fell 64 27 and 4 respectively there continues to be this hope that the regulators are done with their oversight measures for many internet companies but i think todays actions demonstrate that perhaps were not out of the regulatory woods just yet invescos mr chao said read the stock market faces next test as inflation looms over earnings season goldman sachs said the strong employment gains seen in recent months are probably overstating true job growth the payroll survey shows that us employers added 372000 jobs in june even as the economy was cooling amid high inflation and rising interest rates however other data show increasing signs of a cooling job market with job openings and quits declining rising jobless claims ism indices in contraction levels and many publicly traded companies setting out firing freezes or slowdowns perhaps most tellingly the household survey of employment has shown essentially no job gains for the past three months both on a headline basis and when adjusted to the definitions of the establishment survey the usd index is on track to move above 108 this week because the outlook for the global economy is deteriorating said cba us inflation data on wednesday is likely to show prices growth was stubbornly high in june especially the more useful trimmed mean and weighted median measures cba expects high inflation will encourage the fed to hike rates by 75 basis points at its next meeting on july 28 ing said the prospects of the fed continuing to raise interest rates at a swift pace should lift the dollar further with the robust jobs data helping cement expectations for a 75 basispoint increase in july we dont expect the fed narrative to turn much less supportive for the dollar over the summer global risk aversion and recession fears which are also boosting the dollar look likely to remain in place in the near term ing said usd index could easily rise above 108 this week usdjpy climbed 06 to 13686 after earlier touching 13728 its highest intraday level since september 1998 and jpmorgan said a further deterioration in japans trade deficit spells fundamental headwinds for yen jpm said japans trade balance seems to have been moving in line with the brent price in yen terms suggesting the trade deficit is likely to linger if oil prices remain at their current high levels implying sustained yenselling flow from importers bond markets continued to flash a key warning sign the yield curve remained inverted with yields on shorterdated bonds above those of longerdated debt oil futures were down more than 2 in europe on demand concerns as china faced a contagious new variant of covid19 and reimposed lockdown measures the new curbs were reviving concerns about a recession and demand for oil said spi asset management still longerterm structural issues facing the oil market such as a lack of fresh supply will support prices through any nearterm uncertainty a likely outcome of this weeks meeting between joe biden and saudi arabias mohammed bin salman will be that the saudis agree to loosen the oil taps said rbc capital markets we believe that he biden will not only be seeking additional barrels but also a redirection of exports to europe to backfill the looming russian losses with the most serious energy sanctions set to take effect in several months time rbc said any increase in saudi oil output will likely be within the terms of the current opec production agreement saudi and uae could compensate for the production underperformance of opec members such as nigeria and angola rbc added read barronscom oil prices have plummeted heres their next test base metals were around 1 lower in early european trading on worries of rising covid19 rates in china and persistent fears of a global recession market risks have shifted decisively from inflation to growth as hard economic data has slowed considerably said spi asset management a recession is not the markets base outlook but until proven otherwise investors will debate the depth of the growth hit not the likelihood of recession jefferies said commodity prices are headed for a trough in the second half cutting its 2022 forecast for ironore fines by 98 to 12178ton aluminum by 23 to 117lb copper by 16 to 379lb and gold by 31 to 1938oz among other changes while we expect a strong recovery from this downturn it will take time as chinese stimulus is likely to be partially offset by nearterm weakness in the us and europe we also believe that we will look back at this period with the benefit of hindsight as having been an excellent entry point that most in the market will have missed twitter faces renewed questions on path ahead as elon musk tries to abandon deal elon musks decision to try to walk away from his 44 billion acquisition of twitter inc after weeks of criticizing the company leaves the bruised socialmedia platform reeling in the midst of an already challenging period an avid user of the platform and the worlds richest man mr musk offered a premium to buy the company when he agreed to the takeover in april while the company has signaled it plans to hold him to the agreement the prospect of being successfully spurned by its deeppocketed suitor presents considerable challenges for twitter long covid is an elusive target for big pharma this is the second column in a threepart heard on the street series on long covid the drug industry developed covid19 vaccines and treatments at breakneck speed saving millions of lives in the process yet treatments for the postviral illness known as long covid which is afflicting millions are nowhere close to being developed pariseuropean manufacturers are preparing for possible naturalgas rationing that would force them to shut production amid fears that russia is about to cut off gas deliveries via its main artery to europe on monday the nord stream pipeline which runs 760 miles from northwest russia under the baltic sea to germany will go into annual maintenance for 10 days repairs that are routine in peaceful times european officials say that moscow which has already cut gas deliveries to 40 of the pipelines capacity might not bring it back online hong kongthe gambling enclave of macau will enter a citywide lockdown early monday as authorities seek to contain a spiraling covid19 outbreak aside from essential services such as supermarkets healthcare facilities and restaurants selling takeaway all other businesses have been ordered to shut for a week with residents required to stay at home city officials urged the public not to panicbuy food asking people to make purchases at staggered times to enable social distancing in queues onshore bondholders of china evergrande group have rejected a proposal to extend repayment of a 450 billion yuan us6721 million bond the latest sign of trouble for the heavily indebted chinese property developer