Stock Market Today: Stocks edge lower with inflation, Biden-Xi summit in focus

Updated at 8:40 am EST

U.S. equity futures slipped lower Monday, while Treasury bond yields inched higher and the dollar added to gains against its global peers, as investors braced for a series of headline risks this week as they look to extend last week's rally into the final months of the year. 

Stocks powered firmly higher in Friday, paced by outsized gains for mega-cap tech stocks and tame Treasury bond yields, notching their second consecutive weekly advance into the tail-end of the third quarter earnings season.

Markets face another series of stern tests this week, however, in the form of October inflation data on Tuesday, retail sales figures on Thursday, and headlines from a key face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. 

Retail gains Home Depot HD, Target TGT and Walmart WMT will also update on October quarter earnings, as well as their holiday-season outlook, starting Tuesday. 

Markets are very likely to remain focused on moves in the bond market, as well, following volatility tied to benchmark Treasury auctions last week and a late Friday move by Moody's Investors Service to lower their outlook on the U.S. debt rating to 'negative' from 'stable', noting that "downside risks to the US' fiscal strength have increased and may no longer be fully offset by the sovereign's unique credit strengths."

Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields were little-changed from Friday levels, however, and traded 3 basis point higher at 4.660% in early New York trading, while 2-year notes nudged 3 basis points higher to 5.069%. 

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.05% higher at 105.916 as the dollar hit a fresh one-year high of 151.78 against the yen in overnight trading.

Global oil prices were muted, as well, ahead of delayed Energy Department data on domestic crude stockpiles and exports later in the session, following a third consecutive weekly decline that was capped in late Friday trading.

Brent crude futures contracts for January delivery, the global pricing benchmark, were marked 22 cents higher at $81.61 per barrel while WTI futures for December were up 16 cents at $77.33 per barrel.

On Wall Street, futures tied to the S&P 500, which is up 5.28% so far this month, are priced for a 12 point opening bell dip while those linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average are indicating a 66 point pullback. 

The tech-focused Nasdaq, which has surged 7.37% so far this month, is set for a 50 point decline.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was marked 0.7% higher in early Frankfurt trading, while Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.6% in London.

In Asia, the late-session decline for the yen took some steam out of early gains for the Nikkei 225, with the benchmark trimming its session gain to just 0.05% by the close of trading.

Solid gain for China stocks, linked in part to the recent detente between Washington and Beijing, helped the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index to a 0.55% gain heading into the final hours of trading.

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