Reuters/Pring Samrang
Here is what you need to know.
Crude oil hit its best level in over seven months. Early Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil crossed $48.50 a barrel, touching its best level since the beginning of November. Recent gains for the energy component have come as raging wildfires in Canada and militant attacks in Nigeria have helped take supply off the market. WTI crude oil is little changed near $47.72 a barrel.
Tuesday's a primary day. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton will look to move closer to the party's nomination as voters go to the polls in Kentucky and Oregon. Clinton has a combined 2,240 pledged delegates and superdelegates, meanings she is just 143 shy of the nomination. On the Republican side, presumptive nominee Donald Trump looks to add to his delegate count in Oregon. He is 103 delegates shy of locking up the nomination.
UK inflation slowed for the first time since September. Consumer prices in the UK rose 0.3% year-over-year in April, down from the 0.5% gain in March. The reading marked the first time in eight months that UK prices slowed from their previous month. Stripping out the volatility from food and energy, prices climbed 1.2% versus a year ago, but that was shy of the 1.5% gain that was forecast. "Falls in air fares and prices for clothing, vehicles, and social housing rent were the main contributors to the decrease in the rate," the Office for National Statistics said. "These downward pressures were partially offset by rising prices for motor fuels and for certain recreational goods and cultural services, and by food prices, which were unchanged between March and April 2016, having fallen between the same two months a year ago." The British pound is up 0.6% at 1.4481.
Short seller Andrew Left helped bring down Valeant, but now he owns its stock. In October, Left accused Valeant of being a "pharmaceutical Enron." He recently told The Street's Real Money Blog, however, that he now owns stock in the company because, "I don't think they're going to make any decisions that are going to torpedo their company." Left acknowledged that he still owned some of the money puts, which is serving as a hedge to his position.
An activist investor wants Pandora to consider selling itself. Corvex Management announced an 8.3% stake in Pandora, and it thinks the company should consider selling itself, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Journal says a letter accompanying Corvex's regulatory filing said, "Despite its many strengths, the company has been unable to date to translate its great product into a great business with an attractive public market valuation." Shares of Pandora were up more than 3% on the news during Monday's after-hours session.
Agilent Technologies posted an earnings beat. The company announced adjusted earnings of $0.44 a share, topping the $0.39 that Wall Street was anticipated. Revenue rose 5.8% to $1.02 billion, ahead of the $983.5 million that was forecast by the Bloomberg consensus. Agilent sees full-year 2016 earnings per share of $1.88 to $1.92 on revenue of $4.16 billion to $4.18 billion, both ahead of expectations. Shares of Agilent were up close to 4% in after-hours trade.
Twitter is tweaking its character limit. No, the 140-character limit isn't changing. But the social-media company will no longer count web links or photos toward that count, Bloomberg's Sarah Frier reports. The changes could take place in the next couple of weeks.
Stock markets around the world are bid. Spain's IBEX (+0.8%) leads the gains in Europe after Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+1.2%) paced the advance in Asia. S&P 500 futures are little changed near 2,063.
Earnings reporting remains light. Home Depot and T.J. Maxx highlight the names reporting ahead of the opening bell.
US economic data picks up. CPI, housing starts, and building permits will all be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Then, at 9:15 a.m. ET, industrial production and capacity utilization are announced. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 1.76%.
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