Dow falls 200 points as Chinese Covid protests dampen market sentiment

Eight stocks surged to new 52-week highs Monday, in the final trading week of November, even as the broader market slipped. Here’s what companies notched records:

—Carmen Reinicke, Chris Hayes

Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz and Gramercy advisor, said the way China has been managing Covid is “totally baffling” but can be fixed with Western vaccines, although it would still take months to achieve herd immunity.

“We had the issue of lives versus livelihood, and we flip flopped because vaccines came along and allowed for certain degree of her immunity,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday. “China has been trying the Covid Zero policy, never got out of the live versus livelihood dilemma, has flip flopped and now the population’s patience has been tested.”

The protests will likely lead to supply “uncertainty” for companies that operate there. For everyone else, it could be an obstacle to lower inflation.

“We may have an issue where inflation gets stuck at around 4%,” he said. “Supply chain issues, the change of globalization [and] wages mean inflation will not get back to 2% quickly for us. For the companies involved, it means it takes longer than they would like to rewire the supply chains.”

— Tanaya Macheel

Shares of key retail stocks rose Monday after Black Friday broke an online shopping record. Consumers spent a new high of $9.12 billion online during the retail holiday according to Adobe.

Amazon stock gained 1.7% on Monday following the shopping record. Shares of Target also rose 1.8%. Walmart also ticked slightly higher, up about 0.31% Monday morning.

—Carmen Reinicke

The recent rally for the market is starting show “some signs of exhaustion,” Katie Stockton of Fairlead Strategies said on “Squawk Box.”

Stockton said that the S&P 500 is nearing its 200-day moving average and is unlikely to break above that level for long. She pointed to the Cboe Volatility Index, which jumped above 22 on Monday morning after falling to just above 20 late last week.

“We have a little bit of a gap up there. And that gap up follows some signs of short-term downside exhaustion for the Vix last week. That has us paying attention, looking for perhaps an increase in volatility,” Stockton said.

Apple shares fell 1.4% during early trading following a report that the company could suffer an iPhone production shortfall as a result of unrest at its biggest supplier.

Protests and worker tumult at Foxconn’s factory in China could result in the company producing 6 million fewer iPhone Pro models, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

A wave of protests has rippled through China in recent days as individuals grow frustrated over the country’s strict and prolonged zero Covid policy.

The source said Foxconn and Apple should make up for the supply shortfall in 2023.

— Samantha Subin

The three major indexes opened down as protests in China reversed course for the market from the gains seen during the shortened Thanksgiving trading week.

The Dow was down 0.4%. The S&P 500 lost 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.2%.

— Alex Harring

JPMorgan downgraded shares of First Solar to neutral from overweight, saying the stock is due for a breather after rallying on the back of the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage in August.

“We expect bookings to remain strong and therefore believe existing holders should maintain positions, though with an expected uptick in manufacturing capacity announcements from competitors in FY23, we expect the pace of FSLR’s multiple re-rating to slow,” analyst Mark Strouse wrote.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more on the downgrade, which sent shares down more than 3% before the bell.

— Samantha Subin

West Texas Intermediate crude oil hit a low of $73.60 per barrel Monday, marking the cheapest price since 2022 began.

The last time the crude traded lower at any point in trading was Dec. 27, 2021, when the price came down to $72.57. The price per barrel has lost 14.6% since November began, putting it on track for its worst month since November 2021, when it dropped 20.8%.

Brent crude traded at a low of $80.61 per barrel, its lowest since it hit $80.50 on Jan. 10. Brent has also dropped 14.6% this month and is similarly poised to post its worst monthly performance since it lost 16.4% in November 2021.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

Futures connected to the Dow traded down more than 200 points, or 0.6%, as the pre-market entered its final hour.

Meanwhile, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures each lost about 0.8%.

Investors are watching Apple amid concerns over the impact of protests of Covid restrictions in China on business. But the tech giant does not need to be sold as it moves away from a high concentration of production in China, said Gene Munster, founder and managing partner at Loup Ventures.

“I don’t think you should sell the stock,” he said on “Squawk Box.”

Munster said investors should watch if companies remain committed to doing the majority of its production in China when deciding when to hold. But he said Apple is making “some measurable moves to diversify away” from China, pointing to the sliding share of revenue related to production in China over time as seen when comparing supplier lists over recent years.

“That speaks to Apple’s commitment to starting to diversify away from the region,” Munster said of the revenue data.

Apple has shed 1.9% in pre-market trading following a Bloomberg report showing that the company could see a production shortfall of close to 6 million iPhone Pro models due to protest-related unrest at a contract manufacturing factory in China. Apple and Foxconn, which runs the factory, don’t expect to make up that shortfall in 2023, a person familiar with assembly operations told Bloomberg.

The stock has lost 16.6% so far this year.

— Alex Harring

These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves in pre-market trading:

• Apple – Apple slid 1.7% in premarket trading.on reports of a production shortfall of close to 6 million iPhone Pro models due to Covid-related unrest at contract manufacturer Foxconn’s China factory. A person familiar with assembly operations told Bloomberg that Apple and Foxconn do expect to be able to make up that shortfall in 2023.
• Taboola.com – The software company’s stock soared 65.2% in premarket action after it announced a 30-year agreement with Yahoo, under which Taboola will power native advertising on all Yahoo platforms.
• Exxon Mobil, Chevron – Exxon and Chevron lost 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively, as energy stocks fell in the premarket with WTI Crude touching its lowest level in 11 months.
• Anheuser-Busch InBev – Anheuser-Busch InBev jumped 4.2% in the premarket after a double upgrade from J.P. Morgan Securities to “overweight” from “underweight.”

See the full list here.

— Alex Harring, Peter Schacknow

Futures stayed in the red as the pre-market entered its final two hours.

Futures connected to the Dow shed 189 points, or 0.5%.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures each lost 0.7%.

The performance comes as as social unrest from China’s Covid restrictions hit stocks. It marked a turn from a winning Thanksgiving trading week within U.S. equity markets.

— Alex Harring

Apple shares shed nearly 2% in the premarket following a Bloomberg report that unrest at the company’s biggest supplier could result in 6 million fewer iPhone Pro units for the year.

Protests have erupted in China in recent days over new lockdowns and Covid-19 restrictions — including at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou manufacturing facility, which accounts for the majority of iPhone shipments worldwide.

The Bloomberg report cited people familiar with the matter.

— Samantha Subin

Tech stocks dipped to start the week along with the broader market. Shares of Micron Technology, Nvidia and AMD all fell more than 1%. Apple shares also slid 1.8%.

— Fred Imbert

Energy stocks were under pressure in the premarket Monday as oil prices took a hit, with investors pondering the potential effect of civil unrest in China on global growth.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) fell more than 2% before the bell. Shares of Chevron and Exxon Mobil dipped 1.9% and 2.1%, respectively. Oil, meanwhile, slid 3.1% to $73.90 per barrel, hovering near its lowest level in about a year.

— Fred Imbert

European markets retreated on Monday as investors monitored unrest in China as protests against strict Covid measures and lockdowns erupted over the weekend.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.6% in early trade, with oil and gas stocks shedding 2% to lead losses as almost all sectors and major bourses slid into the red.

China is most likely to reopen around April next year after the National People’s Congress takes place, but there’s a chance that authorities reopen earlier due to difficulties in keeping Covid cases under control, according to Goldman Sachs.

Chief China Economist Hui Shan said there’s a 60% chance of the former scenario taking place.

“There is also a 30% probability of earlier reopening precisely because of the difficulty in keeping Covid under control, and the lack of medical preparation suggests it could be quite a messy process,” she said.

“Medical preparation is not ready yet, whereas the virus has evolved in such a way [that] it’s getting very costly to continue to implement that dynamic zero-Covid policy,” she said.

She said that policymakers need to weigh out the costs and benefits of the stringent Covid restrictions as protests take place across the country.

“This is not something they had experienced before [or] had a lot of experience in dealing with in prior cycles,” she said.

— Su-Lin Tan

Both U.S. crude futures and Brent crude futures shed more than 2% each in Asia’s morning trade as fears on demand from China faltering came into focus.

West Texas Intermediate futures fell as low as $73.86 per barrel, the lowest levels since December 2021, while Brent crude futures slipped to $81.16 per barrel at the session’s lows so far.

WTI was last down 2.6% at $74.31 per barrel, while Brent crude last traded 2.4% lower at $81.65 per barrel.

— Abigail Ng

The offshore Chinese yuan sharply weakened against the U.S. dollar amid negative sentiment over unrest in China over Covid restrictions.

The currency weakened around 0.8% against the U.S. dollar to 7.2529 in Asia’s morning trade.

The dollar index rose 0.32% to 106.29, with investors likely seeing the greenback as a safe haven asset as concern over China grows.

— Jihye Lee

Investors are watching retail stocks this holiday season, following a record-breaking black Friday.

While there are worries of an economic slowdown and a weakening U.S. consumer, analysts are bullish on a few key retail stocks that should grow in the coming months.

CNBC Pro used FactSet data to find a list of the top retail stocks, including names such as Amazon and Bath & Body Works.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

—Carmen Reinicke, Tanaya Macheel

Here are the companies that are scheduled to report quarterly earnings this week.

Monday – Azek

Tuesday – Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, CrowdStrike, Intuit

Wednesday – Salesforce, Box, Petco, Pure Storage, Splunk, Five Below, Hormel, Snowflake, Octa, Royal Bank of Canada, PVH, Victoria’s Secret, Synopsis, La-Z-Boy

Thursday – Kroger, Zscaler, ChargePoint, Dollar General, Ulta Beauty, Ambarella, Lands’ End, Ambarella, Designer Brands, American Outdoor Brands, Asana, Marvell Tech, Big Lots, Toronto Dominion, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank, Zumiez

Friday – Cracker Barrel

—Carmen Reinicke

U.S. stock futures slipped Sunday evening after Wall Street notched a winning week.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 72 points, or 0.21%. S&P 500 futures were 0.32% lower and Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.48%.

—Carmen Reinicke