Disney shares gained about 1% after the media company said its second round of layoffs are underway.

The new round of layoffs, expected to affect more roles than the first, will bring the company’s total job cuts to 4,000.

The cuts come as part of Disney’s plan announced earlier this year to slash 7,000 roles and trim costs by $5.5 billion. That equates to about 3% of the company’s employees as of Oct. 1, according to a securities filing.

This layoff round will hit a slew of divisions, including Entertainment and ESPN, along with Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.

Elsewhere, Wells Fargo called Disney the “best opportunity in media” in a Monday note.

“DIS is a large-cap stock that has been stuck at $100/sh,” wrote analyst Steven Cahall. “It’s under-earning outside of Parks on its $30bn annual content budget, hence our bullishness that costs are set to rationalize and earnings inflect.”

He lifted his price target on shares to $147 from $141, reflecting about 48% upside from Friday’s close.

— Samantha Subin, Lillian Rizzo

Hedge fund manager Dan Niles believes earnings from Big Tech this week are poised to show a slowdown.

“The numbers are gonna have to come down,” Nile, founder and senior portfolio manager of the Satori Fund, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday. “We plan on being either not in any of these names or hedged or short some of them going into earnings season.”

He noted that some smaller companies in the tech space have already signaled a deterioration, including a negative pre-announcement from CDW and an earnings per share miss from components company Lam Research.

— Yun Li

The three major indexes were mixed as trading kicked off.

The Dow was up 0.1% shortly after open, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%. The S&P 500 was near flat.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Getty Images surged in premarket trading after Trillium Capital announced a non-binding proposal to buy the company for $10 per share in cash.

The stock closed at $5.06 per share on Friday. Trillium said its offer was for an all-cash deal.

The investment firm had previously called for Getty to hire a bankers to explore strategic alternatives.

Shares of Getty were trading at $8.25 in premarket trading, a gain of more than 60%.

— Jesse Pound

Economic activity in the Chicago area was unchanged in March but still pointing toward expansion.

The Chicago Federal Reserve’s National Activity Index registered a -0.19 reading for the month, the same as in February. A reading above -0.7 is considered signs of expansion.

Production and manufacturing indicators declined, while sales, orders and inventories increases. Employment also moved higher.

—Jeff Cox

Here are some of the names making the biggest moves in premarket trading:

• Coca-Cola — Shares added nearly 2% in early morning trading after the company posted better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. Revenue came in about in line with expectations, at $10.96 billion adjusted compared to the Refinitiv consensus estimate of $10.8 billion.
• Albemarle — The mining company stock added more than 2% in premarket trading, trimming losses from last week. Shares sank 10% on Friday amid reports that Chile was considering nationalizing its lithium mining industry. Albemarle CEO Kent Masters said late Friday told the company’s existing mine and contracts in the country wouldn’t be impacted.
• C3.ai — Shares of the popular artificial intelligence stock fell nearly 8% after Wolfe Research downgraded shares to under perform, citing slowing revenue growth concerns.

To see more companies moving before the bell, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

Shares of troubled meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond plummeted nearly 39% in premarket trading on Monday, after filing for bankruptcy a day earlier.

The company had been flirting with Chapter 11 for months, with executives at the company warning in January that the firm was in dire need of cash. A stock offering in February was meant to inject the company with more than $1 billion, but only $360 million materialized.

Court filings show the company has somewhere between 25,001 and 50,000 creditors, including Pinterest, Keurig and BNY Mellon.

— Brian Evans

Medtronic gained more than 1% in premarket trading after Wells Fargo upgraded shares to overweight and said industry trends were improving.

Shares could rally as staffing shortages from the pandemic ease and global markets grapples with a backlog of postponed procedures, according to analyst Larry Biegelsen.

“We rate MDT Overweight as we believe that the company will benefit as underlying medtech markets improve as staffing shortages ease in major markets,” he said. “We also see support from MDT’s pipeline.”

Read more on what’s driving Wells Fargo’s upgrade here.

— Samantha Subin

Coca-Cola shares added more than 1% in premarket trading after the beverage maker posted better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, according to Refinitiv. Coca-Cola has been raising prices on its drinks to mitigate the impact of inflation. The company cited its price hikes and higher demand for its upbeat performance.

Revenue came in about in line with expectations, at $10.96 billion adjusted compared to the consensus estimate of $10.8 billion.

Coke’s stock has risen less than 1% in 2023. The company has a market value of $277 billion.

— Amelia Lucas, Tanaya Macheel

Citi analyst Vikram Bagri downgraded First Solar to sell from neutral, saying the stock could soon run out of steam after jumping 45% to start the year.

The analyst also noted: “We believe FSLR’s long-term outlook for margins and growth will draw increased scrutiny as the global supply of Si-based modules rises while the cost drops.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Sam Subin

LVMH, which owns luxury brands such as Moet & Chandon and Christian Dior, on Monday became the first European company to top $500 billion in market value. Year to date, the stock is up more than 36%. It’s also up more than 40% over the past year.

— Fred Imbert, Jenni Reid

European stocks were lower at the open before trimming losses, with the Stoxx 600 index down 0.05% at 9:12 a.m. London time.

Sectors were mixed, with oil and gas stocks falling 0.6% and financial services up 0.6%.

France’s CAC 40 traded 0.25% lower, as Germany’s DAX fell 0.1% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.17%.

Singapore’s core inflation slowed to 5% in March on a year-on-year basis, slightly lower than economists expectations of 5.1%.

It was also lower than February’s figure of 5.5%, which was at a 14-year-high.

Headline inflation for March — which includes accommodation and private transport costs — came in at 5.5% year-on-year, down from 6.3% the month before.

The country’s statistics department revealed that food costs rose the fastest in March, recording a 7.7% year-on-year increase, followed by costs in recreation and culture at 6.8%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of HSBC were down 0.89% on Monday.

It comes after investor advisory group ISS advised HSBC shareholders not to vote for proposals calling for the spinoff of HSBC’s Asian business at the upcoming AGM on May 5, Reuters reported.

In a note seen by the news agency, ISS said the Ping An proposal, which supported a resolution by individual shareholder Ken Lui calling for the spinoff, “lacks detailed rationale.”

Lui had put forward two resolutions calling for a review of HSBC’s business — including the spinoff and a restoration of fixed dividends, among others.

ISS is not the only one with this stance. Last week, another shareholder advisor Glass Lewis said the strategic review proposal was “not in shareholders’ interest.”

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan’s central bank is reportedly considering conducting a review of its monetary easing measures it has taken over the longer term.

Reuters, citing the Japanese Sankei newspaper, said the central bank may start discussions as soon as the next policy meeting which kicks off on Thursday. It will be the first policy meeting led by new Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda.

Speaking to reporters on April 10, Ueda said “he will communicate closely with the government and guide monetary policy flexibly.”

BOJ deputy governor Shinichi Uchida, before taking the role in March, said if the BOJ were to conduct a comprehensive review of its policy framework, it could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months if the experience of U.S. and European counterparts is anything to go by.

— Lim Hui Jie

This upcoming week of earnings releases could mark the start of the “final round of the push-pull skirmish between the market and economic trends,” according to LPL Financial’s chief global strategist Quincy Krosby.

“With the S&P 500 sitting comfortably above the key 4,100 level, and the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) nestled within the 17 range, the market’s reaction to a growing list of economic concerns has been relatively sanguine,” Krosby wrote in a Friday note.  

The strategist said that the market has already discounted an upcoming 25 basis point interest rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s meeting in May. She added that the common consensus among investors is that May’s rate hike will also mark the end of the Fed’s monetary tightening path, despite lingering concerns of stubbornly high inflation.

“But [the] earnings calendar, including market heavyweights Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet could underpin the market with more conviction, in either direction,” Krosby said.

“Last quarter, the market was forgiving with weaker earnings, as long as cost-cutting measures were included with guidance. Margins will be analyzed, particularly as Tesla came under pressure as its margins were compressed more than expected,” Krosby continued. “Price action has unequivocally won the ongoing tug-of-war, but where lower Treasury yields are reflecting  recession fears.”

— Hakyung Kim

New York University’s Aswath Damodaran, known as the “Dean of Valuation,” believes big tech stock valuations are “OK” at current prices, despite their run ups this year.

The largest, money-making tech companies have actually saved the market this year and will be able to sustain it, he said in an interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Friday.

“At this point in the market where you are defensive, I think these companies with their pricing power are pretty solid defensive investments. They are going to be able to raise earnings even in the course of a recession,” said Damodaran, professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if big tech names delivered positive surprises when they report earnings. That’s because a lot of them took the opportunity last year to “dump a lot of the bad stuff into their earnings.”

“Tech companies, because of the way they cut costs, will be able to deliver higher earnings than expected,” Damodaran said.

Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft are set to report results this week.

— Michelle Fox

U.S. stock futures ticked down Sunday evening.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dipped by 49 points, or 0.14%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.17% and 0.20%, respectively.  

— Hakyung Kim