stake trade today: Early market activity on Wall Street mixed ahead of a busy week of retail returns

market activity on Wall Street was quietly mixed early Monday ahead of a set of highly-anticipated returns reports from some of the country’s biggest retailers.

forward contracts for the S&P 500 rose just 0.1% before the bell, while forward contracts for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell back 0.1%.

Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and The Gap all update returns this week and should provide analysts another perspective on how American consumers are spending ahead of the holiday period.

A update Friday showed shoppers spent more at U.S. retailers last month than expected, suggesting customer spending, the most influential force on the economy, remains solid.

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla jumped 5.7% in premarket market activity Monday after Bloomberg information reported that the incoming Trump Administration is prioritizing loosening regulations for self-driving vehicles.

Tesla, the electric vehicle corporation that made Musk the globe’s wealthiest person, has had repeated skirmishes with the government regulators over recalls and other investigations. Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration accused Tesla of telling drivers in community statements that its vehicles can drive themselves, conflicting with owners manuals and briefings with the agency saying the electric vehicles require human supervision.

The NHTSA has asked the corporation to “revisit its communications” to make sure messages are consistent with user instructions.

The AP reported last week that Musk’s super PAC spent around $200 million to assist elect Donald Trump.

Chipmaker Nvidia fell 2.2% on reports that some of their AI chips have been overheating. Nvidia reports its latest returns on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX lost 0.3%, while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.

In Asian market activity, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.1% to 38,220.85 as the yen initially regained some strength against the U.S. dollar after the central financial institution governor, Kazuo Ueda, indicated that the financial institution of Japan will continue to raise yield rates as conditions permit.

The dollar climbed to 155.31 Japanese yen from 154.54 yen late Friday. It had been market activity above 156 yen last week.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.2% to 2,469.07 after Samsung Electronics, the country’s biggest corporation, announced a distribute buyback schedule. Samsung’s shares jumped 6%.

Chinese markets were mixed. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.8% to 19,576.61, while the Shanghai Composite index shed early gains to close down 0.2% at 3,323.55.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher, to 8,300.20. Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.9% and the SET in Bangkok picked up 0.7% as the government announced that Thailand’s economy grew more than expected in the last quarter.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. point of reference crude oil added 35 cents to $67.37 per barrel in electronic market activity on the recent York Mercantile swap. Brent crude climbed 47 cents to $71.51 per barrel.

The euro bought $1.0539, up from $1.0534 late Friday.