10 things you need to know before the opening bell
The pound is getting slammed all over again. It extended its record decline against the dollar, falling 3.1% to as low as 1.3224. Cable - as the currency pair is nicknamed - is one of the biggest casualties of the global-market rout triggered late last week by Britain's vote to leave the European Union. On Friday, the pound fell to a 30-year low versus the dollar in its biggest collapse ever.
George Soros didn't bet against the pound this time. The billionaire, who earned fame by betting against the pound in 1992, didn't short sterling ahead of the referendum. A spokesman said he was long the pound. He had accurately warned that a Brexit would trigger a pound crash worse than 'Black Wednesday,' when the British government withdrew the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
European bank stocks are still tumbling, too. Shares of RBS and Barclays were briefly halted for about five minutes in London as they plunged 10%. A gauge of European lenders headed for its biggest two-day drop ever, according to Bloomberg. Many banks may move huge numbers of staff from their UK operations to elsewhere on the continent as the City of London's role as the region's financial hub becomes uncertain.
The UK's Labor party is in crisis after Brexit. Twelve members of the shadow cabinet resigned over the weekend. But party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he won't step down despite the revolt against him. He was one of the members of parliament that campaigned for a "Remain" vote in the referendum. Corbyn has since promoted several loyal supporters into key cabinet positions; some have no experience of being part of the shadow cabinet. On Sunday, Corbyn fired his shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn following reports that Benn was staging a coup against him.
John Kerry heads to Europe. The US Secretary of State will meet European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels and British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond in London on Monday, a senior State Department official said.
The Chinese yuan tumbled to a six-year low against the dollar. This happened after the People's Bank of China weakened the currency's reference rate per dollar by 0.9% to 6.6375, the steepest devaluation since last August. China weakened the yuan following Friday's post-Brexit FX action that sent the dollar flying.
A select group of hedge funds made some serious money on Brexit. Crispin Odey, who manages about $10.2 billion at his macro-focused firm, told Reuters Friday that his fund would gain 15% from the Brexit outcome, regaining some of its losses this year. The NuWave Matrix Fund was up 12% on Friday, lifting it by around 10% for the year, according to chief operating officer Craig Weynand. Another macro manager, Quadratic Capital Management, posted its best ever returns since it launched in May 2015, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Multiple people were stabbed in a clash between a white supremacist group and counter-protestors in California. Authorities said at least 10 people were injured at a rally outside the California state capitol in Sacramento on Sunday. The rally was staged by the Traditionalist Worker Party, which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a white nationalist extremist group. Matt Parrott, a party leader, said the party called the demonstration to protest against violence outside recent rallies by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The Waldorf Astoria hotel is reportedly becoming an apartment building. Anbang Insurance Group, which bought the landmark New York hotel from Hilton in 2014, will in 2017 start converting most of the 1,400 rooms to luxury condos next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In US economic data, the goods trade balance for May crosses at 8:30 a.m. ET, Markit's flash services PMI for June at 9:45, and the Dallas Fed manufacturing index for this month at 10:30. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi are scheduled to speak at a three-day meeting of the world's top central bankers in Portugal.