5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens Monday | USAEMALL.com

This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

President Donald Trump’s administration zeroed in on his tariff policies over the weekend. After pausing trade talks with Canada last week, Trump headed to Asia for a summit with world leaders and announced trade agreements with Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Here’s the latest:

• In the agreements, the four Asian countries pledged to remove trade barriers, give U.S. goods preferential market access and increase their purchase of American products.
• But the U.S. will maintain its 19% tariff rate on most goods from Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, as well as its 20% duty on most goods from Vietnam, according to the White House.
• Top Chinese and U.S. officials meanwhile met to lay out a trade framework for Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss during their expected meeting in South Korea later this week.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump’s 100% tariff on China — set to take effect Nov. 1 — is “effectively off the table” following the discussions.
• Bessent also said he expects China to delay its rare earth export controls as part of the agreement. Shares of rare earth stocks are significantly lower this morning.
• Speaking on Air Force One on Monday, Trump said he expects he and Xi will “come away with the deal.”
• The flurry of trade agreements comes after Trump placed an additional 10% tariff on Canada over an ad featuring the voice of former President Ronald Reagan. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday that he would pause the ad, but not until after it aired during the this past weekend’s World Series games.
• While trade uncertainties hung over investors last week, the three major indexes were still able to climb to all-time highs. Follow live markets updates here.

The artificial intelligence boom is keeping spirits high on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. But on Main Street, it’s a different story.

As CNBC’s Ashley Capoot reports, small businesses are grappling with tariff-related cost hikes and concerns around the health of the consumer. Capital expenditures related to AI are outperforming the U.S. consumer as a driver of economic expansion, according to JPMorgan data.

OpenAI in particular has been a major player in AI-related spending, which will make it a hot topic during Big Tech earnings reports this week.

Novartis announced yesterday it will buy Avidity Biosciences. The Swiss pharmaceutical firm said it would shell out around $12 billion in cash for the biotechnology company.

The deal is slated to close in the first half of next year after Avidity spins out some of its business. Novartis’ purchase comes as it bulks up its research and development division.

Avidity investors will be paid $72 per share — a 46% upside compared to where the stock finished last week.

By many metrics, American Airlines is trailing its rivals. The Texas-based carrier’s profit is a fraction of the total market and its stock is underperforming this year.

Now, the question is whether American’s investments in cabin upgrades and technology can right its course. Shareholders seemed to like what they heard when the company reported earnings last week. American’s shares rallied more than 16% after the airline beat Wall Street’s earnings and revenue expectations, but the stock is still down more than 20% on the year.

Yum! Brands‘ Taco Bell wants to be known for more than just the Baja Blast when it comes to drinks.

Taco Bell has been opening Live Más Cafés inside its restaurants, serving beverages such as frozen coffee and energy drinks. The Mexican chain expects to have 30 Live Más Cafés up and running in California and Texas by the end of the year.

As CNBC’s Amelia Lucas notes, the new format is part of Taco Bell’s goal of creating a $5 billion drink business by 2030.

• Tuesday: PayPal, UPS, JetBlue, Royal Caribbean and Wayfair earnings (before the bell); Case-Shiller housing index; Consumer confidence reading
• Wednesday: CVS and Boeing earnings (before the bell); Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Starbucks, Chipotle and Carvana earnings (after the bell); Federal Reserve interest rate decision
• Thursday: Restaurants Brands International, Merck, Eli Lilly, Comcast, Roblox and Fox Corp. earnings (before the bell); Apple, Amazon, Reddit and Cloudflare earnings (after the bell); Jobless claims; GDP data
• Friday: PCE data; consumer spending data

CNBC Pro subscribers can see a full calendar and rundown for the week here.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

— CNBC’s Anniek Bao, Sam Meredith, Ashley Capoot, Kif Leswing, Liz Napolitano, Sean Conlon, Dan Mangan, Kevin Breuninger, Leslie Josephs and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.