What to watch today: S&P 500 set to drop on anniversary of stock bull market – CNBC

BY THE NUMBERS

U.S. stock futures dropped Tuesday after the Dow and S&P 500 broke two-session losing streaks. The Nasdaq logged a second straight session of gains, recovering about half of Thursday's 3% decline. Tech stocks benefited over the past two sessions from the 10-year Treasury yield retreating from last week's 14-month high. (CNBC)

* Morgan Stanley's Wilson: Some expensive stocks may stay below highs for years (CNBC Pro)* Investor Howard Marks on where he's finding opportunity, valuations and bitcoin (CNBC Pro)

Tuesday marks one year since the Covid low in the stock market, which ended the fastest bear market ever and ushered in another bull market. The S&P 500 has gained 76% since the March 23, 2020, close of 2,237. Over the past year, two presidents, Congress and the Federal Reserve put extraordinary fiscal and monetary policies in place to support the economy during the pandemic.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee on the economy at noon ET. Yellen, who was Powell's predecessor, said she sees both growth and possibly full employment next year and credits President Joe Biden's Covid relief package. Powell's prepared remarks struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying the economy is "much improved" but the recovery is "far from complete." (Reuters)

* Powell, at digital banking forum, calls cryptocurrencies 'not really useful stores of value' (CNBC)

On today's economic calendar, the government is out with new home sales for February at 10 a.m. ET, with forecasts calling for a 5.7% drop to an annual rate of 870,000 units. New home sales increased by 4.3% in January. In its first quarterly results since this year's Reddit-fueled short squeeze surge, GameStop (GME) reports after-the-bell this afternoon.

* GameStop loses second senior executive as shakeup deepens (Reuters)

AstraZeneca (AZN) said Tuesday it will work with an independent group of U.S. health advisors who expressed concern about possible outdated information in the U.K. drugmaker's Covid vaccine trial results. The company said it would "issue results of the primary analysis within 48 hours." The questions came one day after the company said a late-stage trial in U.S. and Latin America showed 79% efficacy for its two-shot regimen. (CNBC)

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News on Tuesday that AstraZeneca's inoculation is "likely a very good vaccine." However, he added, U.S. health advisors became concerned that data in AstraZeneca's public statement was "somewhat outdated and might, in fact, be misleading a bit." (ABC News)

* Regeneron and Roche antibody cocktail shown effective in Covid patients (Reuters)

Pfizer(PFE) CEO Albert Bourla told The Wall Street Journal the drugmakerwould expand its mRNA vaccine businessto target other viruses and pathogens beyond the coronavirus. Bourla said the company gained a decade's worth of experience in working with Germany'sBioNTech(BNTX) on the Covid vaccine and now ready to proceed on its own.

Covid cases are once again on the rise across more than half of the U.S. as health officials warn about reopening too soon and race to vaccinate more people before highly contagious strains become prevalent in the country. As of Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases rose by 5% or more in 27 states, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (CNBC)

* Mayor Bill de Blasio to end remote work for 80,000 in signal to rest of NYC (NYTimes)* New York to open Covid vaccine eligibility to people 50 and older (CNBC)

Biden is assembling the next big White House priority, a $3 trillion infrastructure package. That would be on top of his recently signed $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus. The president met privately late Monday with Senate Democrats as Congress has already begun laying the groundwork with legislation for developing roads, hospitals and green energy systems. (AP)

ViacomCBS(VIAC) will raise $3 billion from stock offerings, following a recent runup in its stock price. Media companies with streaming services, like the company's recently rebranded Paramount+, have been ramping up spending on new content. Viacom fell 5.3% in premarket action.

A U.S. federal agency is considering as evidence a formerTesla(TSLA) employee's complaint about how the company managed and communicated about fire risks and defects in its solar installations, CNBC has learned from documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Microsoft(MSFT) is in talks to buy videogame chat community Discordfor more than $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg. One person familiar with the matter said Discord is more likely to go public than to sell itself, however.

Boeing(BA) struck a deal for a $5.28 billion two-year revolving credit agreement, higher than the $4 billion that the jet maker was originally said to be seeking. Boeing shares fell 1% in the premarket.

Baidu(BIDU) made its debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange following a secondary listing that raised $3.1 billion for the China-based internet company. Baidu's U.S. shares sank 2.3% in premarket trading.

Bilibili(BILI) is set to raise $2.6 billion following the pricing of a Hong Kong secondary listing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke to Reuters. The price for the online video site operator's stock was said to be 2.6% below its Monday close in U.S. trading.

Tencent Music Entertainment(TME) reported quarterly results that came in slightly below Wall Street forecasts. The music streaming service also announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Warner Music and the formation of a joint venture music label with Warner in China. Tencent shares dropped 3.2% in premarket trading.

Peloton(PTON) recently bought three companies in a flurry of acquisitions, according to a Bloomberg report. The fitness equipment maker's acquisitions involved artificial intelligence, wearables and hardware.

Twitter(TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey's first tweet, offered for sale as a NFT, nonfungible token, was sold Monday for 1,630.58 ether, a cryptocurrency. That's equivalent to about $2.9 million based on ether's price at the time of sale. Dorsey said he will convert the proceeds to bitcoin and will then donate that to Give Directly's Africa Response fund. (CNBC)

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What to watch today: S&P 500 set to drop on anniversary of stock bull market - CNBC