5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday, March 22

Here are the top news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

Monday’s Nasdaq would build on Friday’s nearly 0.8% rise as 10-year government bond yields began to retreat from last week’s 14-month highs in the new week. The rapid rise in government bond yields this year has put pressure on growth stocks, many of them tech names, as higher interest rates erode the value of future earnings and put pressure on market valuations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, which lost ground on Friday, joined the Nasdaq on negative ground last week. The Dow and S&P 500 last closed at record highs on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq last closed at record highs in February.

AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic diseases, according to data published Monday from a phase 3 study of more than 32,000 individuals in the US and Latin America. The dual vaccine also showed 100% efficacy in the prevention of serious illness and hospitalization. AstraZeneca plans to file an application with the FDA in April for an emergency use authorization. The latest research data comes from the fact that a number of European countries have temporarily discontinued the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots. AstraZeneca said on Monday that an independent board has not identified any safety concerns related to the company’s vaccination.

Even as the rate of vaccinations increases in the US, Covid cases are on the rise in 21 states and highly contagious variants are spreading as governors relax restrictions on businesses. Public health officials warn that although about 2.5 million people across the country are getting injections every day, the infection level is flat this month. Nationally, there have been an average of 54,000 new infections in the past seven days. That’s a dramatic drop from the January high. While the number of fatalities is also much lower, an average of 1,000 people a day died from Covid in the past seven days.

Canadian Pacific Railway has agreed to buy Kansas City Southern for $ 25 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. The combination would create the first rail network connecting the US, Mexico and Canada. After Sunday’s announcement, Kansas City Southern shares were up about 17% in the premarket, while Canadian Pacific Railway shares were down about 2.5%. The deal comes as hopes are growing that trade between the US and Mexico will pick up now that Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump as president.

Shares of Tesla were up 4% in Monday’s premarket after Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest issued a long-awaited, bold call, predicting that the shares of the Elon Musk-led electric carmaker would more than quadruple by 2025. Last year, Ark Invest estimated Tesla would hit $ 1,400. Adjusted for its 5-for-1 stock split by 2024. The company now sees the stock reaching $ 3,000 per share by 2025 in its base case and $ 4,000 per share in its bullcase. Wood’s bear case still sees it hitting $ 1,500 by 2025. Tesla, which closed Friday at $ 654 a share, is up 665% in the past 12 months. However, the share of the past month and the current year has gone through a difficult period.

– Reuters contributed to this report. Get the latest news about the pandemic with CNBC’s coronavirus blog