5 things to know before the stock market opens on Tuesday March 7

Here are the most important information investors need to start their trading day:

For much of Monday, stocks looked set for a good day. Apple, fresh off a buy rating from Goldman Sachs, lifted shares, including some of its fellow mega-cap tech companies. But the three main indices ended the day only slightly higher. Towards the end of the session, bond yields rose again, stifling the rally in equities. “It really felt like a throwback to those days of 2020 where a handful of FANG names were doing a lot of heavy lifting, and to us that suggests this rally is feeling a bit on its last legs,” BTIG’s Jonathan Krinsky said. Monday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” Follow live market updates.

Investors will be glued to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress this week. On Tuesday he will appear before the Senate Banking Committee and on Wednesday he will face the House Financial Services Committee. It couldn’t be a more important moment for Powell to testify. The Fed has been steadily raising rates to fight inflation, but inflation has remained stubbornly high despite some recent progress. As CNBC’s Jeff Cox points out, he’ll have to convince politicians and investors that the Fed can indeed tame excessive price growth while training the economy for a soft landing. Be sure to tune in at 10 a.m. ET for the Senate hearing.

California Governor Gavin Newsom hits out at pharmaceutical and healthcare giant Walgreens over the company’s decision not to sell abortion pills in about 20 states following pressure from several Republican attorneys general . “California will not do business with @walgreens – or any company that panders to extremists and puts women’s lives at risk,” Newsom, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter. “Had finished.” A spokesperson for the governor told CNBC that Newsom’s government is evaluating all business Walgreens does with California. For its part, Walgreens said it plans to sell mifepristone, a commonly used abortion pill “in any jurisdiction where it is legally permitted to do so,” according to a statement.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai tried to allay concerns about a new desktop sharing policy for employees in the cloud unit, according to audio of a company-wide meeting obtained by Jennifer CNBC’s Elias. “There are people, by the way, who regularly complain about coming in and there are big swaths of empty offices and it feels like a ghost town – it’s just not pleasant experience,” Pichai told employees, according to the recording. The CEO’s remarks came after several employees complained about how executives rolled out desktop sharing messaging. He read a comment that said “bad things happen, no need to make every bad thing sound like a miracle”. In response, Pichai said, “I agree with the sentiment here. The comments are valid.”

Days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed China for backing Russia’s year-long war in Ukraine, China’s new foreign minister hit back to say his country’s relationship with the Russian government did not pose a threat. “The more unstable the world becomes, the more imperative it is for China and Russia to advance their relationship,” Qin Gang said at his first press conference since assuming the post. Elsewhere, Ukraine says Russia has increased the number of missile-carrying ships in the Black Sea. Follow live war updates.

– CNBC’s Sarah Min, Jeff Cox, Spencer Kimball, Jennifer Elias and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

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