Peter Nurse   

Investing.com: U.S. stocks open higher on Monday after the sixth consecutive losing week. This is ahead of U.S. Retail Sales figures and earnings reports from the major retailers.

The contract rose 100 points (or 0.3%) at 07:05 ET (1205 GMT), while the price climbed 35 percent, or 0.2%.

Last week saw the end of a winning streak that lasted five weeks. This was due to increased expectation for early interest rate rises following historic consumer price data showing inflation at historical levels. 

Blue chip closed down 0.6%; broad-based close 0.3% lower and tech-heavy 0.7%.

The U.S. surged to its highest point in more than 30 years. Data on Friday revealed that it fell to its lowest level in 10 years this month due to rising living costs. 

Investors will now be focused on October data on Tuesday. After a 0.7% increase in September, economists are expecting an increase in 1.1%.

There are many major retailers that sell these items, including Home Depot (NYSE:), Walmart (NYSE:),  Target (NYSE:) and Macy’s (NYSE:), are due to report quarterly earnings this week, with extra scrutiny likely ahead of the start of the holiday shopping season.

Ahead of this, Tesla (NASDAQ:) will be in the spotlight after CEO Elon Musk sold more of the electric car manufacturer’s stock on Friday, bringing his total sales for the week to 6.4 million shares amounting to $6.9 billion.

Also of interest Monday will be the between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, given the level of distrust that currently exists between the globe’s two economic powerhouses.

Monday’s drop in crude oil prices was influenced by the possible increase of U.S. supplies and the strength of the U.S. Dollar.

Since the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its allies, decided to keep to their plan of a gradual increase in output at its last meeting this month the speculation that the Biden Administration will allow the oil to be released from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been high.

Baker Hughes energy services company reported that in addition to the increase in U.S. oil rig counts, which are early indicators of future output, it rose six to 556 for the week to November 12, their highest since April 2020.

At 7:05 AM ET the January futures contract had fallen 1.4% to $78.58/barrel, and the contract dropped 1.6% at $80.88 

Also, the price of gold fell 0.2% at $1,864.15/oz while it traded flat at 1.1450.