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President Bola Tinubu will hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Summit between September 4 and 6, 2024.

Tinubu will visit China to represent the West African bloc ECOWAS at the Summit. The Nigerian president is the chairman of the Authority of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government.

At the summit, Tinubu will discuss regional peace and security, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale told State House correspondents on Tuesday. Ngelale added that the trip aims to yield significant economic benefits for Nigeria.

The planned meeting between Tinubu and one of the world’s most powerful presidents will take place amid a flurry of seizures of Nigerian assets by a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited.

A former Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Usman Sarki, had said diplomatic steps are a surefire way to end the firm’s seizure of Nigerian assets abroad. Sarki urged Tinubu to meet with his Chinese counterpart as soon as possible to resolve the conflict between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Chinese company.

A French court recently ruled in favour of the firm and granted the seizure of presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian government. In the dispute involving an arbitration award, the court in Paris ruled in favour of the Chinese firm, allowing it to seize three presidential jets on routine maintenance in France as “security” for claims in a decades-long judicial matter between the foreign company and the Ogun State government.

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After holding interest rates at decades-high levels for more than a year, the Federal Reserve is expected to lower rates at its September meeting—a move that will have implications for the Treasury market. 

The interest you can earn on a Treasury, its yield, rises and falls based on economic and market conditions. Typically, investors look to earn more interest on longer-duration bonds because their capital won't be available until the maturity date.

When that dynamic flips and the yield curve inverts, it signals that investors expect longer-term interest rates to decline. The yield curve has been inverted for more than two years, but economists say that will change as the Fed's Open Markets Committee (FOMC) cuts its influential fed funds rate.

Investopedia spoke with John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, about what investors can expect from the Treasury market if the Fed begins cutting rates. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

A lot of that will depend on the size of the interest rate cut and what the Federal Reserve tells us about forthcoming interest rate cuts after that.

We expect a 25-basis-point rate cut in September and likely a total of just 225 basis-point rate cuts this year. If it occurs the way we expect, you'll need to see a little bit of a correction in the curve.

You'll need to see a little bit of a correction in yields, meaning that front-end yields are probably a little too low over the near term. As it becomes clear the Fed will not ease as much as markets have priced in, front-end yields may need to nudge a little bit higher, thereby flattening the curve.

We do expect that inflation will remain calm and the economy will remain strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to continue cutting rates throughout the course of next year. 

While we think there's some room for a little bit of a move higher in yields over the near term to adjust for the near-term Fed outlook,we do think that the broader outlook for Treasurys will be for a larger, long-term bull steepening that is front end.

Yields will, over the course of 2025, continue to decline as the Fed continues to cut rates, and that will outpace any gain in the long end.

So we still think that beyond the upcoming FOMC meeting, and over the longer term, there is still good value, in particular in the front end of the curve—say, the two-year to five-year, or the two-year to seven-year note area—which should continue to outperform as the Fed continues to cut rates over the course of next year.

It's going to be positive for equities. Again, we believe that the economy will continue to grow at a modest but healthy enough pace throughout 2025. We did not forecast recession.

At the same time, rates will be declining, which will allow companies to borrow money at more and more reasonable costs. It will also allow them to potentially refinance some of the higher-yielding outstanding debt that they're holding. So I think over the longer term, this should continue to be a positive for equities.

Equities have obviously bounced back toward their recent record highs. The degree to which we continue to see new record highs over the next year, I'm uncertain. We could be in for a period of a sort of bullish range trade that is holding near the highs, but overall, the factors should be positive, and there's certainly the risk that equities just continue to grow over the course of the next year.

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Paramount Global's (PARA) special committee said Edgar Bronfman Jr. has withdrawn from bidding for Shari Redstone's media empire, setting the stage for the entertainment giant to be sold to David Ellison's Skydance Media.

The special committee handling the twists and turns of the monthslong bidding process for Paramount said that it is closing the door on the company's "go-shop" period and plans to move forward with the Skydance Media deal.

The committee said that it had "contacted more than 50 third parties" to see if they were interested in bidding for Paramount, whose shares are falling almost 5% in premarket trading Tuesday.

Last month, Paramount announced it had agreed to a deal that would see Skydance and private-equity backer RedBird Capital Partners invest over $8 billion, including debt, to acquire controlling shareholder National Amusements and form "New Paramount." Skydance and Paramount subsequently would merge.

Paramount shares, which were down 23% year-to-date through Monday's close, are a further 4.7% lower at $10.80 about 30 minutes before the opening bell.

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Paramount Global (PARA) shares are falling as its special committee confirms a retreat by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for Shari Redstone's media empire; Apple (AAPL) shares are in focus as it replaces its longtime CFO ahead of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered iPhone 16 unveiling; nationwide home prices are expected to have risen in June but with slowing growth; Eli Lilly (LLY) unveils Zepbound single-dose vials at half the cost of other obesity drugs; and Sony Group (SONY) is hiking its PlayStation 5 prices in Japan even though the console is aging and has seen slowing sales. U.S. stock futures are little changed after indexes closed mixed yesterday. Here's what investors need to know today.

Paramount Global's (PARA) special committee said Edgar Bronfman Jr. has withdrawn from bidding for Shari Redstone's media empire, setting the stage for the entertainment giant to be sold to David Ellison's Skydance Media. The special committee handling the twists and turns of the monthslong bidding process for Paramount said that it is closing the door on the company's "go-shop" period and plans to move forward with the Skydance Media deal. The committee said that it had "contacted more than 50 third parties" to see if they were interested in bidding for Paramount, whose shares are falling 5% in premarket trading.

Apple (AAPL) shares are likely to remain in focus ahead of a Sept. 9 event at which the tech giant is expected to unveil the iPhone 16 with artificial intelligence (AI) capability, as well as new versions of the Apple Watch and AirPods. Investors are also digesting news late Monday that the company will replace long-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Luca Maestri on Jan. 1 with Kevan Parekh, Apple's current vice president of financial planning and analysis. Apple shares are little changed in premarket trading but are up almost 20% this year on the promise of new AI features on its devices.

Investors will get a read on how expensive house prices are getting with the release of new S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index data this morning. Nationwide home prices are expected to have risen 6.3% year-over-year in June versus 6.8% in May, according to a survey of economists by and . Lower interest rates and builder incentives have been causing new home sales to pick up, with recent data showing that the sale of new single-family houses increased by 10.6% in July from the revised June numbers, rising to an annual rate of 739,000 homes, more than economists expected. 

Eli Lilly (LLY) said it is selling single-dose vials for Zepbound in the U.S. at half the cost of other obesity treatments, a move the pharma giant said will "significantly" expand supply and access of the hit weight-loss drug. A four-week supply of the 2.5 mg Zepbound single-dose vial is $399 and a four-week supply of the 5 mg dose is $549, which Lilly said is "less than half the list price of other incretin medicines for obesity." Shares of Lilly, which also sells diabetes drug Mounjaro, are edging lower in premarket trading but—like those of Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk (NVO)—have surged this year on high demand for GLP-1 drugs.

Sony Group (SONY) said it is increasing the price of its PlayStation 5 in Japan by 19% to around 80,000 yen ($550), in an unexpected move by the tech and entertainment giant. The price hike comes even though the console is four years old and has seen slowing sales, and a revamped console is expected in coming months. "This decision takes into consideration the business impact of the severe external environment, including recent global economic fluctuations," Sony said in a Japanese blog post, according to a translation. Sony's American depositary receipts (ADRs) are rising 2.5% in premarket trading.

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Major U.S. equities indexes were mixed to open a new trading week that includes a busy calendar of corporate and economic data releases.

The latest earnings report from artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia (NVDA) is set for release on Wednesday afternoon, while investors will get a look at important inflation and economic growth figures later in the week.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% on Monday, while the Nasdaq was down 0.9%. The Dow touched an all-time intraday high in the morning but lost steam later in the session to close with a daily gain of 0.2%.

Technology was the weakest-performing sector, with stocks in the semiconductor industry posting significant losses ahead of Nvidia's report. Shares of storage and server provider Super Micro Computer (SMCI) posted the heaviest losses of any stock in the S&P 500, tumbling 8.3%. In its most recent quarterly report, released in early August, Supermicro missed earnings expectations as lower margins weighed on profits. The firm also announced a 10-for-1 stock split.

Chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO) said it partnered with Hitachi Vantara, a data storage subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, to collaborate on hybrid cloud solutions designed to help companies scale up AI-related processes. However, Broadcom shares could not escape the downward pressure in the chip industry, falling 4.1% on Monday.

Meanwhile, shares of memory chip designer Micron Technology (MU) sank 3.8% after Needham trimmed its price target on the stock to $140 from $150. Analysts cited a flat outlook for shipments of Micron's DRAM and NAND memory products.

Shares of human resources software provider Dayforce (DAY) notched Monday's top performance in the S&P 500, jumping 4.0%. Last week, Dayforce announced the launch of a new employee training tool with AI capabilities designed to optimize the learning process. In its most recent quarterly report, the firm exceeded sales and profit forecasts, boosted by strong demand for its payroll and human capital management (HCM) services.

Jack Henry & Associates (JKHY) shares gained 2.6% after the financial technology company declared a regular quarterly dividend of 55 cents per share. Based on Monday's closing price, the payout equates to a forward dividend yield of 1.3%.

Shares of oil and gas exploration firm EOG Resources (EOG) added 2.5% on Monday. Analysts at Zacks Equities Research recently highlighted EOG as a strong value stock, noting the company's solid earnings metrics and suggesting that unexploited premium locations could boost EOG's production outlook.

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