SQUAWK BOX, MONDAY 19TH APRIL, 2021

The S&P 500 and Dow close the past week at new record highs following a strong start to the U.S. corporate earnings season, ahead of another week of key numbers. Meanwhile, pandemic deaths have reached the grim milestone of 3 million deaths worldwide. India alone has recorded up to 250,000 new infections in a single day. Research is ongoing to assess future risks from the virus, with Oxford University undertaking human Covid re-infection trials to assess the efficacy and longevity of vaccines and immune responses to the virus. In China, Shanghai plays host to two days of high-level climate talks between Washington and Beijing where environmental envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua pledged cooperation on climate change ahead of President Biden’s virtual leaders’ summit this week. And, the PBOC says it does not intend to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency with its digital yuan.