EMEA Morning Briefing : Stocks to Open Higher -2-

The large number of electric vehicles on board a ship that is drifting ablaze in the Atlantic Ocean is complicating efforts to extinguish the fire, the Dutch experts contracted to salvage the vessel said Sunday.

It is unclear whether the blaze was caused by the electric cars, whose lithium-ion batteries have been known to catch fire, but the presence of burning batteries on board means SMIT Salvage, the company contracted to rescue the ship, is facing fire that spreads fast and cannot be fought with water alone, the company's owners said.

Taliban Looks to Private Sector to Save Afghanistan's Economy From Collapse

KABUL-With its economy in free fall, the Taliban is banking on private enterprise to rescue Afghanistan's people and solidify its regime.

That will be tough for a country under international sanctions, with its banks paralyzed, poverty reaching near-universal levels and little confidence among the population in what the future holds.

Carl Icahn Nominates Two to McDonald's Board

Carl Icahn has launched a proxy fight for two board seats at McDonald's Corp., as the activist investor pushes the fast-food chain to require its suppliers to change their treatment of pigs.

Mr. Icahn has a very small McDonald's stake and had been in talks with the company alongside the Humane Society of the United States for several weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

FDA Eyes Second Covid-19 Booster Shot

U.S. health regulators are looking at potentially authorizing a fourth dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in the fall, according to people familiar with the matter.

The planning is still in early stages, and authorization would depend on ongoing studies establishing that a fourth dose would shore up people's molecular defenses that waned after their first booster and reduce their risk of symptomatic and severe disease, the people said.

J&J Lawyers Say Talc Plaintiffs Are Better Served in Chapter 11

Lawyers defending Johnson & Johnson's strategy for moving about 38,000 talc lawsuits to bankruptcy said the costly litigation had stressed its consumer health business, and that chapter 11 offers a fairer forum and opportunity to accelerate payments to cancer victims.

Greg Gordon, a lawyer representing a bankrupt J&J talc unit, denied there was evidence its chapter 11 case was filed to gain an edge over personal-injury plaintiffs, saying that bankruptcy court is "the only forum that exists in this country" to fairly and efficiently resolve the unwieldy talc litigation.

SenseTime, Lenovo Shares Jump After Inclusion Into Hang Seng Indexes

Shares of artificial-intelligence company SenseTime Group Inc. and computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. jumped Monday morning, as investors welcomed the stocks' inclusion into two key Hang Seng indexes.

Both companies gained as much as 11% within an hour of trading.

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Expected Major Events for Monday

00:01/UK: Feb Rightmove Monthly House Price Index

07:00/GER: Jan PPI

07:00/SWE: 4Q Industrial capacity utilization

08:15/FRA: Feb France Flash PMI

08:30/GER: Feb Germany Flash PMI

09:00/POL: Jan Retail Sales

09:00/EU: Feb Eurozone Flash PMI

09:30/UK: Feb Flash UK PMI

10:00/LUX: Jan Unemployment

11:00/FRA: 4Q OECD Quarterly National Accounts: GDP growth

11:00/UK: Jan Aluminium Production report

15:59/GRE: Dec Balance of Payments

17:59/POR: Dec Balance of Payments

17:59/POR: Nov ICSG Copper Report

23:00/NED: Jan House Price Index

All times in GMT. Powered by Kantar Media and Dow Jones.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-21-22 0033ET