5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

The operator of the country’s largest fuel pipeline, Colonial Pipeline, experienced a cybersecurity attack on Friday, forcing it to temporarily shut down all pipeline operations and leading to an increase in gasoline and oil prices.

Gasoline futures rose 1.5% to $2.16 per gallon, pulling back slightly from their highest levels of the overnight session. Heating oil futures rose 0.8% to $2.03, also off the highest levels of the session. West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, advanced 0.5% to $65.24 per barrel.

Colonial Pipeline has hired a third-party cybersecurity firm to launch a probe into the incident and has contacted law enforcement and other federal agencies. The cyberattack has affected some of its IT systems too.

Colonial Pipeline said Sunday evening that some of its smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are once again online, but that its main lines are still shut down.

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose slightly in early trading Monday as the indexes are set to build on last week’s solid rally to record highs.

Dow futures gained 97 points, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.1%. Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.3% lower as tech shares pulled back after Friday’s big gains.

Bigger tech stocks declined in early trading with Tesla down 1%. Oracle lost nearly 1% after a downgrade from Barclays.

Last week, the Dow rallied 2.7% and the S&P 500 gained 1.2%. Despite a 0.9% rally on the week’s final session, the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.5% over the same period.

The late-week optimism came despite a far-weaker-than-expected April jobs report, which showed that U.S. employers added 266,000 net payrolls last month. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected 1 million additions.

Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, surged past $4,000 Monday to reach an all-time high.

Ether, the digital token of the Ethereum blockchain, last traded up 4% to $4,044, according to Coin Metrics. It now has a total market value of about $476.3 billion, less than half bitcoin’s $1.1 trillion.

The digital asset started 2021 at around $768 apiece, up more than 400% on the year. Ether has seen parabolic gains recently as investors look to other cryptocurrencies for returns. Bitcoin fell over 2% in April, while ether rose more than 40%.

The price of dogecoin tumbled on Saturday as Tesla CEO Elon Musk – the self-proclaimed “Dogefather” – made his “Saturday Night Live” debut.

The meme-inspired cryptocurrency fell as much as 29.5%, dropping to 49 cents at one point Saturday. Musk mentioned dogecoin in his opening monologue and on “Weekend Update,” SNL’s satirical news show. In a Q&A with hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost, Musk called himself the “Dogefather,” said dogecoin was a “hustle,” and howled, “To the moon.”

On Sunday, Musk’s SpaceX announced it will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” in the first quarter of 2022, with the company accepting Dogecoin as payment.

“SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon,” Musk wrote in a Sunday tweet.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce on Monday that the government will push ahead with the next stage of lifting lockdown in England.

Johnson’s Cabinet is expected to sign off on Monday the further relaxing of lockdown measures from May 17. International travel will be able to resume then in most circumstances although quarantines and testing will be required on return to the U.K., for the most part.

Pubs and restaurants are also due to welcome customers indoors again and indoor household mixing will be allowed to resume for groups up to six people. The government has said it hopes to lift all restrictions on social contact by June 21.

A renewed bid for an independence vote in Scotland threatens to overshadow Westminster in the weeks and months ahead, however.