The daily business briefing: May 10, 2021

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1. Gasoline futures rise after pipeline cyberattack
2. Fed official urges Americans not to 'overreact' to disappointing jobs report
3. Sanders calls for passing Biden infrastructure bill without GOP
4. Dogecoin drops after Musk pokes fun at it on SNL
5. Stock futures mixed following last week's records

published 10 May 2021

1. Gasoline futures rise after pipeline cyberattack

Gasoline futures rose by 1.6 percent to $2.162 per gallon early Monday on concerns that the cyberattack that forced the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which carries nearly half of the East Coast's fuel from Texas, could disrupt supplies. Oil futures rose, too. Colonial said some systems were back up but its main line remained closed. Investigators believe the hack was the work of a Russian criminal gang called DarkSide that claims to steal from wealthy companies and give a portion to charities, two people close to the investigation told The Associated Press on Sunday. The pipeline remained closed for a third day on Sunday as the Biden administration said it was undertaking an "all-hands-on-deck" effort to reopen it. President Biden is preparing an executive order strengthening cybersecurity.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Sunday that Americans shouldn't "overreact" to Friday's April jobs report, which fell far short of expectations. The Labor Department recorded that U.S. employers added 266,000 jobs in April; economists had been expecting a gain of nearly 1 million as progress in coronavirus vaccinations helped more businesses fully reopen. Kashkari acknowledged the "bottom line" was that "we are still somewhere between 8 and 10 million jobs below where we were before" the coronavirus pandemic struck. "We still are in a deep hole," he told CBS News' John Dickerson on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation. "And we still need to do everything we can to put those folks back to work more quickly."

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure package passed with or without Republican votes. "The American people want results," Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told Axios on HBO during an interview that aired Sunday. "And frankly, when people got a ... $1,400 check or $5,600 check for their family, they didn't say, 'Oh, I can't cash this check because it was done without any Republican votes.'" White House aides told Axios that the broad infrastructure package is not an emergency measure, and should not be pushed through with a simple majority as the recent COVID-19 relief package was. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a moderate who Democrats need on board in the evenly split Senate, has praised the GOP's smaller infrastructure counterproposal.

Dogecoin plunged on Sunday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the meme-based cryptocurrency a "hustle" during his appearance as guest host of Saturday Night Live. Dogecoin, which started out as a joke, has soared during the recent runup of cryptocurrencies. But after Musk, a big cryptocurrency booster, poked fun at dogecoin, it dropped by as much as 28 percent before edging back up a bit. Asked in a segment of the show what dogecoin is, Musk replied: "It's the future of currency. It's an unstoppable financial vehicle that's going to take over the world." SNL cast member Michael Che then said, "So, it's a hustle?" Musk replied: "Yeah, it's a hustle."

U.S. stock index futures were mostly flat early Monday, remaining in record range after last week's highs. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up by 0.2 percent several hours before the opening bell. Futures tied to the S&P 500 gained less than 0.1 percent while those of the tech-heavy Nasdaq were down by nearly 0.3 percent. The Dow and the S&P ended last week at all-time highs despite an April jobs report that fell far short of expectations. The Dow ended the week up by 2.7 percent as falling COVID-19 cases raised hopes for a strong economic rebound. The S&P gained 1.2 percent on the week. The Nasdaq rose by 0.9 percent on Friday but finished the week down by 1.5 percent.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.