Futures suggest that Wall Street indexes could reach new records. I'm James Willhite, with Monday's premarket update.

Investors are upbeat that the economic expansion will boost corporate profits and enable stocks to keep rising, albeit at a slower pace. Manufacturing data this morning are expected to reflect expanding factory activity, even as they struggle with supply-chain issues. Earnings are due after the close from Diamondback Energy and Williams Cos. Read our full market wrap here.

Meanwhile, our Anna Hirtenstein explains why German bund yields have declined to their lowest since February as investors speculate that the European Central Bank will keep buying debt.

Square: Square shares fell premarket after the company agreed to acquire Afterpay in an all-stock deal worth around $29 billion, illustrating how financial technology companies are seeking scale to challenge banks for a bigger slice of the payments industry.

Walt Disney: The entertainment giant's new movie “Jungle Cruise,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, premiered to $34.2 million in the U.S. and Canada after having cost more than $200 million to make.

Carnival: The cruise operator said over the weekend that its Princess Cruises had completed its first voyage after an extended pause in operations.

Williams Cos., ZoomInfo and Columbia Sportswear are among the companies reporting earnings on Monday.

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Government bonds in the eurozone have rallied in recent weeks as investors bet on a growing divergence in economic fortunes between slowgrowing Europe and the rest of the world—especially the U.S.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year German bund slipped to minus 0.454% Monday, near its lowest level in over five months. In May, it had climbed as high as minus 0.108%, according to Tradeweb. Bond yields fall as prices rise.

The move partly mirrors the action in the U.S. bond market, where the yield on 10-year Treasurys eased to 1.234% Monday from a peak of 1.749% at the end of March.

In Europe, investors’ appetite for sovereign debt has picked up as the outlook for the region has dimmed. The spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus is prompting worries that governments could broaden restrictions and curtail social activity and travel.

Europe has also long struggled to kick-start inflation, prompting some money managers to bet that the European Central Bank will continue to buy bonds and keep interest rates low even after other major central banks scale back easy-money policies.

“If we get additional easing out of the ECB, then it should be supportive for European bonds,” said Iain Stealey, chief investment officer for fixed income at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “It’s very different to other central banks around the world—such as in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.K.—where inflation is expected to pick up and they are talking about the need to normalize.”

He favors holding German government bonds, and is betting that U.S. Treasurys will lose value.

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Inflation has vexed money managers this year, yet markets are starting to signal that investors may be growing less fearful of price trends.

Popular trading app Robinhood isn’t the first to sell a piece of itself to its own customers. Investors who jumped on prior brokerage-firm IPOs often ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

Companies that saw logs into two-by-fours and manufacture wood panels reported second-quarter profits this week that topped earnings totals from their best years thanks to the pandemic forest-product frenzy.

The world’s largest investment funds are descending on Silicon Valley with unprecedented financial force, roiling the once-niche business of tech startup funding and crowding out traditional venture capitalists.

• Flows into U.S. equity funds hit a six-week high during the week ended July 28, marking their 24th inflow in the 30 weeks year-to-date, according to EPFR.
   
• Robinhood Markets said 301,573 users participated in the IPO, which raised about $2 billion and valued the company at $32 billion. That represents about 1.3% of the company’s 22.5 million funded accounts as of June 30.
   
• On this day in 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Over the next 2½ months, the U.S. stock market lost 19% and many experts began to forecast a protracted bear market. Yet just one year later, the U.S. stock market was up 26.9%.

IHS Markit's U.S. manufacturing index for July, due at 9:45 a.m. ET, is expected to hold at 63.1, unchanged from a preliminary reading.

The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index for July, due at 10 a.m., is expected to tick up to 60.8 from 60.6 a month earlier.

U.S. construction spending for June, due at 10 a.m., is expected to increase 0.5% from a month earlier.

A fired executive said Deutsche Bank’s DWS overstated its sustainable-investing efforts. The bank’s asset-management arm has struggled to define and implement an ESG strategy, according to its former sustainability chief and internal emails and presentations.

HSBC’s profit rose as pandemic provisions receded. The global lender earned $3.4 billion in the quarter ended June, much higher than the $192 million it reported for the same period last year, after it reduced provisions for bad loans caused by the economic fallout from the pandemic.

Coal projects in Asia face dwindling financing as climate pressure mounts. The move could hasten the shift toward cleaner energy sources in some of the fastest-growing parts of the world.

A popular bet on Chinese growth is falling out of favor. China’s role as a key driver of the Australian dollar is being re-evaluated in global markets, helping send the currency to levels well below where traditional modeling suggests it should be.

Higher pay for new workers is rippling through the ranks. Companies across the U.S. are raising the pay floor for new employees in a difficult hiring market, prompting longtime workers to reassess their own compensation and get more.

Chilean workers at the world’s biggest copper mine voted to strike. The move potentially risks supply disruptions of a key metal as the world’s economy continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Two U.S. companies are seeking continued tariffs on imported solar panels. Auxin Solar and Suniva plan to ask the U.S. International Trade Commission to extend the solar tariffs for four years, reigniting a fight that has split the industry—and could force the White House to choose sides.

We want to be the first place you go to get ready for the opening bell every day. This newsletter is written and edited by James Willhite (@jimwillhite; james.willhite@wsj.com) in London.