By Ben Walsh, Market Watch–

Here’s what you need to know about the impact of Covid-19 to navigate the markets today.

• U.S. stocks are set to start the week slightly higher after futures rose Sunday evening. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 100 points, or 0.4%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% and Nasdaq Composite futures were up 0.7%. Investors anticipated a flurry of earnings releases this week, with 80 S&P 500 companies reporting third-quarter results this week. Among the reports to watch: Halliburton and IBM report Monday, Netflix reports Tuesday, and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Tesla, and Verizon Communications report all report Wednesday. Investors may also be factoring in new hopes for a stimulus deal, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is optimistic about, as well as a slight dip in U.S. coronavirus cases over the weekend.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a deadline for the White House to strike a deal with Democrats that could pass before Election Day. Speaker Pelosi’s office said late Saturday that “decisions must be made by the White House” within 48 hours. Pelosi added Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the deadline “only relates to if we want to get it [a stimulus package] done before the election.” In that interview, Pelosi said that a key issue holding up talks was language governing how much discretion President Trump would have over stimulus spending. “When you say ‘may’ you’re giving the president a slush fund. He may do this, he may grant, he may withhold. When you say ‘shall,’ according to … what the science tells must happen … we can open our schools, we can open our businesses,” she said. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke more than an hour Saturday night and Pelosi said that while “we don’t have agreement in the language yet, but I’m hopeful.”

• Twitter removed a tweet from Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, for violating its policy on Covid-19 misinformation, the company said Sunday. Dr. Atlas tweeted, “Masks work? NO,” followed by other misrepresentations of the science examining the effectiveness of masks in preventing the spread of Covid-19. Dr. Atlas’s message goes against the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other health authorities, which recommend mask wearing in public when indoors or if social distancing isn’t possible. Early in the pandemic, the CDC didn’t advocate mask-wearing, but it has done so since April, after evidence emerged that people without symptoms could be infected with Covid-19 and transmit it to others.

• The number of new Covid-19 cases reported in the U.S. dipped on Saturday, falling to 57,519, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That is less than the 69,156 new coronavirus cases reported on Friday. However, the U.S. continues to experience a broad increase in infections as case counts climb toward a third-wave crest. The seven-day average of new cases, which helps smooths out factors like delays in weekend reporting, is now at its highest level since early August, per the data compiled by Johns Hopkins.

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Write to Ben Walsh at ben.walsh@barrons.com