Stock futures were flat on Tuesday as Wall Street opened the vacation-shortened week with the S&P 500 at a record high.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell just 1 point. S&P 500 futures were flat and Nasdaq 100 futures were slightly lower. US markets were closed on Monday for Independence Day on July 4th.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose to a six-year high after an important meeting between the oil producing group OPEC and its partners on crude oil exploration policy was canceled. The postponement came when the United Arab Emirates rejected a proposal to extend oil production increases for a second day.

The oil surge boosted energy stocks in pre-trading. The SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF rose 1.8% in pre-trading. Occidental Petroleum, APA, and ConocoPhillips stocks were all higher.

U.S. shares in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi plunged up to 25% in premarket trading after China said new users would not be able to download the app until a cybersecurity clearance was conducted. The announcement surprised the markets as Didi only made his US debut on the NYSE last week.

The S&P 500 has had a seven-day winning streak, the longest since August, amid a string of solid economic reports, including a better-than-expected job report on Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also hit a record high in the previous session.

The economy created 850,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 706,000.

Still, after a strong first half performance amid a historic economic reopening, many on Wall Street expect smaller and more troubled gains for the remainder of the year. The S&P 500 is up nearly 16% since the start of the year.

“The US economy is booming, but we know it by now and the asset markets reflect it. Which is no longer so clear what price this growth will come at, “said Michael Wilson, chief strategist for US equities at Morgan Stanley, in a note.

“Higher costs mean lower profits, another reason the overall stock market has narrowed … Stock markets will likely pause this summer as things heat up,” said Wilson.

Wall Street’s consensus target for the S&P 500 is 4,276, a loss of nearly 2% from Friday’s closing price of 4,352.34, according to the CNBC Market Strategist Survey, which rounds up the predictions of 16 top strategists.

Investors await the release of the June Federal Open Markets Committee’s minutes of the June meeting for clues to the central bank’s behind-the-scenes discussions on the abolition of its quantitative easing program.

People may not have traveled a lot in the past year, but that hasn’t stopped them from looking for ideas online.

Luxury travel company Unforgettable Travel wanted to know which travel experiences people have been looking for the most over the past year. With the help of digital marketing agency SEO Travel, the company compiled a list of 135 of the world’s most popular bucket list destinations and uses software to determine how many people are planning to visit each website.

The 10 Most Wanted “Bucket List” Travel Experiences

According to the study, which analyzed searches from May 2020 to May 2021, the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, was the most wanted travel experience, a result that surprised the team at Unforgettable Travel.

With more than 160 stories, the Burj Khalifa is 2,716 feet tall, or more than double the height of the 1,250 foot Empire State Building in New York.

Fraser Hall | The image database | Getty Images

“In the top 10 alone there were some experiences that we thought would be listed below, even though they were great experiences … that includes the # 1 Burj Khalifa in Dubai,” said Luke Harvey, a marketing manager for the Company. “But the fact that Dubai stayed open to visitors most of the time during the pandemic will have supported his position.”

That wasn’t the only surprise for the team.

“Trekking to Mount Everest base camp is definitely a once in a lifetime experience, but we didn’t think it would beat the Colosseum in Rome,” he said.

The Statue of Liberty is located on Liberty Island, a small federally owned island south of Manhattan.

Victor Blue | Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mount Everest’s place on the list could reflect a growing preference for outdoor travel activities. Six hikes appeared in the top 50 list, including Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Havasu Falls in Arizona, Trolltunga in Norway, Table Mountain in South Africa and the Inca Trail in Peru to Machu Picchu.

Travel experiences “Bucket List” by continent

Continent lists show the travel experiences and websites with the greatest online interest in certain parts of the world.

Africa

History, wildlife and natural wonders are Africa’s most searched websites, including some that are linked in terms of global search activity.

1. Go down the Nile
2. Ascent of Kilimanjaro
2. Hiking to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town
4. Visit of Chefchaouen, the “Blue City” of Morocco
5. Hiking in Kenya
6. Bungee jumping from the Victoria Falls Bridge
6. Trekking to gorillas in Uganda
8. See the Sahara desert
9. On safari in the Ngorongoro Crater
9. Visit to the Medina (old town) of Marrakech

“These are all great things to do in some of Africa’s top destinations,” said Kent Redding, president and co-founder of luxury safari company Africa Adventure Consultants.

He told CNBC that due to the pandemic, travelers should expect some restrictions while these locations are open. For example, visitors must stay 10 meters from the gorillas in Uganda, and the cable car up Table Mountain will be closed until at least July 11, he said.

Travelers to Africa this year are enjoying “a level of exclusivity not seen in a century,” said Kent Redding of Africa Adventure Consultant.

Sergio Pitamitz | VW Pictures | Universal picture group | Getty Images

The 2022 travel season is filling fast due to postponements from this year and “a ton of new bookings” for next year, Redding said. That means there are plenty of options for travelers ready to travel this year, he said.

“While travelers now face some hurdles while traveling – including canceled flights, sporadic bans, and lots of Covid testing – those who can roll with the punches enjoy incredible experiences,” Redding said. “You visit some of Africa’s most popular parks and see amazing wildlife … with no one around.”

Antarctic

The White Continent has only one experience on the list – just step on it.

1. Visit to Antarctica

“Antarctica has always had a unique pull,” said Patrick Woodhead, executive director of White Desert, a luxury tour operator that organizes expeditions into the continent. “Customers are drawn to the continent because there is still a sense of discovery in travel that has been lost in so many other places around the world.”

Despite the impression that Antarctica is a large block of ice, the continent is “incredibly diverse,” said Patrick Woodhead of White Desert.

Jaime Diaz | 500px Prime | Getty Images

Woodhead said the 2021-2022 travel season will be the company’s busiest season yet.

“With such a long backlog, customers aren’t waiting to experience a lifelong dream,” he told CNBC.

Asia

Even though most of Asia was closed to tourism last year, people were still looking for information about these experiences:

1. Visit to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
2. Hike to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal
3. Tour of the Taj Mahal
4. Travel to Japan during the cherry blossom season
5. See China’s Forbidden City
6. Diving in the Indonesian Raja Ampat Islands
7. The sunrise at Angkor Wat. observe
8. Swimming in the Dead Sea
9. Visit to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
10. The sunrise at the temple of Borobudur. see

Perhaps the least known place on Asia’s list, the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia is considered one of the best places in the world for diving.

Afriandi | Moment | Getty Images

The list includes both modern architecture – Burj Khalifa, Petronas Towers – and historic ones – the temples of Angkor Wat and Borobudur, as well as China’s Forbidden City.

The extremes of nature are also emphasized; the highest mountain in the world – Mount Everest – and the lowest place on earth – the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan – are on the list.

Europe

The top 3 searched spots in Europe come as no surprise, and the rest of the list is an eclectic mix of architecture, nature, exercise, and entertainment.

1. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
2. Visit to the Louvre in Paris
2. Explore the Colosseum of Rome
4. Go to Glastonbury Festival
5. Celebrate in Ibiza
6. Ride with the Orient Express
7. See the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
8. Visit to Buckingham Palace in London
9. Cruise through the Norwegian fjords
10. Run the London Marathon

Europe had the most places on the longer list, taking 19 out of 50 places. Italy secured four more with Pompeii, Cinque Terre, the Sistine Chapel and the Canals of Venice.

Two experiences in Iceland – seeing the Northern Lights and swimming in the warm waters of the Blue Lagoon – also made the breakthrough, as did a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany and Stonehenge in the United Kingdom.

Spain’s still unfinished La Sagrada Familia church narrowly ousted British Buckingham Palace in terms of global search interest last year.

By Eve Livesey | Moment | Getty Images

Europe has reopened to some international travelers, but tourists should note that not all of these experiences have been made yet.

North America

Four big city travel experiences in North America made it into the global top 10 list. The rest was concentrated in more rural parts of the continent.

1. Visit the Statue of Liberty
2. See the Las Vegas Strip
2. Cross the Golden Gate Bridge
4. Go to the top of the Empire State Building
5. Helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon
6. Road trip on Route 66
7. Participation in Coachella
7. See Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border
9. Camping in Canada’s Banff National Park
10. See Mount Rushmore

“This is a great list, and I think it hits many of the best US locations and experiences,” said Ruzwana Bashir, CEO of Peek, a travel experience booking website.

She said one way to make bucket list trips special is to see them in interesting ways. From that list, she recommends an underground tour of the Grand Canyon, a zip line in the Mojave Desert outside of Las Vegas, and a seaplane ride over the Golden Gate Bridge.

A seaplane ride offers “incredible views” of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city of San Francisco, said Ruzwana Bashir of Peek.

Xavier Hoenner Photography | Moment | Getty Images

“On Route 66, I’d recommend taking a tour of the breathtaking caves in Peach Springs, a trip around Santa Fe to raft the Rio Grande, and a local handcrafted cocktail at a beautiful distillery in Galena, Kansas , to enjoy.” said Bashir.

She added that other must-see experiences in North America include a hot air balloon ride over the Napa Valley, a visit to Yosemite National Park, and waterfall yoga in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains.

Oceania

After Antarctica, Oceania is the most populous continent in the world, comprising Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and many smaller islands such as Fiji, Guam and French Polynesia.

Unsurprisingly, all but one of the most sought-after travel activities involve the outdoors.

1. Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef
2. Watch a show at the Sydney Opera House
3. See New Zealand’s Hobbiton
4. Visit Uluru Monolith or Ayer’s Rock
5. Spend the night in an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora
6. A tour of New Zealand’s Waitomo Glowworm Caves

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visits Hobbiton on October 4, 2018 in Matamata, New Zealand.

Hannah Peters | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The latest of these experiences is the Hobbiton movie set in Matamata on New Zealand’s North Island. Tolkien enthusiasts can book a guided tour of the 12 acre film set used in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

South America

In South America, too, online interest is directed towards outdoor activities.

1. Hike to Macchu Picchu
2. See the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands
2. Experience the biodiversity of Costa Rica
4.Hiking on Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni (salt flat)
4. Visit the Iguazu Falls, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet
4. See the Moai statues on Easter Island
7. Visit to the San Pedro de Atacama desert
8. Explore Patagonia
9. Sandboarding in Huacachina, Peru
10. See the Amazon rainforest

Rain still makes Bolivia’s salt desert of Uyuni appear smooth as glass.

Kazuki Kimura / EyeEm | EyeEm Premium | Getty Images

Peru’s most famous tourist destination, Macchu Picchu, topped the list. It was also one of four of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” to appear in the list of the 50 Most Wanted Travel Experiences.

“The biggest surprise was that some of the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ didn’t make the top 50, including the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil,” said Harvey of Unforgettable Travel.

In the end, he attributed it to the sheer size of the competition.

“There are so many amazing things to see and do in our world,” he said.

Jeff Bezos announces Blue Moon, a lunar lander for the moon, during a Blue Origin event in Washington, DC, May 9, 2019.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Ann Hiatt recalls that Jeff Bezos didn’t sit down for long.

As executive assistant to the Amazon CEO from 2002 to 2005, Hiatt was tasked with keeping an eye on Bezos’ whereabouts. At the time, the fast-growing internet retailer had moved into an Art Deco building that was once a US Navy hospital. It would be years before Amazon moved into a series of shiny glass buildings in downtown Seattle, with a campus that spans several city blocks and includes three glass spheres filled with plants from around the world.

Bezos refused to take the elevator to Amazon’s office on the 14th floor in the historic building commonly referred to as the old PacMed Center, recalls Hiatt. Instead, he often ran up and down the stairs without breaking a sweat.

“He’s like a puppy. He did laps and was never tired,” Hiatt said in an interview. “This is Jeff. He couldn’t be held back.”

This image of Bezos captures the relentless drive and energy that would fuel Amazon’s meteoric rise from internet bookseller to the world’s largest online retailer and cloud computing company.

Now, after almost three decades, the 57-year-old founder is preparing to direct his energy towards other goals. Starting Monday – 27 years to the day after the founding of Amazon – Bezos will become CEO of Amazon and hand over the CEO title to his former protégé, Cloud Computing boss Andy Jassy.

Bezos is leaving the CEO role at a time of great success for the company when Amazon topped $ 100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in February.

While Bezos doesn’t get very far, he still leaves many of the headaches of day-to-day business to Jassy, ​​some of which are more intense than before. Amazon is under investigation by antitrust authorities in the US and abroad. It is facing pressure from lawmakers to say it should focus on being a better corporate citizen. Within the company, employees routinely raise complaints about working conditions and have been on the front lines with unions to look into organizing opportunities.

Opening of the “largest bookstore on earth”

Bezos was vice president of Wall Street hedge fund DE Shaw when he came up with the idea of ​​starting an online bookstore. He quit in 1994 and moved across the country to Seattle, where he bought a suburban home and started the company that turned his garage into Amazon. The company was almost called “Cadabra”, but it sounded too much like “Carcass,” so Bezos turned to Amazon instead.

The site went live on July 16, 1995. The homepage welcomed users with the reputation of being “the largest bookstore on earth”, stocking a million titles and offering “consistently low prices”. Within the first month of its launch, Amazon had sold books in every state in the US and 45 countries around the world.

“I remember flying to Seattle to see the company at their First Avenue offices across from a free needles clinic in a pretty shabby part of Seattle,” said John Doerr, an early Amazon investor and Chairman of the risk firm Kleiner Perkins, told CNBC. Tech Check “on Friday.” We built these tables out of desk doors we bought at Home Depot. We went online with a very fast website and were able to get all the books in the world in less time at better prices than anyone else in the world. “

After a successful IPO in 1997 that made Bezos a millionaire, CEO Amazon successfully navigated the dot-com bubble. In the mid-2000s, Bezos began expanding Amazon’s focus beyond online retail to include cloud computing, video entertainment, and devices. He has taken on wide-ranging projects outside of Amazon, such as founding the rocket company Blue Origin, which he funded through the sale of billions of Amazon stocks.

Bezos often looked at Amazon’s business long term, which meant putting growth before profit, much to Wall Street’s horror. In a notable exchange, former Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak Bezos squeezed Amazon’s budget for its burgeoning Kindle e-reader project, which launched in 2007, according to a former Amazon vice president. Bezos joked back, “Well how much money do we have in the bank?”

Bezos is the richest man in the world, which makes him the target of politicians and advocates who want to reduce income inequality and see him as an example of uncontrolled corporate power. He is now a regular guest at the Oscars and has steadily expanded his presence in the country’s capital, among other things by taking over the Washington Post. He was brought into the spotlight when he became the direct target of former President Donald Trump.

In interviews, former Amazon employees suggested that Jassy’s softer personality, coupled with the fact that he’s not well known outside of Silicon Valley circles, could end up working for Amazon’s advantage if it stares at its critics.

“Andy will represent Amazon when Congress or other stakeholders call in and ask or ask tough questions,” said John Rossman, Amazon executive in the early 2000s and author of The Amazon Way. “Perhaps in a way it helps him not to be the founder, to be even more effective in these dialogues.”

The next iteration of Amazon

The transition from Bezos to Jassy will not change much. Imbued with Amazon’s corporate culture, Jassy has helped develop the key leadership principles that guide employees.

Jassy also served as Bezos’ “shadow” in the early 2000s. For Bezos, shadows act as “brain doubles” and provide another pair of eyes and ears in meetings, Hiatt said. Officially known as a technical assistant, you are copied into every email and flight plan, helping to summarize each day’s events in preparation for the next.

Andy Jassy, ​​Chief Executive Officer of Web Services at Amazon.com Inc., listens during the Amazon Web Services Summit in San Francisco on April 19, 2017.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shadows usually play prestigious roles within the company. For Jassy, ​​that was the boom in Amazon’s burgeoning cloud computing business.

Jassy helped advise Bezos’ next shadow, Colin Bryar, on how to handle the task. As Bezos ‘shadow, he interacted with Jassy in meetings with Bezos’ S-Team, a group of top corporate executives who met for four-hour breakfast meetings every Tuesday.

Bryar and other former colleagues said the AWS CEO has the same drive as Bezos but is known for taking a slightly different approach to his leadership style.

Bezos can be opinionated, forceful and at times aggressive, said people who have worked closely with the CEO. Jassy often has a gentler charisma, but can be just as intense by remembering specific details from presentations and pointing out inconsistencies with a laser-like focus.

Jassy also has Bezos’ penchant for getting employees to think bigger. Bezos was sometimes fixated on a specific project and, to the surprise of some employees, regularly followed the teams to make sure they were on the right track.

“For example, people would say my team of 23 met with me like every other week for two months,” said David Anderson, a former manager at Amazon’s AWS and device units. “Every now and then, it was like that huge hammer would come in and get this problem out of the way because Jeff interfered.”

Jassy is “more like Bezos than any other” executive at Amazon, said Anderson, thanks to his intelligent intelligence and deep knowledge of Amazon’s business from top to bottom.

He recalled an AWS Operations meeting that was attended by senior executives where Jassy delved into very specific and technical matters.

“It just blew my mind because this is the guy who runs AWS and is very familiar with very low details,” said Anderson. “It struck me that he is running the organization for a very good reason. He not only thinks big, he knows the details.”