US STOCKS-Wall St set for slightly higher open; Tesla rises on Musk poll outcome

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings

19/12/2022 14:02

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      Futures up: Dow 0.04%, S&P 0.12%, Nasdaq 0.20% 
    

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      Tesla jumps after Musk's Twitter poll
    

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      Moderna up after Jefferies upgrade
    

  
 (Adds analyst's comment, updates prices)
    By Shubham  Batra and Johann M  Cherian
       Dec 19 (Reuters) - 
    Wall Street's main stock indexes were set to open slightly
higher on Monday after two straight weeks of losses on recession
worries, while Tesla shares rose after a poll showed Elon Musk
should quit as Twitter's CEO.
    Shares of the electric-car maker  TSLA.O  gained 2.5% in
premarket trading after the poll showed about 57.5% of the 17.5
million people voted in favor of him stepping down from Twitter.
    The S&P 500  .SPX  and the Nasdaq  .IXIC  lost over 2% each
last week after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled more policy
tightening, and the central bank projected that interest rates
would top the 5% mark in 2023, a level not seen since 2007.
        "There's still a cloud over the markets (from last
week). But this is one day where the investors are not thinking
so much about the bad or thinking so much about a recession,"
said Dennis Dick, market structure analyst and trader, Triple D
Trading.
  
        "They're thinking, 'hey, here's one of the stocks that
has dropped almost 50% since he (Musk) took over Twitter and so
here's the relief rally that we've been looking for'."
  
        
    Comments from New York Fed President John Williams further
bruised sentiment on Friday as he said it remains possible the
U.S. central bank will raise rates more than it expects next
year.
    However, money market participants still place a 73.5%
chance of a 25 basis points rate hike in February to 4.5%-4.75%,
with a terminal rate of 4.84% in May 2023.  FEDWATCH 
    Economic data this week including housing starts, consumer
confidence, weekly jobless claims and core personal consumption
spending growth for November will set the investor mood,
providing more clues on future rate hikes by the central bank.
    At 8:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis  1YMcv1  were up 14 points, or
0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis  EScv1  were up 4.5 points, or 0.12%, and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis  NQcv1  were up 23 points, or 0.2%.
    Moderna Inc  MRNA.O  advanced 2.7% after Jefferies upgraded
the biotechnology firm's stock to "buy" from "hold", citing
cancer therapy opportunities.
    L3Harris Technologies Inc  LHX.N  lost 1.1% after the U.S.
defense contractor said it would buy the hypersonic engine
manufacturer, Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc  AJRD.N , for $4.7
billion. Aerojet added 1.7%.
 (Reporting by Shubham  Batra and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru;
Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Maju Samuel)
 ((Shubham.Batra@thomsonreuters.com;))