Stock futures traded higher Monday as investors looked ahead to U.S. inflation data later in the week and pondered what influence the consumer price index and producer price index readings will have on monetary policy from the Federal Reserve.
These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:
Tesla $(TSLA)$ rose 5.7% to $262.73 after shares of the electric-vehicle maker were upgraded to Buy from Hold by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who also boosted the stock's price target to a Wall Street high of $400 a share, up from $250. The upgrade centers around artificial intelligence with Jonas writing that Tesla "has developed an advanced supercomputing architecture that pushes new boundaries in custom silicon and may put Tesla at an asymmetric advantage in a $10 trillion total addressable market."
American depositary receipts of Alibaba $(BABA)$ edged higher in premarket trading. Hong-Kong listed shares of Alibaba declined 2.7% after Daniel Zhang, former chairman of the e-commerce giant, stepped down as chairman and chief executive of its cloud business unit. Alibaba is aiming for a public listing of its cloud unit, the company's second-largest business by revenue.
AMC rebounded nearly 4% in premarket trading after tumbling over 45% last week. It continued to hit an all- time low at $7.18 from last Wednesday to Friday.
Bilibili and XPeng led Chinese ADRs fly higher in premarket trading, both of them gained over 4%. China's yuan-denominated loans rose by 1.36 trillion yuan ($188.63 billion) in August, central bank data showed Monday.
J.M. Smucker ( SJM) is nearing a deal to acquire Twinkies owner Hostess Brands $(TWNK)$ for about $4 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Hostess Brands' value currently stands at about $3.7 billion. Hostess Brands was up 6.1% in premarket trading. Smucker shares were inactive in the premarket session.
Apple $(AAPL)$ shares were up 0.8% in premarket trading, a day before the tech giant's annual fall launch event, dubbed "Wonderlust" this year. The event is expected to focus on the debut of the iPhone 15. The most notable change to the phone likely will be a shift to the widely used USB-C standard port from Apple's proprietary Lightning connectors.
Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ rose 0.5% as the Department of Justice finally will bring its three-year-old antitrust case against Google to trial beginning Tuesday. The DOJ argues that the Alphabet unit has an illegal monopoly in the internet search market.
Earnings reports are expected Monday from Oracle $(ORCL)$, FuelCell Energy $(FCEL)$, Casey's General Stores $(CASY)$, and Skillsoft $(SKIL)$.
Software company Adobe $(ADBE)$ reports earnings later this week as does home builder Lennar $(LEN)$.