(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday as a jump in the shares of Twitter and U.S.-listed Chinese firms offset concerns about more sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Micro-blogging site Twitter Inc jumped 26.3% in premarket trading after Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk reported a 9.2% stake in the company.
Tesla gained 0.8% to lead gains among megacap companies after the electric-vehicle maker reported record deliveries for the first quarter.
Meanwhile, shares of Bilibili Inc and Didi Global Inc jumped 10.1% and 7.4%, respectively, after China proposed revising confidentiality rules involving offshore listings.
Overall, global stocks stalled as investors continued to keep an eye on the Ukraine conflict and signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its monetary policy tightening plans.
Germany said the West would agree to impose more sanctions on Russia in the coming days after Ukraine accused Russian forces of war crimes following civilian deaths near Kyiv.
The yield curve between two-year and 10-year bonds stood inverted as a strong jobs report for March last week supported the view that the Fed would aggressively hike rates to tame soaring inflation. An inverted yield curve is widely seen as a signal of incoming economic recession. [US/]
After a dull start to the year, Nasdaq has nearly halved its losses in the last few weeks helped by gains in big growth names and strong economic data. Nasdaq is now down 11.2% from its all-time closing high in November.
Megacap stocks Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms, Apple Inc and Google owner-Alphabet Inc rose between 0.3% and 0.4%.
At 07:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 2 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6.75 points, or 0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 52 points, or 0.35%.
A U.S. Commerce Department report, due at 10:00 a.m. ET, is expected to show that factory orders dropped 0.5% in February, after rising 1.4% in January.
JPMorgan Chase & Co slipped 0.6% after boss Jamie Dimon warned that the bank could lose about $1 billion on its Russia exposure.
Starbucks Corp fell 2.2% after former CEO Howard Schultz announced the suspension of the company’s stock repurchasing program, as he returns this week to lead the global coffee chain for the third time.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
