Futures higher after two-week selloff, Tesla jumps on Musk poll

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Monday after equities suffered two straight weeks of losses, while Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares rose after CEO Elon Musk launched a poll asking if he should quit as Twitter’s boss.

Shares of the electric-car maker jumped 5.0% 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 and Nasdaq 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.

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.

“What investors are wrestling with now is just how much economic pain central banks are willing to inflict with rate rises to drag inflation back to targeted levels,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

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 5:59 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 102 points, or 0.31%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 15.5 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 55.5 points, or 0.49%.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Inc advanced 4.2% after Jefferies upgraded the biotechnology firm’s stock to “buy” from “hold”, citing cancer therapy opportunities.