(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures gained on Monday, boosted by Tesla shares, and ahead of inflation data later this week that will offer clues on whether the Federal Reserve will pause its interest-rate hikes.
The gains follow weekly declines for the three major indexes on Friday. Investors also await consumer and producer prices as well as retail sales data through this week.
The consumer price data on Wednesday will offer signs on whether the U.S. economy is on track for a so-called soft landing, where the Fed is able to bring down inflation without badly damaging growth.
Fed officials have now entered a blackout period until the policy decision outcome on Sept. 20.
At 5:30 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 71 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 16.5 points, or 0.37%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 84.25 points, or 0.55%.
Tesla jumped 5.5% in premarket trading as Morgan Stanley upgraded the EV maker’s stock, saying Dojo supercomputer could power a nearly $600 billion jump in the automaker’s market value by boosting the adoption of robotaxis and software services.
Shares of Boeing rose 1% after the White House said that Vietnam Airlines’ deal to buy 50 737 Max jets from the planemaker is worth $7.8 billion.
Data over the weekend showed China’s consumer prices returned to positive territory in August, while factory-gate price declines slowed, as deflation pressures ease amid signs of stabilization in the economy.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms PDD Holdings, Xpeng, Baidu rose between 2.1% and 4.6%, while the iShares China Large-Cap ETF gained 1.5%.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
