stock futures wavered monday and tesla shares fell in premarket trading after chief executive elon musk asked twitter users if he should sell some of his stock a strong earnings season has helped push stocks to new highs about 82 of sp 500 companies that have reported results this season have topped analysts earnings forecasts according to factset data the spate of earnings have helped offset concerns that higherthananticipated inflation could hurt corporate profits its been a really good earnings season so markets continue to power ahead driven by earnings growth said altaf kassam head of investment strategy for state street global advisors in europe what were seeing is companies do have the pricing power they need and consumers are spending some of the cash theyve saved up over the pandemic companies including roblox paypal holdings and retail trader favorite amc entertainment holdings are set to report earnings after the closing bell in premarket trading tesla shares declined 67 after twitter users said mr musk should sell 10 of his tesla stock after the chief executive polled them and pledged to abide by the outcome of the vote the stake could amount to around 21 billion based on the stocks friday closing price overseas the pancontinental stoxx europe 600 edged 01 lower shares of abrdn rose 22 after the scottish fund manager said it was in talks to acquire online broker interactive investor the potential appointment of federal reserve governor lael brainard as the central banks chair poses the main downside risk to the dollar in the nearterm mufg bank said market participants would expect the fed to be even more cautious about tightening policy under her leadership mufg currency analyst lee hardman said president joe biden reportedly met with fed chair jerome powell and brainard separately on thursday as he considers who will lead the central bank next year bitcoin jumped on expectations that the era of cheap money will remain for longer and inflation will continue to accelerate said hargreaves lansdown analyst susannah streeter the recent surge in the crypto asset partly seems to have been caused by investors piling in seeing it as a hedge against inflation some investors seem enticed by the view that huge monetary stimulus programs are fuelling inflation which lowers the value of money over time whereas bitcoin has a fixed limit on the number of coins that can be created streeter said however investing in bitcoin is highly risky given how volatile it is she said bitcoin rises 87 to 66715 after earlier hitting a twoandahalfweek high of 66955 according to factset sterling fell on concerns about rising tensions between the uk and eu over the protocol agreed as part of the brexit deal to prevent a hard border between northern ireland and ireland this issue has been bubbling since the summer but has failed to hit gbp too severely ing analysts said and we suspect that gbp can hold up ok assuming that the prospect of a bank of england rate hike in december remains live eurgbp is unlikely to rise above 08600 and should end the year around 08500 the analysts said in bond markets the yield on the benchmark 10year treasury note ticked up to 1486 monday from 1451 friday the current rise in inflation is temporary said carmignac adding that deflationary factors are still in place the rebound of the global economy after the pandemic crisis has fuelled price increases due to supply bottlenecks including in labor but the fact that the end of these bottlenecks is foreseeable argues for inflation being only temporary said frederic leroux member of carmignacs strategic investment committee an ageing population and unprecedented debt levels in the global economy in the postwar period are among the factors which suggest that the current inflation is temporary assuming inflation will be permanent is still like a bet with little chance of success he says but added that central banks should also pay attention to this risk european government bond markets look set to move into calmer waters this week said commerzbank the sharp countermoves in yields curves and spreads amid waning rate hike expectations face a reality check also given the light agenda over the next few days said commerzbanks rates strategist rainer guntermann the 10year german bund yield might test the zero mark but a sustained rise significantly above that is unlikely said lbbw growing speculation about lasting reflation and an earlier rate hike by the ecb are shaping the trends in the euro bond market lbbw said the 10year bund yield hit approached the 0 level after the european central banks october meeting and lbbw says some market players might also be eager to test the ecbs tolerance for yield increases its tolerance is likely to be greater than in the spring because inflation expectations are higher lbbw said oil prices rose after saudi arabia raised its official selling prices and amid tight supplies saudi arabia late friday raised the price for the oil it sells to asian customers in december stateowned oil giant saudi aramco more than doubled the premium buyers pay for its arab light crude over a regional benchmark the hike comes after the saudiled opec producers group last week rebuffed pressure to increase output at a faster rate with opec sticking to its output strategy we estimate an undersupplied oil market until year end said helge andre martinsen oil analyst at dnb natural gas prices rose as traders wait to see whether russia opens the taps and eases europes energy shortage dutch benchmark natural gas futures rise 64 to eur7876 a megawatthour russia europes biggest gas supplier had promised to send more gas to the region starting monday a lack of supply from russia was onefactor traders and analysts had attributed as being behind last months rally which sent european gas prices to record highs late last month russian president vladimir putin ordered gas suppliers to begin rebuilding inventories in europe however reports monday suggested little extra supply had yet begun flowing westward copper prices edged higher after chinese trade data suggested the worlds secondlargest economy was in good health data on chinas trade released over the weekend showed exports grew by over 27 more than economists had been forecasting on booming demand for goods and easing energy and supply chain issues keeping prices in check however were expectations that tightness in the market should ease chinese smelters are raising output while supply challenges show signs of easing said analysts at jpmorgan in a note the nearterm market tightness in copper is temporary and not structural this still keeps us directionally bearish on copper prices over the mediumterm they said tesla inc shares fell in premarket trading after twitter users directed chief executive elon musk to sell a 10th of his stock in an online poll the electricvehicle makers stock lost 56 ahead of the bell monday i was prepared to accept either outcome mr musk said in a tweet sunday after participants in the poll backed a sale by 58 to 42 neither mr musk nor tesla has said when a share sale would take place bhp to sell controlling stake in two coal mines for up to 135 billion adelaide australiabhp group ltd said it would sell its controlling interest in two metallurgical coal mines to stanmore resources ltd for up to 135 billion shifting focus to highquality coal that it expects to be in demand as the global steel industry decarbonizes bhp said stanmore will buy its 80 stake in bhp mitsui coal or bmc which operates the south walker creek and the poitrel coal mines in queensland a coalrich australian state located in the northeastern part of the country japans mitsui and co owns the remaining stake the wall street journal recently reported that a deal for bhp to sell the interest to stanmore was close abrdn in talks to acquire interactive investor for 2 billion scottish fund manager abrdn plc is in talks to acquire online broker interactive investor the companies said saturday the latest bet on the growth of individualinvestor trading the companies didnt disclose a possible sale price according to a person familiar with the matter any deal could value ukbased interactive investor at around gbp15 billion equivalent to 2 billion the companies are still discussing terms and the talks could collapse without an agreement twitter users said elon musk should sell 10 of his tesla inc stock a stake valued at about 21 billion after the chief executive polled them and pledged to abide by the outcome of the vote voters backed the share sale by a wide margin with roughly 58 in favor of a sale and 42 opposed according to the polling data posted on twitter more than 35 million votes were cast blackstone to invest up to 250 million in autolus therapeutics of uk blackstone inc is investing as much as 250 million in uk biotechnology company autolus therapeutics plc to fund the final stages of development of a new therapy to treat a serious form of leukemia the companies said