EV firm Tesla joins trillion-dollar club after 10 percent surge

LONDON (Reuters) - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet... and Tesla. We now have a trillion-dollar EV firm whose 10% surge on Monday lifted Wall Street to new record highs -- electric vehicles going mainstream is perhaps encouraging news ahead of the COP26 environment summit.

The news was less cheerful from Facebook which is contending with whistleblowers and falling popularity among the young. But a $50 billion buyback plan, unveiled after market close, may be enough to lift the shares on Tuesday, especially if fellow tech titans Google, Microsoft and Twitter also post upbeat figures.

All in all, the global equity index is inching back towards the record highs hit early-September. US stock futures pointing north for Tuesday and Japanese markets added 1.8%. In Europe, a surprise 9% profit boost at UBS -- its highest in six years -- could see the pan-European banking index rally further past April 2019 highs.

But the supply-chain snarl-ups, container traffic jams and chip shortages bedevilling companies worldwide show no signs of going away any time soon.

Just take carmaker Hyundai, which missed profit estimates and predicted that the chip shortages hampering output would take a long time to fix. And French car parts maker Faurecia saw Q3 sales drop 10% as semiconductor shortages forced its customers to cut production.

Then there is the prospect of central bank policy tightening, with the Bank of England looking set to join rate-hike club next month.

It all adds up to slower economic growth and earnings, Citi reckons. That could see buy-side analysts switching to net "downgrade" mode on stock recommendations for the first time since the pandemic first hit, it added.

Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Tuesday:

-Philadelphia Fed Nonmanufacturing Business Outlook Survey

-US monthly home prices Aug/consumer confidence Oct/new home sales Sept

-US 2-year note auction

-Europe earnings: Norsk Hydro posts record Q3; Reckitt Benckiser ups full-year f'cast after upbeat Q3; Logitech sales rise on work-from-home boom

- -US earnings: 3M, Corning, Eli Lilly, General Electric, Hasbro, Invesco, JetBlue, Lockheed Martin, S&P Global, United Parcel Service, Xerox, Google, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Twitter, Visa