Stock futures were rising Friday as the market rebound gathered pace thanks to a cooldown in geopolitical tensions.
These stocks were poised to make moves:
Micron Technology jumped 6.5%, making it the S&P 500’s top performer ahead of the opening bell. The memory-chip maker’s stock was rallying after board member Mark Liu snapped up $7.8 million worth of shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Purchases by corporate insiders tend to signal conviction in a company’s growth story—and that’s particularly notable given how well Micron has performed lately. The stock has risen 218% over the past year, surging thanks to stellar earnings that reflect sky-high demand for flash memory chips.
Other memory-chip stocks also were rallying Friday. Sandisk rose 4.1%, having closed 5.5% higher the previous session after two analysts hiked their price targets. Western Digital gained 3.1% and Seagate Technology added 2.9%.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services was the S&P 500’s biggest loser, sinking 5.3% in the premarket session. The selloff came after the transportation and logistics company reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter, but said that sales dropped 2% from a year ago on declines in pricing and volumes in different portions of the business. Shares may have gotten ahead of themselves—a 50% rally over the past three months has left the stock trading at about 29 times expected earnings, up from about 20 times earnings before the run started.
AST SpaceMobile surged 5.2% to extend a rally from Thursday, when it advanced 6.3%. The satellite-communications company was selected as one of the eligible vendors to the U.S. Missile Defence Agency, in the latest tranche of awards for its SHIELD program.
HP Inc. dropped 2.5% to $20.09 after being downgraded at Barclays. Analyst Tim Long cut his rating to Underweight from Equalweight and lowered his price target to $18 from $24, citing challenges facing the PC and printing businesses.
ImmunityBio jumped 18% in premarket trading, extending a rally from the previous day when it soared 31%. The biotech company said full-year revenue from its bladder cancer drug Anktiva would surge 700% year over year to $113 million. Earlier this week, Immunitybio said the Saudi Food and Drug Authority approved Anktiva for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
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