U.S. stock index futures mixed on Friday as investors remain cautious ahead of a business activity survey and increasing geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia, but Wall Street's main indexes were poised for weekly gains.
Market Snapshot
At 07:50 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 12 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 E-minis slipped 5.75 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis fell 28.5 points, or 0.18%.
Pre-Market Movers
MicroStrategy - MicroStrategy was up 6% in premarket trading following a tumble of 16% on Thursday after short-seller Citron Research said itshorted the stockagainst a long position in Bitcoin. “Much respect to @saylor, but even he must know $MSTR is overheated,” Citron wrote in a post on X. The firm was referring to Michael Saylor, chairman and controlling shareholder of MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, meanwhile,extended its rally, rising over the past 24 hours to as high as $99,517.
Elastic - Elastic soared 28% after the enterprise data software company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ models. Elastic said cloud revenue in the period rose 25% to $169 million.
Reddit - Reddit fell 7% after shareholder Advance Magazine Publishers said it was seeking to establish a credit facility using an equity stake in the social media company, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Advance is offering 7.8 million shares for $145.38 to $148.54 each, which would be valued at as much as $1.2 billion. Reddit shares closed Thursday up 16% at $158.02. Meanwhile, China’s Tencent Holdings disclosed Thursday that itsold a chunk of Reddit shares.
Gap - Gap was rising 16% after topping third-quarter earnings expectations andraising fiscal-year guidance, with CEO Richard Dickson saying the holiday season was “off to a strong start.” Gap, the apparel retailer, anticipates net sales to increase between 1.5% and 2% from a year earlier compared with previous guidance that called for sales to be “up slightly.”
Nvidia - Shares of Nvidia, the leading maker of chips for artificial-intelligence applications, fell 0.5% in premarket trading after closing with a gain of 0.5% Thursday following better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and an upbeat forecast. Nvidia’s guidance, however, wasn’t as strong as some on Wall Street had expected. Coming into Friday, the stock has gained 196% this year.
Chinese ADRs - Chinese ADRs fell in premarket trading Friday, as disappointing results from Baidu and downbeat guidance from PDD Holdings heightened jitters about corporate earnings and China’s growth outlook. XPeng fell 5%; Bilibili fell 4%; Baidu fell 3%; and Alibaba and NIO fell 2%; PDD Holdings fell 1%.
Intuit - Intuit reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations but shares fell 2.9% after the financial software company and owner of TurboTax issuedguidance for the second quarterand fiscal year that was below forecasts. For the current second quarter, Intuit said it expects adjusted earnings of $2.58 a share at the midpoint of its guidance, below estimates of $3.25. CEO Sasan Goodarzi said promotional changes at some of Intuit’s retail sites were expected to delay some sales into the third quarter.
Ross - Third-quarter earnings and revenue at Ross Stores rose from a year earlier and the stock was up 7% in premarket trading. Comparable-store sales rose just 1%, missing analysts’ estimates for growth of 2.5%. “We are disappointed with our third-quarter sales results as business slowed from the solid gains we reported in the first half of 2024,” said Chief Executive Barbara Rentler, adding the company “should have better executed some of our merchandising initiatives.”
NetApp - NetApp, the data and storage software company, gained 6% after beating fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue estimates. NetApp reported adjusted earnings of $1.87 a share on revenue of $1.66 billion. Analysts had expected profit of $1.78 a share on revenue of $1.65 billion.
Texas Pacific Land - Texas Pacific Land rose 4.6%. The company, which owns significant acreage in the energy-rich Permian Basin, will join the S&P 500, replacing Marathon Oil before the start of trading on Nov. 26. Marathon Oil is being acquired by ConocoPhillips.
Market News
Bitcoin at Record Highs, Sets Sights on $100,000
Bitcoin touched a fresh record high on Friday, with its sights set firmly on the $100,000 barrier, in a stellar rally for the cryptocurrency sparked by expectations of a more friendly regulatory environment under a Donald Trump administration.
It has more than doubled in value this year and is up about 45% since Trump's sweeping election victory on Nov.5, which has also seen a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers being elected to Congress.
The cryptocurrency was last up just over 1% on the day at $99,380 , and is on track for its best monthly performance since February.
Apple Readies More Conversational Siri in Bid to Catch Up in AI
Apple Inc. is racing to develop a more conversational version of its Siri digital assistant, aiming to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other voice services, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The new Siri, details of which haven’t been reported, uses more advanced large language models, or LLMs, to allow for back-and-forth conversations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort hasn’t been announced. The system also can handle more sophisticated requests in a quicker fashion, they said.
Revamping the 13-year-old Siri service is part of Apple’s efforts to become a force in artificial intelligence. The company debuted its much-ballyhooed Apple Intelligence platform last month, but it still lacks many of the features offered by other tech giants.
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