U.S. stock index futures dipped on Tuesday, with rising bond yields adding pressure.
US retail sales increased at a firm pace in November, bolstered by a surge in car purchases that masked more mixed spending elsewhere.
The value of retail purchases, not adjusted for inflation, increased 0.7% after a revised 0.5% gain in October, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday. Excluding autos, sales climbed 0.2% for a second month.
Market Snapshot
At 8:40 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 202 points, or 0.46%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 23.5 points, or 0.38% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 65.25 points, or 0.3%.
Pre-Market Movers
Tesla - Electric-vehicle giant Tesla was up 2.1% in premarket trading. The stock finished Monday up 6.1% to $463.02, a record closing high. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives boosted his price target on the stock to $515 a share, a Wall Street-high, from $400. Ives’ “bull case” is $650 a share. The new price target values Tesla at about $1.7 trillion; the “bull case” values Tesla at about $2.1 trillion. Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh late Monday alsoupgraded Tesla to Outperform from Neutraland joined Ives by increasing his price target to $515, up from $230. Rakesh noted that self-driving cars were the main reason he has become more bullish.
Nvidia - Nvidia was down 2% in premarket trading after shares of the leading maker of artificial-intelligence chipsfell into correction territoryon Monday. During the session, the stock closed down 1.7% to $132. It has declined 11% from its closing record high of $148.88 reached last month. Wall Street continues to wait for evidence of how quickly Nvidia can ramp up sales of its Blackwell AI chips. Even after its recent slump, Nvidia still remains up 167% this year.
Quantum Stocks - Quantum stocks jumped again in premarket trading Tuesday amid growing investor confidence. Quantum Corporation rose 16%; Quantum Computing rose 13%; Rigetti Computing rose 6%; D-Wave Systems rose 2%.
Palantir - Palantir shares dropped 3% in premarket trading Tuesday, extending Monday's decline. Palantir, which is preparing to join the Nasdaq 100, is down Monday. One analyst cited holiday profit-taking after another counseled caution on chasing the hot AI stock.
Broadcom - Broadcom closed at a record high Monday, jumping 11% to $250. Shares of the semiconductor and software company soared 24% on Friday and Broadcom surpassed $1 trillion in market value for the first time after CEO Hock Tan said the company’s AI market opportunity for accelerators and networking in fiscal 2027 would range from $60 billion to $90 billion. The stock was up 0.8% in premarket trading.
Pfizer - Pfizer rose 3% after the drugs giant affirmed 2024 guidance and said it expects revenue in 2025 of $61 billion to $64 billion compared with analysts’ expectations of $63.3 billion.
Teva Pharmaceutical, Sanofi - Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and French drugmaker Sanofi said a study of a drug to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease showed it had met primary goals. Teva soared 20%, while Sanofi jumped 4% in premarket trading.
EVgo - EVgo was down 19% after the electric-vehicle charging company said EVgo Holdings, an affiliate of LS Power Equity Partners IV, was launching a secondary offering of up to 23 million Class A common shares. LS Power will receive all of the proceeds from offering.
SolarEdge - SolarEdge Technologies rose 12.4% after analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy from Sell and boosted their price target to $19 from $10. According to the Fly, Goldman believes estimates “are now finally bottoming” for the solar-power company, with investor fears around the company’s ability to address $350 million of debt in 2025 “appearing overblown” and creating a relatively attractive risk/reward for the stock.
Red Cat Holdings - Red Cat Holdings was down 14.2% after the drone technology company reported afiscal second-quarter lossof 18 cents a share, wider than a year-earlier loss of 11 cents, on revenue of $1.5 million, down from $3.9 million in the same period in 2023. The stock had closed Monday with a gain of 27% after Red Cat announced it had entered into a partnership with software company Palantir Technologies to integrate visual navigation software into its Black Widow drones.
Affirm - Affirm Holdings was down 3.3% after the “buy now, pay later” company announced a private offering of $750 million of convertible senior notes and said it plans to repurchase up to $300 million of common stock.
Cloudflare - Shares of software firm Cloudflare rise 2.3% in premarket trading. Stifel upgraded the stock to "buy" from "hold" and lifts price target to $136 from $95. Brokerage says Cloudflare can sustain at least 25%-30% year-over-year top-line growth along with improving profitability in coming years
Amentum Holdings - Amentum Holdings, the engineering and technology solutions company, swung to a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter and said for fiscal 2025 it already sees “positive momentum and are confident in our
outlook.” Shares rose 4.3%.
Nucor - Steel company Nucor fell 1.4% after saying it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 55 cents to 65 cents a share, a sharp drop from year-earlier profit of $3.16 on “decreased earnings of the steel mills segment caused by decreased volumes and lower average selling prices.”
Market News
Bitcoin Rallies Past $107,000, Hopes Grow for Strategic Reserve
Bitcoin's record rally topped $107,000 on Monday after President-elect Donald Trumpreiterated that he plans to create a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve, stoking the enthusiasm of crypto bulls.
Investor sentiment also got a lift from the inclusion of MicroStrategy into the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index that will likely lead to more inflows for the software firm turned bitcoin buyer.
Bitcoin , the world's biggest and best known cryptocurrency, extended gains to a session high of $107,148 and was most recently at $106,877, up 5.43% from late Friday. The No. 2 digital currency ether was up 1.85% at $3,975.70.
TikTok Asks US Supreme Court to Block Government Ban
TikTok and its Chinese parent company asked the US Supreme Court to block a government ban set to take effect next month, invoking favorable comments about the popular social-media platform from President-elect Donald Trump.
Making a late push to keep operating in a market with more than 170 million users, TikTok and parent ByteDance Ltd. asked the court to put the law on hold by Jan. 6 as the justices consider whether to hear a company appeal. The measure would ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance doesn’t sell it.
Barring Supreme Court intervention, the ban will kick in Jan. 19, the day before Trump is inaugurated. But Trump’s stance could affect how the ban plays out in practice because the Justice Department is charged with enforcing the law and, as president, he would have power to approve any divestment proposal.
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