U.S. equity futures were little changed on Thursday as investors looked ahead to several economic reports scheduled to come out in the morning. Retail sales, import prices and jobless claims, as well as the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey and the Empire State manufacturing survey are all slated for release at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Market Snapshot
At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 24 points, or 0.08%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 1 point, or 0.03%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 19.5 points, or 0.16%.
Pre-Market Movers
Union Pacific, CSX Corp, Norfolk Southern – Rail stocks are all higher in the premarket following news of a tentative agreement that prevents a rail workers’ strike. CSX – which also named formerFord Motor(F) President Joe Hinrichs as its new CEO – rose 4.1% in the premarket, with Union Pacific up 3.95% and Norfolk Southern adding 1.5%.
Arconic Corporation – Arconic tumbled 9.8% in premarket trading after the aluminum products maker cut its annual forecast due to a variety of production costs and higher energy costs in Europe.
NextEra – NextEra Energy plans to sell $2 billion in equity units, with the alternative energy company planning to add the proceeds to the general funds of its NextEra Energy Capital Holdings subsidiary. The stock slipped 3.5% in the premarket.
Danaher – Danaher gained 4.2% in the premarket after the medical technology company announced plans to spin off its environmental and applied sciences unit into a separate company. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.
American International Group Inc – The insurer’s life insurance unit CoreBridge raised $1.68 billion in the biggest initial public offering of 2022. In the IPO, 80 million CoreBridge shares were sold at $21 per share, at the low end of the projected $21-to 24 range. AIG gained 1.75 in the premarket.
Nordstrom – The department store operator’s shares jumped 2.6% in premarket action after Jeffries upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold”. The firm said younger and wealthier consumers will be spending on major wardrobe upgrades, and Nordstrom is best poised to benefit from that trend.
Wynn – The casino and resort operator was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Credit Suisse, which called Wynn one of the most compelling stories in the gaming industry. Wynn rose 2.5% in premarket trading.
Netflix – The streaming service’s shares were up 2.5% in premarket trading following an Evercore ISI upgrade to “outperform” from “in line”. Evercore based its opinion on Netflix’s revenue opportunities from its planned ad-supported tier and limits on password sharing.
AMTD Digital Inc. – It soared a record 311.78% on Wednesday and continued to rise nearly 20% in premarket trading, triggering multiple volatility-related trading halts along the way. The move came alongside a flurry of buying activity, with roughly 1.5 million shares trading hands, more than 5,500% higher than its daily average over the last 10 days. On paper, the surge added nearly $27 billion in market value to the stock.
Market News
A total of more than $18 billion is bet against Apple, a research firm reports, overtaking longtime leader Tesla for the first time since April 2020.
Alphabet lost its appeal against an around €4.34B fine issued by the EU's executive commission in 2018 after it was found to have abused its market dominance. However, the court did cut down the fine by 5% due to a disagreement on one point of the regulator's decision.
Tesla Motors is reevaluating the way it sells electric cars in China, its second-largest market, and considering closing some showrooms in flashy malls in cities like Beijing where traffic plunged during COVID restrictions, two people with knowledge of the plans said.
The UK is taking on a tough target in challenging Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of video-game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.While US and European regulators have yet to opine on the transaction, competition watchdogs are generally becoming more interventionist — especially in the case of tech giants. This deal offers a possible high-profile scalp.
Walt Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek said he’s considering merging the Hulu streaming service with Disney+, creating a single online option for viewing the company’s movies and TV shows in the US.
Netflix has estimated that the advertising-supported tier of its service will reach about 40M viewers by the third quarter of 2023,it cites a document shared with ad buyers by Netflix, supported by its advertising partner Microsoft , as they look to lock down ad deals.
Sea Ltd’s top management will forgo their salaries and tighten company expense policies, as the Singapore gaming and e-commerce giant tries to shield itself from the economic slowdown threatening tech companies.
Tencent Music has confirmed it's expecting to begin trading in Hong Kong on Sept. 21, joining the list of Chinese firms looking for second listings. The stock applied to list Class A ordinary shares "by way of introduction" in the Hong Kong Exchanges.
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