U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday, putting Wall Street on course to extend a recent run of gains, as investors hoped for a breakthrough in Russia-Ukraine peace talks being held in Istanbul.
Negotiators from both sides met for the first face-to-face talks in nearly three weeks, with Kyiv seeking a ceasefire without compromising on territory or sovereignty.
Market Snapshot
At 07:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 119 points, or 0.34%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 16 points, or 0.35%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 39 points, or 0.26%.
Pre-Market Movers
Tesla(TSLA) – Tesla rose another 2.2% in premarket trading Tuesday after surging 8% yesterday.Tesla Inc will seek investor approval to increase its number of shares to enable a stock split in the form of a dividend, the electric-car maker said on Monday.
Nielsen Holdings(NLSN) – The TV ratings company’s stock surged 20.9% in the premarket after it agreed to be acquired by a private-equity consortium for $28 per share. The deal is worth $16 billion, including assumed debt.
FedEx(FDX) – FedEx CEO Fred Smith will step down from that role at the company he founded more than 50 years ago. He’ll become executive chairman on June 1 and will be replaced as CEO by President and Chief Operating Officer Raj Subramanian. FedEx shares rose 2.5% in the premarket.
LHC Group(LHCG) –UnitedHealth (UNH) will buy the home health-care specialist for $5.4 billion in cash, or $170 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal. LHC will become part of UnitedHealth’s Optum health-care services unit. LHC shares jumped 7.5% in premarket action.
Uber Technologies(UBER) – Uber is close to an agreement with a San Francisco taxi company to include taxis in its ride-hailing platform in that city, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The New York Times. Uber recently struck a similar agreement in New York City. The stock added 1.7% in premarket action.
Jefferies Financial(JEF) – The asset management firm’s stock rallied 2.6% in the premarket after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue. Jefferies earned $1.23 per share, well above the 89 cents a share consensus estimate, even as profit fell from a year earlier amid what the company called a “challenging” trading environment.
GameStop(GME) – GameStop remains on watch as the videogame retailer’s stock rides a 10-session winning streak that has seen it gain 143%. Another “meme stock” on a roll is movie theater operator AMC Entertainment(AMC), which surged 45% Monday, its best day since last June. GameStop fell 2.1% in premarket trading, while AMC slid 3%.
Stellantis(STLA) – The automaker is laying off an undisclosed number of workers at its Illinois Jeep plant in an effort to “operate the plant in a more sustainable manner.” The plant saw several layoffs last year as well as it tried to deal with the impact of the global semiconductor shortage. Stellantis shares jumped 5.7% in premarket trading.
Southwest Gas(SWX) – The energy producer will sell $400 million in shares at $74 per share to help repay debt used in its $2 billion acquisition of Questar Pipelines in December. That deal had been opposed by investor Carl Icahn, whose offer to buy Southwest at $82.50 per share was rejected by the company on Monday. Southwest fell 3.5% in the premarket.
Dave & Buster’s(PLAY) – The restaurant chain’s stock slumped 5.4% in the premarket after a top and bottom-line miss for its latest quarter. Dave & Buster’s fell 8 cents a share shy of estimates, with quarterly earnings of 52 cents per share. Dave & Buster’s said its results were strong in light of ongoing Covid-19 headwinds.
Pinterest(PINS) – Shares of the image-sharing site operator slid 2.6% in premarket trading after Morgan Stanley downgraded it to “equal-weight” from “overweight.” Morgan Stanley points to challenging user trends, including a greater proportion of time spent on activities with lower monetization potential.
Market News
The Justice Department Monday endorsed legislation forbidding large digital platforms such as Amazon and Google from favoring their own products and services over competitors’, marking the Biden administration’s first full-throated support of the antitrust measure.
The U.S. is launching an investigation into whether Chinese solar-equipment manufacturers are evading tariffs by sending components to other Asian nations for assembly before exporting the finished products.
Saudi Aramco may raise the official selling price of its key Arab Light crude by $5 a barrel to Asian customers for May-loading cargoes, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of five refiners and traders. That would increase the differential to $9.95 above the Oman-Dubai benchmark, which would be the widest since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 2000.
Nielsen Holdings PLC is nearing a sale to a group of private-equity firms that would value the TV ratings company at around $16 billion including debt, resurrecting a deal after talks fell apart last week.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. has agreed to buy LHC Group Inc. for about $5.4 billion in cash, in the latest tie-up linking a managed-care company to the home-health business.
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