Stock futures traded lower Wednesday following a rally led by technology shares. Attention will be paid to the release later in the session of the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting at which the central bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point.
These stocks were poised to make moves Wednesday:
Alphabet declined 1.4% with the breakup of Google among the remedies the U.S. Justice Department is considering following a federal judge's ruling that Google had an illegal monopoly in general search services and general text advertising. In a filing submitted Tuesday, the Justice Department said it was considering a "full range of tools" to restore competition, such as "structural and additional behavioral remedies" that prevent Google from using its Chrome browser or Android products to give it an unfair advantage in search.
Google responded in a blog post, saying the government's "blueprint goes well beyond the legal scope of the court's decision and that government "overreach in a fast-moving industry may have negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America's consumers."
Palantir Technologies Inc. was rising 0.7% in premarket trading. Shares of the provider of data-analytics software rose 6.6% on Tuesday to $41.45, a record closing high. Coming into Wednesday, Palantir has risen 141% this year, rallying on opportunities in artificial intelligence.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology were rising slightly after the Truth Social parent, which is majority owned by the former President Trump, jumped 19% on Tuesday. The stock has closed higher for four-straight days and has been gaining momentum since Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared with Trump at a campaign rally Saturday.
Boeing was down 1.5% after S&P Global Ratings placed the plane maker's credit rating on CreditWatch negative as a machinists strike entered a fourth week. The ratings agency estimated the company will incur a cash outflow of about $10 billion in 2024, "due in part to working capital buildup to support manufacturing process overhaul and costs associated with the strike." Both Moody's Ratings and Fitch Ratings put Boeing's debt on review for a downgrade last month.
Tesla Motors fell 0.8% after the electric-vehicle maker announced 0% financing deals on qualifying Model 3 and Model Y purchases. The financing deals can save car buyers roughly $100 a month, or about $6,000, over the life of a 60-month car loan.
Arcadium Lithium jumped 31% to $5.55 after Rio Tinto struck a deal to acquire the lithium producer for $6.7 billion. Rio Tinto will pay $5.85 a share for Arcadium Lithium, which represents a 90% premium to the stock's price on Oct. 4, when news first surfaced of Rio Tinto's interest.
FedEx rose 0.4% in premarket trading to $262.45 and United Parcel Service Inc gained 0.4% to $131.52 after analysts at Citi initiated coverage on the delivery giants with a Buy rating. Citi's price target on shares of FedEx was set at $301, while the firm established a price target on UPS stock of $162.
Earnings reports are expected Wednesday from Helen Of Troy, and APPLIED DIGITAL CORP.
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