Wall Street futures edged lower on Tuesday ahead of more economic data that could clear the air on a soft landing for the U.S. economy, while investors assessed mixed earnings from pharmaceutical heavyweights Merck and Pfizer.
Market Snapshot
At 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 44 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 14.5 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 83.75 points, or 0.53%.
Pre-Market Movers
$SoFi Technologies(SOFI)$ — The financial technology stock dropped 3.7% after KBW analyst Michael Perito downgraded the stock from underperform from market perform. Perito hiked his price target for shares by $2 to $7.50, however, which still implies shares can fall 34.5% from Monday’s closing price.
$Estee Lauder(EL)$ — The beauty stock shed 1.1% following a Barclays downgrade to neutral from buy. The firm said difficulties in China could weigh on the business in the near-term.
$Gap(GPS)$ — The retail stock climbed nearly 4% after Barclays upgraded Gap to overweight from equal weight. Analyst Adrienne Yih assigned a $13 price target to the company, which suggests shares could rally 26.2% from Monday’s close. The firm also upgraded retailers American Eagle, Bath & Body Works and Tapestry to overweight. Each of those are up more than 2% in early morning trading.
$Uber(UBER)$ — Shares of the ride-hailing giant rose more than 2% in premarket trading after the company reported second-quarter results that missed analysts’ expectations for revenue but offered rosy guidance for the third quarter. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company achieved two major milestones during the quarter: its first quarter of free cash flow over $1 billion and its first GAAP operating profit.
$Caterpillar(CAT)$ — Shares of the manufacturing company gained 1.4% after reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue. Caterpillar warned of potential decline in sales and margins for the third quarter, however.
$Merck(MRK)$ — Shares of the pharmaceutical giant rose nearly 2% premarket after the company reported second-quarter revenue that topped expectations, driven by sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda and HPV vaccine Gardasil. Merck also posted a narrower than expected loss for the quarter.
$Pfizer(PFE)$ — The stock shed more than 1% in early morning trading after Pfizer reported second-quarter adjusted revenue that beat expectations but posted revenue that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The company’s revenue miss was caused by a decline in Covid product sales.
$ZoomInfo Technologies(ZI)$ — Shares sank by nearly 20% in premarket trading after the data company reported a weak outlook for third-quarter revenue. ZoomInfo, which posted results after Monday’s close, said it anticipates $309 million to $312 million in revenue, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $326 million as gauged by Refinitiv. ZoomInfo’s revenue in the latest quarter also missed expectations, coming in at $309 million, while analysts estimated $311 million.
$Toyota Motor(TM)$ — The automaker added about 2% after reporting operating income of 1.12 million yen ($7.84 billion) for the fiscal first quarter, 94% higher than a year prior. That topped the 9.878 trillion yen expected from analysts polled by Refinitiv.
$Arista Networks(ANET)$ — Shares advanced 13.6% in premarket trading after the company reported after the bell Monday that its quarterly earnings topped analysts’ expectations. Arista posted adjusted earnings of $1.58 per share, versus consensus analyst estimates of $1.44 per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue also came in higher than expected at $1.46 billion, compared to analyst expectations of $1.38 billion.
Market News
NIO, Li, and XPeng Post Huge Deliveries Numbers
Chinese EV makers $NIO(NIO)$, $XPeng (XPEV)$, and $Li Auto(LI)$ on Tuesday reported combined deliveries in July of 65,604 vehicles. That’s a record and up more than 100% year over year.
$Li Auto(LI)$ delivered 34,134 cars in July, a record for the company, up from 32,575 delivered in June, and up from 10,422 delivered in July 2022. This year, Li has delivered 173,251 units, up 145% from the 70,825 delivered in the first seven months of 2022.
$NIO(NIO)$ delivered 20,462 cars in July, also a record for the company, up from 10,707 delivered in June and up from 10,052 delivered in July 2022. Year to date, NIO has delivered 75,023 units, up 23% from the 60,879 delivered in the first seven months of 2022.
$XPeng (XPEV)$ delivered 11,008 cars in July, up from 8,620 delivered in June and down from 11,524 delivered in July 2022. XPeng has delivered 52,443 units in 2023, down from 80,507 delivered in the first seven months of 2022.
American Superconductor Skyrockets as Viral Room-Temperature Superconductor Claims Spark Excitement
$American Superconductor(AMSC)$ stock skyrockets 62% in premarket trading.
Last week, a group of South Korean physicists made a startling claim. In two papers uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, they say they have created a material that “opens a new era for humankind”.
LK-99, a lead-based compound, is purportedly a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor. Such a material, which conducts electricity without any resistance under normal conditions, could have huge implications for energy generation and transmission, transport, computing and other areas of technology.
The papers have sparked wild enthusiasm online, and several efforts to replicate the work. At the same time, there are reports of disputes among the Korean researchers over whether the research should have been released at all.
Tesla Wants to Build a Semi Truck-Charging Route From Texas to California
$Tesla Inc.(TSLA)$ is seeking nearly $100 million from the US to build nine electric semi-truck charging stations along a route from the southern border of Texas to northern California, according to emails seen by Bloomberg News.
The company proposed each be equipped with eight 750-kilowatt chargers for Tesla Semi vehicles and four chargers for trucks made by its competitors, its executives said in emails to the Texas Department of Transportation between May and early July.
If successful, it would be a first-of-its-kind charging network in the US. It would enable long-haul electrified trucking from Texas to California, along with regional-haul trucking in Texas, Arizona and California. The US relies heavily upon commercial trucks to move goods, but has struggled to limit the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Meta Prepares Chatbots With Personas to Try to Retain Users
Facebook owner $Meta(META)$ is preparing to launch a range of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots that exhibit different personalities as soon as next month, in an attempt to boost engagement with its social media platforms.
The tech giant led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been designing prototypes for chatbots that can have humanlike discussions with its nearly 4bn users, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.
These people said some of the chatbots, which staffers have dubbed “personas”, take the form of different characters. The company has explored launching one that speaks like Abraham Lincoln and another that advises on travel options in the style of a surfer, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.
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