S&P 500 futures slid Thursday, as traders fretted over a continued rise in interest rates. The rise in bond yields and concerns of a potentially larger-than-expected hike from the Federal Reserve have fueled investor concern in recent days, putting a dent in the early 2023 rally.
Market Snapshot
At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 72 points, or 0.22%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 15.25 points, or 0.39%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 72.75 points, or 0.61%.
Pre-Market Movers
Tesla Motors -- It was down over 6% in premarket trading after CEO Elon Musk confirmed the electric-vehicle maker plans to build its fifth assembly plant in Monterrey, Mexico. The factory would produce Tesla's next-generation vehicle, a lower-priced car that was hinted at during the company's investor event on Wednesday. A lack of details during the presentation appeared to be sending the shares lower.
Salesforce.com -- It surged nearly 15% after the cloud-based enterprise software provider posted better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and said fiscal 2024 adjusted profit would come in well above analysts' expectations.
Snowflake -- It issued revenue guidance for fiscal 2024 below Wall Street's expectations and the stock declined over 7% in premarket trading.
Silvergate Capital -- It plunged nearly 40% after the banker to the cryptocurrency industry delayed filing its annual report. Silvergate said it was evaluating its ability to continue as a going concern, and was "currently in the process of re-evaluating its businesses and strategies in light of the business and regulatory challenges it currently faces."
Okta Inc. -- It jumped over 15% after fourth-quarter adjusted earnings beat analysts' consensus and the identity-management software company issued an upbeat financial forecast.
Splunk -- It declined nearly 4% in premarket trading after its outlook for the fiscal first quarter and year missed Wall Street estimates as customers slow their spending amid concerns about the economic environment.
Bilibili Inc. -- It fell over 6% in premarket trading after its financial results. Its Q4 net revenues were $890.6 million and its net loss was $217.1 million.
Macy's -- It gained over 8% in premarket trading after its financial results. It posted a net income of $508 million, or $1.83 a share, for the quarter to Jan. 28, down from $742 million, or $2.44 a share, in the year-earlier period; adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.88; sales fell to $8.264 billion from $8.665 billion. It is now expecting fiscal 2023 adj. EPS of $3.67 to $4.11 and sales of $23.7 billion to $24.2 billion.
Market News
Elon Musk’s much-ballyhooed third Master Plan for Tesla Motors fell flat with investors after failing to offer any firm detail on the company’s long-awaited next generation of electric cars. The four-hour presentation was long on Musk’s vision to lead the world’s transition to sustainable energy, but short on any detail on new products.
Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX launched a four-man crew to orbit en route to the International Space Station early on Thursday, with a Russian cosmonaut and United Arab Emirates astronaut joining two NASA crewmates for the flight.
Bridgewater CEO Nir Bar Dea said that the firm would be going through an overhaul after Ray Dalio announced his retirement in October last year and this included parting away with 8 percent of its workforce.
Plug Power posted revenues of $220.7 million, up 36% year-over-year. However, its top line fell short of analysts’ estimate of $268.17 million. Despite the short-term sales headwinds, Plug Power reaffirmed its revenue guidance of $1.4 billion for 2023, reflecting about 100% year-over-year growth.
For the January quarter, Snowflake posted overall revenue of $589 million, up 53% from a year ago, product revenue was $555.3 million, up 54%, for the January 2024 fiscal year, Snowflake sees product revenue of $2.7 billion, up 40%, falling shy of the Wall Street consensus of $2.83 billion, with 6% operating margins and 25% adjusted free cash flow margins.
Salesforce.com said its revenue grew 14% to $8.38 billion in the three months through January. It reported a loss of $98 million for the quarter. Analysts had predicted revenue of $7.99 billion, according to FactSet.
Okta Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $153 million, or 95 cents a share, compared with a loss of $241 million, or $1.56 a share, in the year-ago period. For the first quarter, the forecast calls for adjusted earnings of 11 cents to 12 cents a share on revenue of $509 million to $511 million, and full-year earnings of 74 cents to 79 cents a share on revenue of $2.16 billion to $2.17 billion.
Silvergate Capital said it sold additional debt securities in January and February and that it expects further losses related to impaired securities, adding it could be less than well-capitalized, and it does not expect to file its report by an extension date of March 16.