U.S. stock index futures edged higher before the first trading session of 2025, with investors hoping a new political landscape and more interest rate cuts will enliven corporate and economic performance.
Market Snapshot
At 07:48 a.m. ET, Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 306 points, or 0.7%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.8% and Nasdaq-100 futures rose 1.03%.
Pre-Market Movers
Tesla was up 1.5% in premarket trading ahead of fourth-quarter deliveries from the electric-vehicle maker. Tesla has to deliver about 515,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter for its full-year total to eclipse the 1.81 million cars the company shipped in 2023. The company delivered 484,507 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023, its best quarter ever. Tesla shares closed out 2024 up nearly 63%, with most of the gains coming after Donald Trump's victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said a Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Sunday that killed one person and left at least seven others injured was "unrelated to the vehicle itself." Musk added that "all vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion."
Palantir Technologies rose 1.1% in premarket trading. The software company finished 2024 as the top stock in the S&P 500, rising 340% as it leaned heavily into artificial intelligence. Vistra, the electricity and power-generation company, rose 258% last year, making it the second-best performer in the index. Rounding out the top three was Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips, which jumped 171%. Vistra rose 1.4% in premarket trading and Nvidia was up 1.1%.
Walgreens Boots Alliance finished 2024 as the worst stock in the S&P 500 after falling 64%. Walgreens has struggled for years and announced plans to close 1,200 stores in the fall. The stock received a boost in mid-December following a report that said private-equity firm Sycamore Partners was interested in buying the pharmacy chain. Walgreens was rising 1% in premarket trading.
U.S.-listed shares of NIO were up 1.6% after the Chinese electric-vehicle maker said its total vehicle sales in December rose 73% to 31,138 units, boosting total sales in 2024 by 39% to 221,970 units. Li Auto was up 0.4% after sales in December jumped to a record 58,513 vehicles, pushing full-year sales to 500,508. XPeng declined 1.7% even as sales in December surged 82% to 36,695. BYD, China's top domestic EV maker, sold 514,809 vehicles in December, boosting 2024 sales by 41% to 4.3 million vehicles. BYD shares declined 4.1% in China.
SoFi Technologies declined 1.2% to $15.22 after analysts at Keefe Bruyette downgraded shares of the fintech company to Underperform from Market Perform but raised their price target to $8 from $7. The stock's valuation has "become overstretched across a wide matrix of multiples," even if Sofi is successful at achieving its "ambitious" long-term targets," the analysts said, according to the Fly. The stock gained more than 50% last year.
Crypto-linked companies such as MicroStrategy, up 3.4%, and Coinbase, up 3.7%, traded higher after Bitcoin posted gains of 3.5% over the past 24 hours to $96,617.
Neumora Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NMRA) shares plunged 81% after its Phase 3 KOASTAL-1 study for navacaprant (NMRA-140), its lead asset for major depressive disorder (MDD), failed to meet key endpoints. The trial, which involved 383 adult patients, did not show a statistically significant reduction in depressive symptoms or meet the secondary endpoint of anhedonia, leading to the sharp decline in the company’s stock price. Despite these results, Neumora noted that the therapy was well tolerated and demonstrated a favorable safety profile compared the placebo.
Market News
In Norway, nearly all new cars sold in 2024 were fully electric
Nine out of ten new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by battery only, registration data showed on Thursday, placing the country within reach of its target of only adding cars that are electric on the road by 2025.
Fully electric vehicles accounted for 88.9% of new cars sold in 2024, up from 82.4% in 2023, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) showed.
Apple offers iPhone discounts in China as competition intensifies
Apple is offering rare discounts of up to 500 yuan ($68.50) on its latest iPhone models in China, as the U.S. tech giant moves to defend its market share against rising competition from domestic rivals like Huawei.
The four-day promotion, running from Jan. 4-7, applies to several iPhone models when purchased using specific payment methods, according to its website.
The flagship iPhone 16 Pro with a starting price of 7,999 yuan and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with a starting price of 9,999 yuan will see the highest discount of 500 yuan. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will receive a 400 yuan reduction.
