Wall Street futures bounced on Monday, though rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West posed a double whammy for investors already worried about aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve to combat surging inflation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday suggested to President Vladimir Putin that Moscow continue along the diplomatic path in its efforts to extract security guarantees from the West, as tensions soar over Ukraine.
Market Snapshot
At 8 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 57 points, or 0.16%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 6 points, or 0.14%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 3 points, or 0.02%.
Pre-Market Movers
Splunk (SPLK) –Cisco Systems(CSCO) made a more than $20 billion takeover bid for the cloud software company, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. A deal of that size would represent the networking equipment maker’s largest-ever acquisition. Splunk surged 7.9% in the premarket, while Cisco shares fell 1%.
Blackstone Group LP (BX) – The private-equity firm finalized a $6.3 billion deal to buy Australian casino operator Crown Resorts. Shareholders are expected to vote on the transaction during the second quarter, with the deal also requiring regulatory approval. Blackstone fell 2.6% in the premarket.
Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD) – Defense contractorLockheed Martin(LMT) has abandoned its $4.4 billion deal to buy the rocket motor builder. Federal regulators had sued to block the transaction in January, amid concerns that the combination would be anti-competitive. Aerojet Rocketdyne fell 2.2% in premarket trading, while Lockheed Martin edged up 0.5%.
Rivian Automotive, Inc. (RIVN) – Soros Fund Management bought nearly 20 million shares of the electric truck maker during the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the fund’s quarterly filing. The stake was worth about $2 million at the time of purchase, but its value has fallen to about $1.17 billion. Rivian was down 1.8% in premarket trading.
Just Eat Takeaway.com (GRUB) – Just Eat Takeaway CEO Jitse Groen told a Dutch TV program that the food delivery company’s decision to delist from the Nasdaq should not be taken as a sign that the company intends to sell its Grubhub unit. Groen said the delisting is a cost reduction measure, but added the company is still considering options for the U.S.-based delivery service. Shares fell 1.3% in premarket action.
Eli Lilly and (LLY) – Eli Lilly’s new Covid-19 antibody drug received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for use in adults and adolescents. The FDA had placed limitations on earlier Covid treatments after finding they were less effective against the omicron variant.
Tyson (TSN) – Tyson was downgraded to “equal weight” from “overweight” at Barclays in a valuation call, with the meat and poultry producer’s stock up 12.4% so far this year. Barclays said it sees limited upside potential at current levels, with anticipation of strong quarterly results already priced in. Tyson fell 1.4% in the premarket.
Texas Instruments (TXN) – The chip maker’s stock fell 1.4% in premarket trading after Raymond James downgraded it to “market perform” from “outperform.” The firm points to unanticipated details surrounding a late-cycle increase in capital spending.
Market News
Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said on Monday it has granted an interim authorisation for Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine.The first batch of the Nuvaxovid vaccine is expected to arrive in Singapore in the next few months, the HSA said.
DBS, the first Singapore bank to report this season, said net profit for October-December rose to S$1.39 billion ($1.03 billion) and follows a particularly weak pandemic-hit year when profit tumbled to a three-year low in the fourth quarter.The result, however, missed an average estimate of S$1.47 billion from four analysts polled by Refinitiv, and was also 18% lower than the third quarter, hit by a 41% drop in non-interest income. DBS shares traded flat on Monday.
In what is likely the most aggressive run of insider stock purchases ever, Asana CEO and co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has bought more than $1 billion of the company’s stock since last June.
Intel Corp's Mobileye unit plans to build and deploy self-driving electric shuttles with its partners in the United States in 2024, in a bid to scale up its automated driving system beyond taxis and delivery vehicles, executives told Reuters.
Meta Platforms plans to provide more details to its employees this week about how it will realize its vision for the metaverse.The company is encouraging staff to tune in to an all-hands meeting on Tuesday, according to two current employees, one of whom said they were told that a major announcement would be made.