Stock futures were rising Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he still expects interest rates to be cut this year—but not anytime soon—and as Wall Street turned its attention to U.S. jobs data.
These stocks were set to make moves Thursday:
Amazon.com was rising 0.5% in premarket trading. Amazon closed Wednesday with a record high market cap of $1.895 trillion, the first time it has done so since July 8, 2021. The tech giant and online retailer said it plans to cut several hundred jobs in sales, marketing and global services from its cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services. An AWS spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that the company identified targeted areas that needed to be streamlined. The spokesperson said Amazon was hiring within its core business areas.
Walt Disney said shareholders voted to elect its entire slate of board nominees, defeating activist investor Nelson Peltz in his battle to join the entertainment company’s board. Disney shares fell 3.1% on Wednesday, the largest percentage decrease since Sept. 19, 2023, and were down 0.4% in premarket trading.
Paramount Global was up 0.8% in premarket trading after the stock jumped 15% on Wednesday following a report from the Journal that said members of Paramount’s board agreed to enter exclusive merger discussions with Skydance Media. The agreement means that the owner of streaming service Paramount+ won’t be able to entertain offers from any other interested parties for 30 days. Apollo Global Management over the weekend offered to buy the entire company for $26 billion, including debt, the Journal reported.
Levi Strauss reported fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and raised its fiscal-year outlook. The stock jumped 8.5% in premarket trading. Adjusted profit of 26 cents a share beat forecasts of 21 cents. The jeans maker slightly raised its adjusted earnings outlook for the fiscal year to between $1.17 and $1.27 a share, up from previous guidance of $1.15 to $1.25 a share. Revenue projections were unchanged with Levi Strauss still expecting fiscal-year growth of between 1% and 3% year over year.
BlackBerry reported a fiscal fourth quarter adjusted profit of 3 cents a share, compared with a loss of 4 cents that was expected by Wall Street. Revenue at the cybersecurity company rose 15% to $173 million, topping expectations of $150.5 million. The stock rose 5%.
Simulations Plus, a developer of software for pharmaceutical safety, reported fiscal second-quarter revenue rose 16% to $18.3 million and beat analysts’ expectations. The stock rose 8.7% in premarket trading.
Shares of Intuitive Machines rose 6.2% after NASA awarded it one of three contracts to develop a new lunar terrain vehicle. The company’s Odysseus spacecraft at the end of February became the first privately funded lander to successfully reach the moon.
Earnings reports are expected Thursday from RPM International, Lamb Weston, Conagra Brands, and Simply Good Foods.