Nasdaq 100 futures rose on Monday, with the tech-heavy index on track for the worst month since 2008 as investors shied away from stocks with lofty valuations amid aggressive rate hike expectations, mixed earnings and geopolitical tensions.
Market Snapshot
At 8 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 192 points, or 0.55%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 16.5 points, or 0.37%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 9 points, or 0.06%.
Pre-Market Movers
Citrix (CTXS) – Citrix is near a deal to be taken private for roughly $13 billion, according to multiple media reports. The deal would see the cloud computing company acquired by Vista Equity Partners and an affiliate of Elliott Management for $104 per share. That's below the Friday closing price for Citrix of $105.55 a share, with the stock up over the past few months on reports of takeover talks. Its shares fell 3.4% in premarket trading.
BlackBerry (BB) – The communications software company's stock tumbled 6.1% in the premarket after it announced a deal to sell its non-core patent assets for $600 million. The patents primarily involve mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking, with patents essential to its current core business not involved in the deal. The buyer is Catapult IP innovations, a special purpose vehicle formed specifically to buy those patents.
Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) – Spotify shares rose 1.5% in premarket trading after the audio streaming service took steps to address the controversy surrounding its Joe Rogan podcast, which has been accused of spreading Covid-19 misinformation. Spotify publicized its platform policies and announced the creation of a coronavirus information hub.
Otis Worldwide Corp (OTIS) – The elevator and escalator maker reported quarterly profit of 72 cents per share, 4 cents a share above estimates. Revenue essentially came in line with forecasts. Otis also said sales growth would slow this year and forecast adjusted 2022 earnings per share at $3.20 to $3.30, compared to a consensus estimate of $3.29 a share.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) – Walgreens has kicked off the sales process for its Boots international drug store unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter who spoke to Bloomberg. A number of buyout firms, including Sycamore Partners, are said to be mulling bids for the unit. Walgreens fell 1% in premarket action.
Marathon (MPC) – Marathon Petroleum is down in premarket trading, following a Reuters report that the United Steelworkers Union rejected a contract offer from the energy producer. The offer would have given refinery and chemical plant workers a 4% pay increase over three years, according to people familiar with the matter. Marathon fell 1.1% in premarket trading.
Beyond Meat, Inc. (BYND) – Beyond Meat was double-upgraded to "overweight" from "underweight" at Barclays, which increased its price target on the maker of plant-based meat alternatives to $80 per share from $70 a share. Barclays cites the company's growth potential, especially in the U.S. retail market. Beyond Meat jumped 4.4% in the premarket.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) – Intuitive Surgical was upgraded to "overweight" from "neutral" at Piper Sandler, which cites a number of factors including valuation for the maker of surgical equipment. The stock had fallen nearly 8% on Jan. 21 following its quarterly earnings and remains at roughly the same level. Intuitive Surgical added 1.2% in premarket action.
Netflix (NFLX) – Netflix added 2.5% in the premarket after Citi upgraded the stream service's stock to "buy" from "neutral." Citi said that following the recent sell-off, prevailing equity values don't reflect material subscriber growth prospects or improving subscriber economics beyond 2023.
Align Technology (ALGN), Envista Holdings (NVST) – The maker of Invisalign dental braces was rated "overweight" in new coverage at Morgan Stanley, which notes the recovery for the dental market following pandemic-related disruption and said that dental product specialists like Align, Envista, and Dentsply Sirona (XRAY) are poised to benefit. Align and Envista both gained 1.4% in the premarket, while Dentsply was little changed.
Market News
Vodafone said on Monday it would work with Intel Corp and other silicon vendors on designing its own chip architecture to drive innovation and efficiency in nascent OpenRAN network technology.The initiative will be based at Vodafone's digital innovation and R&D centre in Malaga, which opened on Monday.
Norway's Hammerfest LNG plant faces a further delay before restarting production following a fire in 2020, Equinor and Norwegian gas system manager Gassco said on Monday.The plant, operated by Equinor, is now expected to resume output on May 17, more than six weeks later than the previous goal of restarting on March 31.
Oil major Shell said it would begin trading with a single line of shares on Monday, confirming the assimilation of its A and B shares over the weekend as part of plans to simplify its dual share structure.
ABB said on Monday it had increased its majority stake in Chinese electric vehicle (EV) charging provider Chargedot to 80per cent from 67per cent.
Kalera To Go Public On Nasdaq Through Merger With Agrico Acquisition Corp.All-Stock Transaction Puts Equity Value Of Combined Co At About $375 Million On A Fully Diluted Pro Forma Basis.
Qatari Ministry of Health approved the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) - BioNTech's (NASDAQ:BNTX) coronavirus vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years, source Reuters.