By Joe Woelfel
Stock futures were up modestly with Wall Street expecting the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady. The U.S. central bank's announcement on rates will be made at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
These stocks were poised to make moves Wednesday:
Nvidia rose 1% in premarket trading after CEO Jensen Huang, at the chip maker's annual AI GTC conference on Tuesday, announced a more powerful version of its Blackwell AI chips, two AI desktop computers, an expanded autonomous-driving partnership with General Motors, and new AI models for robots. Nvidia shares fell 3.4% on Tuesday, the second day of Nvidia's conference, and were the session's worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. GM, meanwhile, slipped 0.3% in premarket trading.
Tesla rose 2.8% in premarket trading to $231.60 after tumbling 5.3% on Tuesday and 4.8% on Monday. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and left the price target at $425. Coming into Wednesday, shares have declined 44% this year, in part because of weaker sales and heightened competition, worries that CEO Elon Musk's political activities have been turning off buyers, and politically motivated protests at Tesla facilities. Musk appeared on Fox News's Hannity program on Tuesday and addressed the protests. "It's really come as quite a shock to me that there's this level of ... hatred and violence from the [political] left," said Musk. "Tesla is a peaceful company, we've never done anything awful."
Autodesk rose 0.9% after The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Value was preparing to wage a proxy fight at the design-software maker. Starboard holds a stake of more than $500 million in Autodesk. The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Starboard intends to nominate a minority slate of director candidates ahead of Autodesk's's annual meeting.
Gilead Sciences fell 2.1% after the Journal reported the Health and Human Services Department was weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government's funding for domestic HIV prevention. The Journal report cited people familiar with the matter. Gilead makes HIV prevention treatments Biktarvy and Descovy.
HealthEquity was tumbling 14% after the health-savings account custodian said it expects adjusted earnings in fiscal 2026 of $3.57 to $3.74 a share, the midpoint of which is below analysts' expectations of $3.71. The company also said it anticipates fiscal 2026 revenue of $1.28 billion to $1.31 billion, the midpoint of which is below Wall Street estimates of $1.3 billion.
General Mills, the packaged-food company, was down 3.4% after reporting fiscal third-quarter sales fell 5% from a year earlier to $4.84 billion and missed analysts' forecasts of $4.96 billion. The company said the sales decline was "driven largely by greater-than-expected retailer inventory headwinds and a slowdown in snacking categories." General Mills also cut its fiscal 2025 sales outlook.
Signet Jewelers posted fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that topped analysts' estimates and the stock jumped 13%. The jewelry retailer anticipates fiscal 2026 sales of $6.53 billion to $6.8 billion with guidance "reflecting sales that assume a measured consumer environment." Analysts expects fiscal 2026 sales of $6.74 billion.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2025 07:26 ET (11:26 GMT)
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