To The Moon

U.S. stock index futures inched up on Wednesday after big banks kicked off the reporting season with a mixed bag of earnings, while shares of United Airlines rose after it forecast at least a four-fold jump in full-year profit.

Retail sales data and final producer prices for December are due before the bell.

Market Snapshot

At 7:55 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 62 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 13.5 points, or 0.34%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 44.25 points, or 0.38%.

Pre-Market Movers

Moderna (MRNA) gained 8% in U.S. premarket trading after the biotech company announced late Tuesdaystrong results from a large trialof its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine. RSV is a common virus and, to date, no vaccine is approved to prevent it.

Tesla(TSLA) shares continued to jump around, lifting 3.7% in the premarket to build on a 7.4% rally on Tuesday. The stock dived more than 6% last Fridayafter news of U.S. price cutsand has since more than rebounded.

Exact Sciences(EXAS) declined 3% after the cancer-testing company was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform by analysts at Raymond James.

International Business Machines(IBM) slid 1.9% early Wednesday after the information technology company was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Gap(GPS) rose 1.7% after the retailer was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Charles Schwab(SCHW) rose 1.3% in the premarket, withthe financial services giantdue to report earnings before the opening bell.

Goldman Sachs(GS) wasn’t poised for a rebound. Shares in the banking giant edged slightly lower in Wednesday’s premarket after the stock tanked 6.4% in the previous session.Goldman reported dismal fourth-quarter resultsTuesday, badly missing analysts’ earnings expectations after seeing its worst results since the Covid-19 pandemic amid weakness in investment banking and asset management.

Microsoft(MSFT) appeared little moved by reports that the tech giant would join the ranks of peers in reducing its workforce, with the stock up 0.2% in premarket trading.Microsoft is set to announce a round of layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.

Market News

US and China Pledge to Talk More to Avoid Worsening Tensions

The top US and China economic officials held their first face-to-face meeting Wednesday, pledging to improve communication as a way to avoid more serious confrontation during a period of heightened tensions.

“We share a responsibility to show that China and the United States can manage our differences and prevent competition from becoming anything ever near conflict,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in brief public remarks at the start of talks with Vice Premier Liu He in Zurich.

“While we have areas of disagreement — and we will convey them directly — we should not allow misunderstandings, particularly those stemming from a lack of communication, to unnecessarily worsen our bilateral economic and financial relationship,” she said.

Microsoft Reportedly Denies Plan To Lay Off Thousands, Calling It A "Rumor"

Microsoft Corporation has reportedly denied that it plans to lay off thousands of staff in its engineering and human resources departments.

The denial was made in an email to Gizmodo, with a Microsoft spokesperson calling reports of the impending layoffs a “rumor.”

“Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly,” said the spokesperson, reported Gizmodo.

Tesla, Shareholders to Lay Out Arguments in "Funding Secured" Fraud Trial

Attorneys for Tesla Inc and for investors will make opening arguments in a San Francisco court on Wednesday in a case to decide whether CEO Elon Musk's 2018 tweet that funding was "secured" to take the company private damaged shareholders.

The case is a rare securities class action trial, and Musk and his company are bucking the norm of settling claims that clear high legal hurdles, making for a potentially dramatic trial at which Musk himself may testify.

Tesla investor Glen Littleton is seeking "billions" in damages on behalf of shareholders who traded the company's stock in the days after Musk posted his plan to take the company private on Twitter in August 2018.

A jury of nine will decide whether the tweets artificially inflated Tesla's share price by playing up the status of funding for the deal, and if so, by how much.