Premarket witness U.S. futures climbed Wednesday, recovering from three days of losses, with Fed speakers and crucial inflation data in focus.
Top Gainers
Novocure (NASDAQ:NVCR) shares skyrocketed 35% after the oncology firm said that its cancer medication had accomplished the primary endpoint of a late-stage trial assessing it as a treatment for a specific kind of lung cancer.
Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ:DJT) shares rose 14% after its successful Nasdaq debut.
Lands’ End (NASDAQ:LE) shares jumped 6.8% after the apparel company reported quarterly sales that above forecasts, despite a larger fourth-quarter loss.
Robinhood’s (NASDAQ:HOOD) shares rose 6% after the online trading app introduced a new credit card in a bid to expand into the personal finance industry.
Merck (NYSE:MRK) stock jumped 4.8% after the FDA approved the pharmaceutical company’s medication to treat a rare lung ailment.
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) shares increased 4.3% after the biotech company announced a $750 million funding arrangement with private equity firm Blackstone’s (NYSE:BX) life science investment platform to develop its mRNA flu vaccines.
Shockwave Medical (NASDAQ:SWAV) shares jumped 1.6%, building on a 10% increase on news that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was in discussions to acquire the medical device firm.
Top losers
GameStop (NYSE:GME) fell 18% after the ailing video game retailer announced dismal Christmas quarter sales and said it was cutting an undefined number of workers to save expenses.
Stocks in focus
Carnival (CCL) stock rose over 1% after a strong Q1 2024 performance, with revenue and bookings hitting records. The company’s top boss, Josh Weinstein, praised the wave season for its high booking volumes at higher prices, despite analysts’ expectations of a loss of 18 cents per share on sales of $5.40B.
GoPro’s Class A shares rose 3% in pre-market trading after the company announced a 4% workforce reduction, aiming to reduce operating costs and enhance operating leverage. The restructuring is estimated to cost around $7.5M. GoPro has been struggling with declining camera demand, with its last quarterly results falling below Wall Street’s expectations.
Moderna (MRNA) stock rose over 2% ahead of market open, with the pharmaceutical firm advancing multiple vaccine candidates to late-stage clinical trials and securing funding from a Blackstone unit. MRNA shared positive clinical trial data from three new vaccine candidates and announced a $750M development and commercialization funding agreement with Blackstone Life Sciences.
Spotify (SPOT) saw a 2% increase in pre-market trading after HSBC initiated a Buy rating, citing its strong growth outlook and strong cross-sell strategy from music to podcasts/audiobooks. The brokerage believes Spotify is on the verge of profitability and sees significant potential for margins to move upwards as the mix shifts away from music. HSBC believes that the company is well positioned to capture opportunities beyond music, and thinks that the cross-sell from music to podcasts/audiobooks looks like a strategy built on firm ground
Must read book about investing – check here Baidu’s shares rose over 4% in pre-market trading after Apple reported preliminary talks with the Chinese internet giant to use its AI technology in its devices. Apple is exploring using external partners to accelerate its AI goals. Baidu released five new versions of its AI model Ernie and an enhanced development toolkit for enterprisesPremarket Winners and Losers Premarket Winners and LosersPremarket Winners Premarket Winners PPremarket Winnersremarket Winners Premarket Winners Premarket Winners Premarket Winners
3M (MMM) rose over 7% pre-market. The industrial conglomerate’s appointment of former L3Harris Technologies (LHX) CEO William Brown as its new CEO, starting May 1, appeared to please investors. Brown will succeed Michael Roman as 3M’s (MMM) executive chairman. Brown was Harris Corp’s CEO before its 2019 merger with L3 Technologies. After becoming CEO of the merged firm, he was executive chair from June 2019 until June 2022. Roman was 3M’s (MMM) CEO since July 2018.