Premarket showing Investors were cautious ahead of GDP and inflation data and a holiday weekend, keeping U.S. futures steady Thursday.
Top Gainers
RH (NYSE:RH) shares jumped 9.4% after the home furnishing business announced “exceptional” demand for its new catalog, despite its fourth-quarter performance missing estimates due to weather and shipping delays.
Estee Lauder (NYSE:EL) shares climbed 3.7% after the cosmetics company opted to sell Clinique through Amazon’s Premium Beauty shop.
Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) shares gained 0.6% to a two-year high after the financial technology company announced a credit card.
GameStop (NYSE:GME) shares increased 0.3% after falling 15% the day before on dismal holiday quarter results.
Home Depot’s shares increased 0.2% after it announced a $18.25 billion deal to purchase building goods supplier SRS Distribution, boosting its professional client base.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shares climbed 0.1% after a federal court decided that the consumer goods giant can argue the scientific evidence tying talc to ovarian cancer, possibly disrupting more than 53,000 talc product cases.
Top losers
Walgreens Boots (NASDAQ:WBA) stock fell 0.8% after the pharmacy chain reported fiscal second-quarter sales that beat expectations, lowered its full-year adjusted earnings outlook due to a “challenging” U.S. retail environment, and took a $5.8-billion VillageMD impairment.
Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) stock declined 0.2% after its first-quarter profit below forecasts and it lost money on Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers.
Stocks in focus
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) stock fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading due to a narrowed annual profit outlook and a $5.8B after-tax non-cash impairment change related to VillageMD goodwill. However, WBA’s FQ2 2024 top and bottom line figures of adjusted earnings of $1.20 per share on revenue of $37.1B exceeded analysts’ expectations of 82 cents per share on sales of $35.83B. The company now expects adjusted earnings per share for fiscal 2024 to be between $3.20 and $3.35.
Home Depot (HD) announced its largest ever acquisition of SRS Distribution, a US-based building products distributor. The deal, valued at $18.25B, is expected to dilute Home Depot’s earnings per share on a GAAP basis but increase cash earnings per share in the first year post-closing, excluding synergies. SRS operates 760 branches across 47 states and has a professional sales force of over 2.5K.
Chemours stock fell 11% ahead of market open due to an internal review revealing “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting. The company also filed its Q4 2023 annual report, showing a narrower loss. The review found four material weaknesses, including three top executives manipulating vendor payments and receivable collections to meet free cash flow targets tied to their incentives.
Palantir Technologies (PLTR) shares retreated over 1.5% after Monness, Crespi, Hardt downgraded its rating to Sell from Neutral. The brokerage believes the massive runup in 2023 due to an unprecedented generative AI hype cycle has left the data analytics software firm with a rich valuation. Monness believes Palantir is well-positioned to benefit from the long-term AI trend, but also notes that revenue from government-related contracts has been lumpy and execution has been spotty.
Must read book about investing – check here 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.