XYZ, NFLX, PSKY See Premarket Gains
U.S. stock futures are down in premarket trading as traders assessed earnings and looked ahead to an inflation reading due Friday morning. The moves come after a mixed session on Thursday with losses coming in the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100.
Tech weakness came after Nvidia’s (NVDA) 5.5% loss on the day came to a surprise to many investors, who remain bullish on the chipmaker given its blowout fourth-quarter results and upcoming product cycle.
Stocks in focus today will be Block (XYZ) which announced it’s cutting 40% of its workforce and a rally in Netflix (NFLX) after the company declined to raise its offer for Warner Bros./Discovery (WBD).
Investors are also anticipating the release of January’s producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation. Economists see the headline reading coming in at 0.3%, while core PPI, which excludes energy and food prices, is also anticipated to land at 0.3%.
Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)
- Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are up over 2.5% near $66.90 a barrel as traders remained on alert for potential supply disruptions after the United States and Iran extended nuclear talks. The moves may be driven by the outcome of the Iranian nuclear talks and possible military action the U.S. might take against Iran. They plan to resume negotiations with technical-level discussions scheduled next week in Vienna, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said on X. To cushion the impact from a possible strike, Saudi Arabia is increasing oil production and exports, two sources familiar with the plans told Reuters. Producer group OPEC+, meanwhile, is likely to consider raising oil output by 137,000 barrels per day for April at its March 1 meeting, sources said, after suspending production increases in the first quarter.
- Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are up 0.2% near $5205 as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the third round of indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva, hoping for signals on whether the negotiations could ease geopolitical tensions.
- Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is down over 2% near 66,100 in premarket trading.
- VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was up nearly 4% on Thursday and settled at 18.63 as stocks were lower.
- U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down 0.1% to 97.7.
Biggest Premarket Movers (as of 7 AM ET - Mark % Change)
- Block (XYZ): +19.20%
- Dell Technologies (DELL): +12.06%
- Paramount Skydance (PSKY): +7.96%
- Netflix (NFLX): +7.60%
- Autodesk (ADSK): +2.38%
- Capital One Financial (COF): -2.92%
- Workday (WDAY): -2.74%
- American Express (AXP): -2.63%
- Salesforce (CRM): -2.49%
- Intuit (INTU): -2.39%
Economic Data
- 8:30 AM ET: Intl. Trade in Goods (Delayed), PPI
- 9:45 AM ET: Chicago PMI
- 10:00 AM ET: Construction Spending
Notable Earnings
- Premarket: AMR, CRI, DK, UUUU, GLP, GOGO, TAC
- Postmarket: SQM
- Premarket Monday: ADT, BRK/A, CRC, SATS, NCLH, RDNT
- Postmarket Monday: ACHR, BBAI, IHRT, MDB, PLUG, QUBT, RIOT, STNE
Upgrades/Downgrades
- UBS upgrades Palantir (PLTR) to Buy from Neutral
- Arete upgrades Netflix (NFLX) to Buy from Neutral
- Wolfe Research upgrades Honeywell (HON) to Outperform from Peer Perform
- Raymond James double downgrades Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Underperform from Outperform
- Morgan Stanley downgrades Synopsys (SNPS) to Equal Weight from Overweight
- Citi downgrades Dollar Tree (DLTR) to Neutral from Buy
