U.S. stock futures were mixed at the end of a week of choppy trading that saw major indexes pull back from records. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Friday’s opening bell.
- Foot Locker shares got a spring in their step, jumping 9.4% after it said its profit and sales rose for the fiscal second quarter, led by sales of women’s and children’s footwear.
- Ross Stores posted strong results yet its shares are fizzling premarket, down 3.6%. The clothing retailer said its profit jumped in the second quarter from a year earlier, helped by eased social-distancing measures, advancing vaccination rates and government stimulus payments.
- Coinbase Global added 1.9% premarket. CEO Brian Armstrong said the cryptocurrency trading platform received board authorization to add $500 million in crypto to its balance sheet. He also said Coinbase would be investing 10% of all profits in crypto. Bitcoin was stable, edging up 0.9% from its 5 p.m. ET level on Thursday.
- Applied Materials added 0.3% premarket after the chip-making equipment manufacturer’s third-quarter performance beat Wall Street projections.
- Topps Co.’s plan to go public in a blank-check merger has been derailed by new exclusive contracts Major League Baseball and its players’ union signed with a different playing-card company. Shares of the SPAC involved, Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp. II , fell 2.2%.
- You’d think the prospect of a program of Covid-19 booster shots for the previously vaccinated would be giving vaccine makers a shot in the arm. Not so much. Moderna dropped 1.3% premarket, and Pfizer nudged up 0.1%.
- Shares of equipment maker Deere gained 1.8% premarket after it reported quarterly profit that more than doubled and was well above expectations, and raised its full-year net income outlook
Chart of the Day
- Investors in search of better fixed-income returns are flocking to buy the lowest-rated junk debt from companies new to the high-yield market.
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