Daily Trade News

Facebook, Acceleron Pharma, Spotify: What to Watch When the Stock


Stock futures sagged as investors rotated out of interest-rate sensitive technology shares. U.S. government bond yields hit their highest level in three months. Oil prices hit three-year highs. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of the opening bell.

  • Tech stocks including Facebook , Apple and Amazon.com —all sensitive to the outlook for interest rates because profits are expected to grow far into the future—fell more than 1% each in premarket trading.
  • Acceleron Pharma shares gained 2.4%. Merck is in advanced talks to buy Acceleron, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would bolster the pharmaceutical giant’s rare-disease business. Merck shares were roughly flat premarket.
  • Spotify Technology fell 2.1%. The music and podcast-streaming company has started its first global brand campaign to court marketers, part of an effort to expand revenues from advertising.
  • Occidental Petroleum , Devon Energy and Diamondback Energy were among the firms to get a boost from rising prices for oil and gas prices. Crude has been swept up in a broad rally in energy markets.
  • Shares of chip companies including Nvidia and Micron Technology slipped ahead of the bell. Micron is due to report earnings Tuesday. The latest threat to supply chains for semiconductors: High coal prices and efforts to curb energy consumption in China.
  • Entertainment giant Endeavor Group has agreed to buy an online sports-betting business from game developer Scientific Games for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. Scientific rose 2.5% premarket.
  • Ford Motor rose 1.9%. The auto maker plans to spend $7 billion to build two battery factories in Kentucky and a third in western Tennessee—part of a collaboration with SK Innovation—as well as a factory for producing electric trucks.
  • Concentrix gained 4.6% ahead of the bell. The business-services company’s quarterly profit more than doubled and revenue rose 20% from the year earlier.
  • Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has a more-than-8% stake in Huntsman and plans to agitate for change at the chemicals producer, The Wall Street Journal reported. Huntsman shares ticked up 0.9% premarket.
Chart of the Day
  • Banks are on pace this year to merge at a level not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. It is a turnaround from last year, when the economy spiraled and many regional and community banks put merger plans on the shelf. Now, bank executives are feeling more certain about what the future holds, but some are finding it hard to make it on their own.

Write to Joe Wallace at joe.wallace@wsj.com



Read More: Facebook, Acceleron Pharma, Spotify: What to Watch When the Stock