Merck, Zoom, Exxon and Jefferies Rise Premarket By Investing.com

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Friday, October 1st. Please refresh for updates.

• Merck (NYSE:) stock rose 7.8% following the news that the drugmaker is planning to seek emergency authorization for its oral antiviral treatment for Covid-19, after it showed “compelling results” in clinical trials. 

• Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:) stock rose 3.4% after the video conferencing company called off its acquisition of Cloud-based customer-service software provider Five9 (NASDAQ:). Five9 stock rose 0.7%.

• Jefferies (NYSE:) stock rose 1.1% on the back of the investment bank reporting record revenues for the third quarter, adding its dealmaking backlog for the fourth quarter had also reached new heights.

• Exxon (NYSE:) stock rose 0.5% after the oil major said late Thursday that the higher crude and gas prices will boost its bottom line in the third quarter, potentially up to $1.5 billion.

• Netflix (NASDAQ:) stock fell 0.2%, consolidating after reaching an all-time high during the previous session on the back of the success of Squid Game. The Korean TV show is on track to become the most-watched original series of all time on the streaming platform. 

• Southwest Airlines (NYSE:) stock rose 3.1% following JPMorgan (NYSE:) upgrading the airline to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’, saying the recovery in air travel is well on the way and will continue to improve.

• General Mills (NYSE:) stock rose 1% after Citigroup (NYSE:) upgraded its investment stance to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, saying last week’s strong results were underappreciated and investors will want a cheap, high quality consumer staple stock.

• Coty (NYSE:) stock rose 3.1% following the announcement that the cosmetics maker will sell 9% of its stake in professional beauty business Wella to majority owner KKR (NYSE:), down 0.6%, valuing the deal at $426.5 million. 

•  Nio (NYSE:) ADRs rose 3% after the Chinese electric car maker reported deliveries of 10,628 vehicles in September, a 126% increase over a year ago.