Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Thursday’s opening bell.
—Stock futures advanced, indicating that shares of giant technology companies would push higher at the opening bell as investors awaited a fresh reading on the labor market.
Futures linked to the S&P 500 rose 0.7%. Contracts tied to the Nasdaq-100 rose 1.9%, suggesting technology stocks will rebound following muted declines for the sector on Wednesday. Futures for Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.4%, a day after the blue-chips index closed at a record high. Read our full market wrap.
What’s Coming Up
—Earnings are due from
Ulta Beauty,
DocuSign
and
Vail Resorts
after the close.
—Data on the number of people filing for unemployment benefits, a proxy for joblessness, are due out at 8.30 a.m. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect that 725,000 workers filed for initial benefits last week.
Market Movers to Watch
—
GameStop
shares are down 5% in premarket trading. The “meme stock” beloved by individual investors saw a wild day of trading Wednesday, surging to nearly $350 intraday only to give up most of that.
—Software giant
Oracle
reported revenue that topped $10 billion in the most recent quarter, putting it on track for a record revenue year, and the board raised the authorization for share repurchases by $20 billion. Shares fell 5% premarket.
—
AMC Entertainment Holdings
shares are up 5.4% after it said it has reopened many of its theaters in recent weeks after a winter surge of coronavirus cases prompted the company to re-close several cinemas at the end of 2020. The world’s largest movie theater chain said roughly 527 out of its 589 domestic theaters were open as of Friday.
—
Bumble
reported that sales climbed in the latest quarter, driven by an increase in paying users for its dating apps as people spend more time online due to the pandemic. Shares climbed more than 9% in premarket trading.
Monitors displayed Bumble Inc. signage during the company’s initial public offering in front of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, Feb. 11, 2021.
Photo:
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News
—Shares of
Super League Gaming
soared 15% in premarket trading Thursday, after the videogame and e-sports company said it will buy live-streaming technology platform Mobcrush for an undisclosed amount.
—
Vir Biotechnology
shares jumped 60% premarket after the company said a monoclonal-anitbody drug it has developed to treat Covid-19 showed strong efficacy in a trial.
Market Fact
Money heading into sustainable and ESG funds has soared in recent years, though the funds remain rare in employee-sponsored retirement plans. Only 2.6% of U.S. corporate plans offered ESG funds as investment options in employee-benefit plans in 2019, according to survey data by the Plan Sponsor Council of America.
Chart of the Day
It isn’t easy to find housing markets where prices have fallen since the pandemic. In fact, many are experiencing some of the fastest house-price growth in a decade or more.
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