Stock futures traded lower Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in a television appearance that the central bank was approaching the “question of when to begin to reduce interest rates carefully” and that the first cut might not come in March as many had anticipated.
These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:
Boeing
said it would have to rework about 50 undelivered 737 MAX jets after supplier
Spirit AeroSystems
found two misdrilled holes on some fuselages.
Boeing
said the issue could delay some near-term 737 deliveries but that the “potential condition is not an immediate flight safety issue” and all 737s can continue flying. It’s the latest production problem for Boeing since a door plug blew out on a 737 MAX 9 jet flown by Alaska Airlines, leading to an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, last month. Boeing shares were down 2%, while
Spirit AeroSystems
fell 2.7%.
Drug manufacturer
Catalent
was rising 9.8% to $59.85 after agreeing to be acquired by Novo Holdings for $63.50 a share in cash, a 16.5% premium to
Catalent’s
closing price of $54.51 on Friday. The transaction values Catalent at $16.5 billion on an enterprise-value basis. Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of
Novo Nordisk.
Meta Platforms
fell 0.7% after shares of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram surged 20% on Friday to a closing record of $474.99 following an outlook that surpassed Wall Street expectations and an announcement that it planned for its first-ever dividend.
Meta
added $204.5 billion in market value on Friday, the biggest one-day gain by any U.S. company in history.
Nvidia,
meanwhile, set a record intraday high of $666 on Friday, and a closing record of $661.60. Driving the gains were continued high demand for
Nvidia’s
graphics-processing-units for training artificial-intelligence systems. Meta,
Microsoft,
and
Amazon.com
reported strong earnings last week and said they were committed to further AI investments. Nvidia was up 3.1% to $682.25.
Palantir Technologies
is expected by analysts to report fourth-quarter adjusted earnings after the closing bell Monday of 8 cents a share on revenue of $603 million. The provider of data analytics software also has made a big bet on artificial intelligence. The stock was rising 2.7% ahead of the earnings report.
Caterpillar
rose 4.7% after the heavy-machinery maker reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. Operating profit margin in the period improved to 18.4% from 10.1%.
Shares of
McDonald’s
were up down 1.3% after the fast-food giant reported fourth-quarter revenue that missed Wall Street estimates and same-store sales below forecasts as the company felt the impact of the war in the Middle East.
Estee Lauder
was rising 16% after the beauty-products company reported fiscal second-quarter profit that beat expectations.
Estee Lauder
posted adjusted profit of 88 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimates of 54 cents. The company said it expects double-digit percentage organic sales growth in the second half of its fiscal year. The company also announced it would be cutting 3% to 5% of its workforce under a restructuring program.
Elanco Animal Health
rose 7.4% after it agreed to sell its aqua business to Merck Animal Health for $1.3 billion in cash.
Earnings reports are expected later in the week from
Eli Lilly,
Amgen,
Ford Motor,
BP,
Alibaba,
Walt Disney,
Spotify Technology,
Uber,
CVS Health,
PayPal,
Philip Morris,
ConocoPhillips,
Chipotle Mexican Grill,
Expedia,
Take-Two Interactive,
and
PepsiCo.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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