U.S. stock futures were down Wednesday morning and signaled a muted start to the trading day. The slide comes on the heels of major indices flirting with record highs on Tuesday after receiving a boost from strong U.S. consumer confidence data.
The pumping of monetary and fiscal stimuli by the Federal Reserve has been one of the catalysts behind the recent spike in equities to record highs. However, inflation concerns and pandemic-related worries have in recent days taken a significant toll on investors’ sentiments about riskier bets in the equity markets.
Ahead of the open, the S&P 500 was down 0.25% to 4, 271.87, as the Nasdaq Future fell 0.19% to 14,535.19, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.36% to 34,048.23, at the time of writing. Following the recent spike to record highs, focus shifts to the jobs report, expected this Friday, which could help paint a clear picture of the economy’s health. Economists expect a gain of 690,000 jobs for June, up from the 559,000 reported in May.
Ahead of the open in the North American session, the focus will be on Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY), Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) and General Mills Inc. (GIS), which are expected to report their quarterly earnings before the market opens. Additionally, the focus will shift to Micron Technology Inc. (MU), CBAK Energy Technology Inc. (CBAT), and Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR), which are expected to report their quarterly results after market close.
Exela Technologies (XELA) was the most active in pre-market trading, with more than 9.09 million shares exchanging hands at the time of writing. The stock was also up 59.40%. The rally comes just a day after the company announced the rollout of its Robotic Process Automation platform for a large health insurance company.
The rollout is expected to accelerate the digital transformation efforts of major insurers while affirming Exela’s capabilities in providing some of the best cloud-hosted solutions.
Bridgeline Digital (BLIN) was the biggest gainer in pre-market, rallying by 82.30% at the time of writing, with 1.06 million shares exchanging hands. As a digital entrainment company, Bridgeline provides an unbound platform that allows other companies and developers to create websites, web applications, and online stores. It is still unclear why the stock was exploding in pre-market on huge trade volume, given the lack of substantial news.
Altimmune (ALT) was the biggest loser in pre-market, tanking 37.99% at the time of writing. The drop comes just a day after the biotech company announced it is discontinuing its study of a COVID-19 nasal vaccine. Immediate adCOVID vaccine trial results were disappointing, forcing the company to focus on other obesity and liver disease treatments.
“Although antibodies were detected that bound the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and neutralized the virus in a subset of subjects, the magnitude of the response and the percent of subjects responding to AdCOVID were substantially lower than what had been demonstrated for other vaccines already authorized for emergency use,” Altimmune said in a statement.
Ericsson (ERIC) has inked a strategic partnership with Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google cloud to develop 5G and edge cloud solutions. The two are coming together to make it easier for communications service providers to accelerate their digital transformation while also unlocking new use cases for consumers and enterprises.
The two will operate from Ericsson’s D-15 Labs in Silicon Valley to develop and test advanced technologies on the 5G platform.
“We are excited about our partnership with Google Cloud as we engage with our customers to leverage our combined capabilities to solve real-world business challenges for the benefit of consumers, enterprises, and society at large,” Niklas Heuveldop, President of North America Ericsson, said.
Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) has joined forces with Bioeq to commercialize a biosimilar candidate to Lucentis. FYB201 is the biosimilar that Bioeq is currently working on, having obtained commercialization rights from German company Formycon. The two companies plan to commercialize the biosimilar in Israel, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe.
Sven Dethlefs, Teva’s Executive Vice President, Global Marketing & Portfolio and International Markets Commercial, said, “Unlocking the value of biologics with biosimilars is an important new frontier in drug development that offers patients safe and effective treatment options through more affordable alternatives to branded biological products that have lost their exclusivity rights.”
High Tide (HITI) reported solid second-quarter results, characterized by revenues almost doubling to C$40.9 million, a 99% increase from C$20.6 million reported last year. Gross profit was up 93% to C$15 million. However, the company’s net loss widened to C$12.3 million from the C$4.9 million reported last year.
High Tide’s President and CEO Raj Grover said, “Despite the challenges and our continued rapid growth, we were able to increase not only our revenue, but also our Adjusted EBITDA sequentially to a new record of $4.7 million. This is a clear testament to the strength of our operations and our management team’s ability to outperform in tougher markets.”
In M&A news, Sony (SONY) has acquired Housemarque as it continues to strengthen its gaming empire. The acquisition builds on a long-running relationship that started with the inclusion of Super Stardust in PS3. The acquisition should strengthen Sony’s Playstation ecosystem while strengthening Housemarque’s prospects in Finland.
“We can’t wait to show everyone what will be in store in the upcoming years, and we hope to usher in more lasting memories and exhilarating titles for the next quarter century and beyond,” said Housemarque co-founder Ilari Kuittinen.
Additionally, Amazon (AMZN) has moved to strengthen its Music Service by acquiring exclusive rights to the “SmartLess” podcast. While the terms of the deal remain under wraps, Bloomberg reports that the deal could be worth between $60 million and $80 million, citing people familiar with the matter.
In August, new podcast episodes from SmartLess will start appearing on Amazon Music and Wondery +.
