Stocks were on track to slip lower at Monday’s opening bell, pausing a rally driven by optimism that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates next year.
Wall Street will be watching economic indicators closely: October factory orders come in out Monday and November’s jobs report, due out Friday, wraps up the week.
Investors want to see signs that inflation and growth are cooling enough to persuade the Fed to cut rates—but not enough to push the economy into recession.
Stocks poised to make moves:
Uber,
the ride-hailing app, and
Jabil,
the electronics manufacturer, were both gaining after S&P Global said the stocks were among the group being cycled into the benchmark
S&P 500
index. Inclusion in the S&P 500 can push up stocks because many investors buy funds that track the index’s components. In premarket trading,
Uber
advanced 4.3% and
Jabil
was up 2.8%.
Coinbase Global
jumped 6.7% on a surge in the price of
Bitcoin,
which hit a 20-month high. The cryptocurrency broker often trades in step with the largest digital asset. Increased investor interest in cryptos supports the company’s core trading business.
Bitcoin miners, which have wider profit margins when token prices rise, also gained, with
Marathon Digital
up 12% and
Riot Platforms
10% higher.
Alaska Air
tumbled 12% after it agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines, a rival for travel in the Pacific region.
Hawaiian Holdings
gained 188% in a blistering premarket move, reflective of the deal price of $18 a share, a hefty premium to the stock’s closing price of $4.86 on Friday.
The cash transaction, which Alaska said would expand it as the fifth-largest U.S. airline, is worth $1.9 billion, including some $900 million of Hawaiian’s debt.
Carvana
jumped 5.5% after
JPMorgan
upgraded the online used car retailer to Neutral from Underweight.
Lululemon
dropped 1.9% after analysts at Wells Fargo downgraded the retailer to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Spotify
was up 0.7% after the audio media streaming company said it was laying off 17% of staff, or about 1,500 workers, in its third round of job cuts this year. Shares have more than doubled this year, but more layoffs may be a sign that management is increasingly worried about future profits after rapid expansion.
Fisker
rose 0.6% after even Evercore ISI analysts downgraded the electric-vehicle start-up to In Line from Outperform.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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