Stock futures tradded flat Monday after the
S&P 500
set another record high on Friday and closed above 5000 for the first time. The index, like the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and the
Nasdaq Composite,
has risen 14 out of the last 15 weeks.
These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:
Diamondback Energy
announced Monday it was merging with Permian rival Endeavor Energy Resources in a deal that would create an oil-and-gas giant worth more than $50 billion. The transaction was valued at about $26 billion, including Endeavor’s net debt. Shares in Diamondback, which has a market value of around $27 billion, were up 0.5%.
Microsoft
closed Friday with a market capitalization of $3.125 trillion, the highest for any company ever. The software company’s market value topped the previous record set by
Apple,
which reached $3.09 trillion in July 2023, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Apple
ended Friday with a market cap of $2.916 trillion.
Microsoft
was up 0.1% in premarket trading while Apple slipped 0.3%.
Amazon.com
was slipped in premarket trading to $174.36. Shares in the e-commerce company rose 2.7% on Friday to finish at $174.45, the highest closing level since Dec. 9, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Separately,
Amazon.
com founder Jeff Bezos has sold $2 billion of the company’s stock, his first sale in more than two years, according to a disclosure late Friday. Bezos sold 12 million Amazon shares for $2.04 billion, an average price of $170.21 each, from Feb. 7 to Feb. 8.
Big Lots
was down 11% to $4.75 following a report from Bloomberg that said the discount retailer was seeking new financing as deals with dwindling liquidity.
Big Lots
has been reaching out to bankers and investors to assess market willingness to provide a new loan, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the company’s efforts.
Monday.com
fell 10%. The project and task management software company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as revenue in the period rose 35% from a year earlier to $202.6 million.
Earnings reports are also expected Monday from
Arista Networks,
Cadence Design Systems,
Waste Management,
Lattice Semiconductor,
Avis Budget Group,
and
ZoomInfo Technologies.
XPO Inc.
was down 1.9% to $118.60 after shares of the transportation company were downgraded by
Morgan Stanley
to Underweight from Equal Weight while the price target was increased to $80 from $75.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
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