Stock futures pointed to a slightly weaker start for Wall Street on Monday following six straight weeks of gains for the
S&P 500.
On this week’s calendar are the consumer price index for November, a decision on interest rates from the Federal Reserve, and U.S. retail sales.
These stocks were poised to make moves Monday:
Shares of
Macy’s
surged 19% to $20.69 following a Journal report that said an investor group has made a $5.8 billion offer to buy the department-store chain. Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management submitted a proposal earlier this month to acquire the
Macy’s
shares they don’t already own for $21 a share, a 32% premium to the stock’s closing price Friday of $17.39.
Cigna
jumped 12% and
Humana
shares were up 2.4% in premarket trading after
Cigna
stepped away from a possible merger with the Louisville health insurer. The companies couldn’t agree on a price and other financial terms, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Cigna said it would consider “bolt-on” acquisitions instead, and plans to buy another $10 billion of its shares, for a total of $11.3 billion.
Paramount Global
was rising 1% on reports from Puck and The New York Times that said Shari Redstone was in talks to sell controlling interesting in National Amusements, the parent company of Paramount, to Skydance Media. Paramount stock surged 12% on Friday following unconfirmed reports that Skydance and RedBird Capital were contemplating a possible takeover of Paramount’s controlling shares. National Amusements, where Redstone serves as president, owns about 10% of Paramount’s equity capital value, but 77% of voting rights.
Pinterest
was up 3.6% to $36.15 after shares of the photo sharing platform were upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets and the price target was boosted to $46 from $32.
HP Inc.
was upgraded to Outperform from In Line at Evercore ISI and the price target on the stock was raised to $40 from $33.
HPInc.
shares rose 1.7% to $29.97 in premarket trading.
Best Buy
rose 1% to $74.76 after Jefferies upgraded the electronics retailer to Buy from Hold and increased the price target on the stock to $89 from $69.
Oracle
and
Casey’s General Stores
are scheduled to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell Monday.
Reports are expected later in the week from
Adobe,
Nordson,
Costco Wholesale,
Lennar,
and
Darden Restaurants.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
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