Investing

Thursday's 10 Premarket Winners and Losers Include Cisco, Palantir and Nvidia

Paul Ausick

Published: February 17, 2022 8:14 am

The three major U.S. equities indexes closed mixed on Wednesday, following a generally positive reaction to the January FOMC minutes. The Dow Jones industrials closed down 0.2%, the S&P 500 up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.1%. Prior to the release of the minutes, all three were trading down by at least 0.7%.

Among S&P 500 stocks, winners outnumbered losers by about three to two in Wednesday trading. Nine of 11 sectors closed higher, with the biggest gains coming in energy (0.8%), materials (0.7%) and industrials (0.5%). The communications services (down 0.7%) and technology (0.1%) sectors were the day’s only losers.

At around 7:00 a.m. ET Thursday morning, S&P 500 futures traded down about 0.22%, the Nasdaq was down about 0.20%, and the Dow traded down by 0.23%.

Crude oil settled at $93.66 a barrel on Wednesday, up by more than $1.50, and traded down 2.1% in early trading Thursday at $91.64. The 10-year Treasury note settled at 2.03% and the two-year at 1.52% on Wednesday. The yield curve widened to 0.52 by the end of the day, up about five basis points. The spread had increased to nearly 0.53 in early trading Thursday.

Here are the five S&P 500 stocks that closed with the largest gains on Tuesday: Generac (up 14.63%), Abiomed (6.80%), Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (6.44%), Cincinnati Financial (6.17%) and Kraft Heinz (5.59%).

Tuesday’s biggest losers among S&P 500 stocks were Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS, down 17.81%), Akamai (5.56%), Etsy (5.28%), PayPal (4.26%) and Kroger (3.96%).

Here were Thursday’s premarket leaders and laggards. Not all are S&P 500 stocks.

DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ: DASH) traded up by about 25.0%, at $118.25 in a 52-week range of $91.96 to $257.25. The home delivery service reported quarterly results late Wednesday that missed the profit estimate but topped the consensus revenue estimate. The company reported that it had 25 million active users, a record total, that it had gained two points of market share in the past two months, and that about 14% of its active customers also used non-restaurant categories.

Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) traded up by about 4.4%, at $101.29 in a 52-week range of $85.97 to $105.73. An activist investor has nominated five candidates for election to the company’s board. In a letter to the company, Alta Fox Capital Management said that Hasbro is “severely undervalued and a perpetual underperformer due to its ineffective ‘Brand Blueprint’ strategy, flawed corporate structure and consistent misallocation of capital.”

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) traded up by around 3.6%, at $56.20 in a 52-week range of $44.15 to $64.28. The company reported quarterly earnings after markets closed Wednesday that beat estimates on the top and bottom lines. Guidance for the quarter and for the year were in line with expectations. Cisco also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38 and increased its share buyback program by $15 billion, raising the available total to $18 billion. That is nearly 8% of the company’s market cap of almost $229 billion.

Coterra Energy Inc. (NYSE: CTRA) traded up by about 3.7%, at $23.71 in a 52-week range of $14.28 to $24.39. The independent oil and gas driller rode Devon’s coattails early Wednesday and appeared to be tagging along with Marathon Oil, which reported big results after markets closed.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) traded up about 2.7%, at $80.15 in a 52-week range of $50.19 to $81.39. The refiner had no specific news.

10x Genomics Inc. (NASDAQ: TXG) traded down by about 24.0%, at $72.25 in a 52-week range of $81.54 to $208.99. The biotech health information services firm missed on both top-line and bottom-line estimates, and it issued downside guidance for the 2022 fiscal year.

Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) traded down by about 10.0%. at $221.30 in a 52-week range of $133.82 to $291.48. The company beat consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines and issued upside guidance that probably was not enough to account for the sky-high prices for lithium. In other words, good, but not good enough.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) traded down about 7.7%, at $12.90 in a 52-week range of $11.75 to $30.19. The security software firm missed earnings estimates Thursday morning and guidance was no better than inline. See final comment on Albemarle.

Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) traded down by about 6.9%, at $380.00, below the current 52-week range of $404.50 to $$1,349.98. The beer brewer beat estimates.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) traded down about 2.1%, at $259.65 in a 52-week range of $115.67 to $346.47. The chipmaker’s stock was just downgraded from Buy to Hold at Summit Insights. Nvidia beat estimates when it reported results, but not by a big enough margin. Guidance was also just acceptable to investors.

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