Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Kohl’s (KSS) – The retailer’s stock rallied 2.8% in the premarket following news that activist investor Engine Capital is urging Kohl’s to consider either a sale of the company or a separation of its e-commerce business. Engine Capital has a Kohl’s stake of approximately 1%.
GCP Applied Technologies (GCP) – The maker of specialty construction chemicals agreed to be acquired by French construction company Saint-Gobain for $32 per share in cash, or about $32 billion. GCP surged 13.3% in premarket trading.
FactSet Research (FDS) – The provider of financial information will join the S&P 500 prior to the market opening on December 20, along with Signature Bank (SBNY) and SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG). They’ll replace Leggett & Platt (LEG), Hanesbrands (HBI), and Western Union (WU), which will all move to the S&P MidCap 400.
Alibaba (BABA) – The China-based e-commerce giant saw its shares add 1% in premarket action after it announced a reorganization of its e-commerce teams and named a new chief financial officer.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) – MicroStrategy tumbled 7.9% in the premarket following the weekend slide in the price of bitcoin. The business analytics software company has billions of dollars in bitcoin holdings on its balance sheet.
Lucid Group (LCID) – The electric vehicle maker’s stock slumped 14.7% in premarket trading after it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lucid said the subpoena requested documents related to its SPAC merger deal with Churchill Capital Corp.
Spirit Airlines (SAVE) – Spirit rose 1.9% in the premarket after Evercore upgraded the airline’s stock to “outperform” from “in-line,” saying the company winds up in a better place each time it goes through a recovery cycle.
Wells Fargo (WFC) – The bank was named a “top pick” at Morgan Stanley, which notes that faster interest rate hikes will benefit the banking sector and that the omicron Covid-19 variant will only push recovery out by a quarter or so. Wells Fargo shares added 1.3% in the premarket.
Boston Beer (SAM) – The brewer’s stock added 1.2% in premarket action, following a Cowen upgrade to “market perform” from “underperform”. Cowen notes the slump in the stock price since August, but said it sees signs of stabilization and negative revisions to earnings are now priced into the stock.
Electronic Arts (EA) – The video game maker gained 1.6% in premarket trading after Citi upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral.” Citi said the recent slide presents a buying opportunity despite concerns over factors like the weakness in EA’s “Battlefield 2042” title.
Nvidia (NVDA) – The graphics chip maker’s stock slid 4.3% in the premarket, as it deals with continuing obstacles to its planned takeover of British chipmaker ARM. EU antitrust regulators have halted their investigation of the deal as they await more information, and last week the U.S. FTC sued to block the transaction.