U.S. stock futures were trading higher on Monday, with all three of the major indices up around 0.3%. Additionally, bond yields reached their highest levels since last March.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq performed well last week, each gaining around 3% as the majority of companies that reported their earnings results beat analysts’ expectations.
Today we will see GPN, RCL and HAS post their earnings before the bell, while SPG, TTWO and JKHY will release their results after the market closes.
Shares of Castor Maritime were most actively traded before the bell, with almost 7 million shares having already changed hands at the time of writing. The stock gained around 11% in the pre-market session.
Nemaura Medical was the top gainer in pre-market trading and looked set to open 99% higher than its close on Friday, followed by Ocugen (+70%) and Westport Fuel (+47%).
Meanwhile, pre-market’s top losers were Wheeler REIT (-9.5%) and Accelerate Diagnostics (-8%).
In corporate news, CNBC reported last week that Apple was close to finalizing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to produce a self-driving electric Apple Car beginning in 2024, but over the weekend, Hyundai and Kia put a halt to preliminary discussions. The iPhone maker has ambitions of building autonomous self-driving vehicles for the mass consumer market.
Dialog Semiconductor (DLGNF), a major chip supplier to Apple, was trading 17% higher after announcing that it is in discussions with Renesas to sell its 72 million outstanding shares for around $6 billion. Dialog was awarded a range of new contracts in 2019 by Apple to develop and supply mixed-signal integrated circuits.
Linde (LIN) closed 3.3% higher on Friday after reporting better-than-expected Q4 results and providing Q1 earnings guidance that came in above analysts’ estimates. Earnings increased 22% year-on-year to $2.30 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.14, while Q4 sales grew 3% to $7.3 billion compared to analysts’ forecasts of $7.1 billion. The company anticipates Q1 earnings of between $2.20 and $2.25 per share and full-year 2021 earnings in the range of $9.10 to $9.30. Analysts previously called for Q1 and full-year 2021 earnings of $2.12 and $9.18, respectively.
Trane Technologies (TT) reported a 12% year-on-year increase in adjusted earnings, with the figure reaching $1.03 per share and beating consensus estimates of $0.93. Adjusted EBITDA and operating margins expanded by 140 and 150 basis points, respectively, while top-line figures remained flat at $3.18 billion but surpassed analysts’ estimates of $3.08 billion. The climate control product manufacturer expects adjusted EPS to grow between 19% and 23% in 2021 to between $5.30 and $5.50 per share.
AT&T (T) has settled its dispute with Cox Media Group (CMG), and agreed on a multi-year retransmission consent deal to provide CMG-owned broadcast stations to AT&T’s video customers. It was reported on Friday that AT&T had offered to pay an undisclosed amount to CMG and its owner Apollo Global Management to settle the dispute.
