Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Ulta — The beauty chain slipped more than 1% following a downgrade to hold from buy at Jefferies. Analyst Ashley Helgans cited mounting pressure from competitor Sephora as well as a “lack of newness” as two reasons for the change. Netflix — Shares slid nearly 6% after the video streaming platform shared a weaker full-year revenue growth outlook than consensus had expected and said it would no longer report quarterly subscriber gains going forward. Despite this, Netflix posted a first-quarter earnings and revenue beat . Shopify — The Canada-based e-commerce stock jumped 3%. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shopify to an overweight rating, citing confidence in the company’s growth potential and operating leverage upside. First Solar — Shares gained 1.5% after Wells Fargo upgraded shares to overweight. The firm cited several upside catalysts, including the expectation that the Biden Administration will revoke tariff exemptions and potential trade restrictions on Chinese panels. Sunnova Energy — The stock slipped nearly 4% after a Wells Fargo downgrade to equal weight. The bank thinks that a higher-for-longer rate environment will be particularly detrimental for Sunnova’s upcoming debt maturities and tight liquidity. SLB — The energy stock dipped 1.7% despite a first-quarter report that was largely in line with expectations. SLB reported 75 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $8.71 billion of revenue. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were expected 75 cents per share on $8.69 billion of revenue. The company did say that revenue fell in North America. Intuitive Surgical — Shares of the robotic surgery firm popped 3% after posting a first quarter earnings and revenue beat. Intuitive Surgical reported adjusted earnings of $1.50 per share last quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG had estimated $1.41. Western Alliance — Shares slipped 2% after the firm missed earnings expectations in its latest quarter. Western Alliance reported earnings of $1.60 per share, while FactSet had estimated this at $1.64 per share. KB Home — The homebuilding stock climbed 1.6% after announcing a share repurchase plan amounting up to $1 billion . KB Home also said that it would raise its quarterly cash dividend by 25% to 25 cents per share, payable on May 23. Paramount — The media stock soared 10% after the New York Times and Bloomberg reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have been discussing the possibility of teaming up to acquire Paramount in a joint bid . This comes amid Paramount’s talks to merge with production firm Skydance Media. Bentley Systems — French energy management and automation firm Schneider Electric confirmed that it was currently in preliminary talks regarding a potential strategic transaction of Bentley Systems, sending the software stock up less than 1%. Proctor & Gamble — The consumer products maker reported mixed results for its latest quarter, with earnings of $1.52 per share beating analysts’ estimates of $1.41 per share, according to LSEG. The company slightly missed revenue expectations, however, posting $20.20 billion, while analysts expected $20.41 billion. Shares were little changed in premarket trading. American Express — Shares slid 1.5% despite the financial services company posting a first-quarter earnings and revenue beat above FactSet estimates. American Express also reaffirmed that its full-year guidance would come in line with expectations. — CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Tanana Macheel, Jesse Pound and Samantha Subin contributed reporting.
Elon Musk at the tenth Breakthrough Prize ceremony held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
The Hollywood Reporter | The Hollywood Reporter | Getty Images
On Saturday, Elon Musk shared who he is endorsing for Treasury secretary on X, a cabinet position President-elect Donald Trump has yet to announce his preference to fill.
Musk wrote that Howard Lutnick, Trump-Vance transition co-chair and CEO and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC Group and Newmark Group chairman, will “actually enact change.”
Lutnick and Key Square Group founder and CEO Scott Bessent are reportedly top picks to run the Treasury Department.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also included his thoughts on Bessent in his post on X.
“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice,” he wrote.
“Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt so we need change one way or another,” he added.
Musk also stated it would be “interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.”
Howard Lutnick, chairman and chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, left, and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a campaign event with former US President Donald Trump, not pictured, at Madison Square Garden in New York, US, on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In a statement to Politico, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt made it clear that the president-elect has not made any decisions regarding the position of Treasury secretary.
“President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Both Lutnick and Bessent have close ties to Trump. Lutnick and Trump have known each other for decades, and the CEO has even hosted a fundraiser for the president-elect.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Lutnick has already been helping Trump review candidates for cabinet positions in his administration.
On the other hand, Bessent was a key economic advisor to the president-elect during his 2024 campaign. Bessent also received an endorsement from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, according to Semafor.
“He’s from South Carolina, I know him well, he’s highly qualified,” Graham said.
Money manager John Davi is positioning for challenges tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
Davi said he worries the new administration’s policies could be “very inflationary,” so he thinks it is important to choose investments carefully.
“Small-cap industrials make more sense than large-cap industrials,” the Astoria Portfolio Advisors CEO told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Davi, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer, expects the red sweep will help push a pro-growth, pro-domestic policy agenda forward that will benefit small caps.
It appears Wall Street agrees so far. Since the presidential election, the Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap stocks, is up around 4% as of Friday’s close.
Davi, whose firm has $1.9 billion in assets under management, also likes staying domestic despite the tariff risks.
“We’re overweight the U.S. I think that’s the right playbook in the next few years until the midterms,” added Davi. “We have two years of where he [Trump] can control a lot of the narrative.”
But Davi plans to stay away from fixed income due to challenges tied to the growing budget deficit.
“Be careful if you own bonds for sure,” said Davi.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Global pharma stocks — Shares of several vaccine makers declined after President-elect Donald Trump selected prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on Thursday. Shares of Moderna and Pfizer slipped nearly 9% and 5%, respectively. BioNTech , which helped develop a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, shed 5%, while GSK declined about 2%. Even names such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were lower, with both stocks slipping about 4%, amid concerns that the drug approval process could be slowed. Super Micro Computer — Shares of the embattled server company fell 2% ahead of a Monday deadline that could result in the company being delisted from the Nasdaq. Super Micro is late on filing a year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting it on the wrong side of the Nasdaq’s rules. This would be the 11th losing day in the last 13 trading sessions for Super Micro. Alibaba — S hares slipped more than 2% after the Chinese e-commerce giant’s fiscal second-quarter sales fell short of estimates amid a weakening consumer backdrop in China. Alibaba’s revenue of 236.5 billion yuan came out 5% higher year on year but below analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan, per LSEG. Palantir — Shares jumped 7% after the analytics software provider said it is moving its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange. Palantir expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 Index once it makes the switch. Domino’s Pizza , Pool Corp. , Ulta Beauty — Shares of the pizza chain edged up 0.3% after Warren Buffett ‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in Domino’s, while Pool Corp. gained almost 2% as the conglomerate purchased a small stake in the swimming pool supplier. Ulta slipped nearly 3% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had sold around 97% of its shares, nearly dissolving its position in the beauty retailer. Berkshire had just bought the stock in the second quarter, making Ulta a relatively new bet. AST SpaceMobile – Shares plunged more than 11% on the heels of the company’s weaker-than-expected third-quarter results. AST SpaceMobile reported a loss of $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.1 million. That’s well below the loss of 20 cents per share and $1.8 million in revenue that analysts were expecting, according to FactSet. Applied Materials — The semiconductor equipment manufacturer dropped 8% after providing a softer-than-forecast revenue outlook for the current quarter. Applied Materials told investors to expect $7.15 billion in the first fiscal quarter, less than the estimate of $7.22 billion from analysts polled by LSEG. However, the company beat expectations on both lines in the fourth fiscal quarter and issued positive guidance for adjusted earnings per share. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Lisa Han contributed reporting.