Monday’s Pre-Market: Here’s What You Need To Know Before The Market Opens

U.S. stock futures sunk in pre-market trading on Monday on uncertainty related to the next stimulus package. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed to a loss of over 100 points at the opening bell. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also ticked lower.  

Gilead Sciences said that the results from the Phase 1b trial of its investigational antibody therapy, magrolimab, designed for previously untreated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, showed “promising” and “durable” responses. According to the company, the study of the investigational anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody in AML patients who aren’t eligible for intensive chemotherapy, including patients with TP53-mutant AML, saw high response rates in combination with azacytidine. “We continue to be encouraged by the response rates seen in this study and are rapidly advancing the development of magrolimab based on its potential to help address significant unmet medical needs,” head of oncology, Daejin Abidoye, commented. 

NXP Semiconductors will launch new radar sensor solutions for vehicles to improve safety while driving, with these products “part of the effort to reduce the 1.3 million yearly road deaths and represent radar’s evolution as a central part of driver assistance systems.” The new chipset solutions will surround vehicles in a 360-degree safety cocoon and allow for the identification and classification capabilities of imaging radar, the company said. “Radar has evolved from just detecting other cars’ velocity and distance to providing imaging radar’s high-resolution object and feature detection for precisely mapping the car’s surroundings… Our new radar sensor solutions can help customers cover NCAP requirements to make driving safe, and also address the frontier of ADAS [advanced driving assistance] sensing on the path towards fully autonomous vehicles,” NXP Radio Frequency Processing’s executive VP Torsten Lehmann stated.  

Meanwhile, Syros Pharmaceuticals announced that it has purchased a clinical-stage drug candidate for Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (or APL) from Orsenix. SYRS acquired all of the assets related to SY-2101, formerly known as ORH-2014, a novel oral form of arsenic trioxide. As per the terms of the agreement, Syros has made an upfront cash payment of $12 million to Orsenix. 

In other deal news, EQT has agreed to sell Apleona Group, previously part of industrial services conglomerate Bilfinger, to private equity company PAI Partners SAS for about EUR 1.6 billion ($1.94 billion). In 2016, EQT purchased Apleona through a carve-out from Bilfinger. Per the deal’s terms, certain shares in the proceeds will be shared with Bilfinger, resulting in expected proceeds of about EUR 450 million-470 million to Bilfinger’s preferred participation note, with the agreement set to close in the second quarter of 2021. 

Shares of Yext took an 18.8% tumble on Friday as the company’s Q4 sales guidance fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Although the cloud-based search company exceeded the consensus estimates for Q3 revenue and loss per share, it expects Q4 revenue to be between $87 million to $89 million. Analysts’ had forecasted $94 million. In response, Berenberg Bank analyst Brett Knoblauch lowered the stock’s price target to $16 (2% upside potential) from $17 and maintained a Hold rating. “We have seen multiple examples of SaaS companies whose revenue growth decelerates while they focus on costs, and the result is that shares have trouble re-rating higher. As such, we expect Yext’s multiple to remain pressured until top-line momentum returns,” he opined.