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

U.S. futures were set to bounce back on Wednesday after all three major indices ended the day in the red on March 2.

Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were each trading around 0.75% higher at the time of writing.

Companies reporting earnings today include Okta (OKTA), Marvell (MRVL) and Splunk (SPLK), while Mosaic (MOS), Nielsen (NLSN) and Qualcomm (QCOM) each go ex-dividend.

Rocket (RKT) was among the most actively traded stocks in the pre-market trading session after closing up 71% on March 2. Speculation is rife that RKT could be the next target of Reddit day traders, who pushed shares like GameStop and AMC to incredible valuations a few weeks ago. RKT was up another 7% at the time of writing.

Pre-market top gainers include KMPH (+90%), GENE (+27%) and HTBX (+23%), while the biggest losers before the bell were CLWT (-38%), SND (-15%) and MGY (-11%)

In corporate earnings news, Ambarella (AMBA) gained 10% before the open after reporting better-than-expected Q4 results. Adjusted earnings of $0.14 per share beat analysts’ estimates of $0.08, while revenues increased 9% to $62.1 million and exceeded consensus estimates of $57.7 million. The company forecasted Q1 revenues of between $67 million and $70 million, much higher than analysts’ expectations of $56.2 million.

AutoZone (AZO) delivered better-than-expected Q2 results reflecting strong domestic same-store sales growth of 15.2%. Total sales of $2.91 billion rose 15.8% year-over-year and topped analysts’ estimates of $2.76 billion. AutoZone CEO Bill Rhodes said, “While our strong (DIY) sales have been aided by government stimulus and changes to consumer behavior as a result of the pandemic, our growth initiatives continue to deliver strong share gains with both DIY and Commercial customers.”

B&G Foods’ (BGS) fell almost 7% pre-market after the food company reported lower-than-expected Q4 results. Adjusted earnings of $0.35 per share missed Street estimates by $0.10, while revenues of $510.2 million also came in lower than consensus estimates of $533.5 million. The company did however manage to achieve top and bottom-line year-on-year growth of 8.5% and 25% respectively.

Shares of Urban Outfitters (URBN) declined almost 3% in pre-market trading as sales in Q4 fell 6.9% year-on-year to $1.09 billion due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparable net sales for the retail segment also fell 7% year-on-year due to reduced traffic at its stores. Meanwhile, adjusted EPS of $0.30 came in ahead of analysts’ expectations of $0.28.

Shares of discount store operator, Target (TGT), fell almost 7% on March 2 despite reporting better-than-expected Q4 results. Revenues of $28.3 billion grew 21% year-on-year and topped consensus estimates of $27.5 billion. Earnings of $2.67 per share surged 58% year-over-year and beat analysts’ expectations of $2.54. The company did not, however, provide any forward looking guidance as the impact of the coronavirus remains uncertain.