Stock futures were rising Friday as markets shrugged off an interest-rate hike by the Bank of Japan since investors now are confident the Federal Reserve has scope to cut interest rates in 2026 following a sharp pullback in U.S. inflation in November.
These stocks were poised to make moves Friday:
Oracle jumped 5.5% ahead of the opening bell. The software developer and two other investors signed agreements with TikTok and its Chinese owner ByteDance to form a new joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. Oracle, private-equity firm Silver Lake, and Emirati state-owned artificial-intelligence investor MGX each will have a 15% stake in the new entity, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees in a memo viewed by Barron's.
Nike slumped 10% in premarket trading after the athletic apparel retailer posted results for its fiscal second quarter. The results paint a muddled picture: Although Nike topped earnings and revenue expectations, investors were disappointed about declining profit and lackluster sales in China.
FedEx fell 1.1%. The logistics company reported stronger-than-expected earnings and sales for its fiscal second quarter. Shares may have been priced for perfection, though: Entering Thursday, FedEx stock had traded flat for the year, but was up 25% since the company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings in September.
Micron Technology climbed 2.1%. The memory-chip maker was the S&P 500's best performer on Thursday, surging more than 10% following earnings that one analyst described as the best in semiconductor history, excluding Nvidia.
KB Home declined 3.4% after the home builder's quarterly earnings missed analysts' estimates and it delivered fewer homes in its fiscal fourth quarter.
Trump Media rose 2%, having soared 42% the previous session after the Truth Social parent said it had agreed to merge with nuclear fusion company TAE Technology in an all-stock deal valued at more than $6 billion.
Crypto stocks were rallying Friday, with large-cap digital asset Bitcoin up 0.8% to $88,046 over the past 24 hours. Major exchange Coinbase gained 3.1%, online trading platform Robinhood added 2.6%, and Bitcoin investor Strategy added 3.6%.