Stock futures were rising Monday after negotiators from the U.S. and China hammered out the framework for a trade deal between the world's two largest economies.
These stocks were poised to make moves:
Avidity Biosciences surged 43% to $70.48 in premarket trading after Swiss drugmaker Novartis agreed to buy the biotech company in a deal valued at around $12 billion. Novartis will pay $72 a share in cash for the San Diego-based Avidity, roughly a 46% premium to Avidity's closing price on Friday of $49.15. Avidity's drugs include late-stage therapies for the treatment of neuromuscular diseases. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.
Gold miner Newmont Mining dropped 4%, having plummeted 6.2% on Friday. Bullion prices tumbled last week, with many investors opting to take profits after a stellar recent run for the precious metal.
GameStop gained 7.7% ahead of the opening bell. The videogame retailer could be benefiting from the meme-stock frenzy that has boosted Beyond Meat in recent days. Meme stocks are stocks that rally or slump because of their popularity on investing forums like Reddit's Wall Street Bets, rather than due to news or changes in their underlying fundamentals.
GRINDR INC shares climbed another 2.3% in premarket trading, after closing up 19% on Friday to $15.06. The dating app received a buyout offer that values it at nearly $3.5 billion. Shareholders Ray Zage and James Lu, who combined own more than 60% of Grindr's outstanding shares, proposed to acquire Grindr for $18 a share in cash. Zage and Lu have been board members 2020. Lu is chair of the board. Grindr said a special committee of its board was "reviewing the unsolicited take-private proposal and will be evaluating the best path forward for all shareholders."
Advanced Micro Devices rose 2.4% in the premarket session. The chip company set a record closing high on Friday of $252.92 after jumping 7.6%. The stock, which closed Friday with a market capitalization of $410.45 billion, rose following better-than-expected earnings and revenue from rival Intel. AMD also benefited from IBM's announcement that it had used AMD hardware to run a quantum-error correction algorithm.
Microsoft was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim with a price target of $586. Analyst John DiFucci wrote in a research report: "In a time when investors struggle to separate AI beneficiaries from AI casualties, it's clear to us that Microsoft, along with the other hyperscalers, is a beneficiary." DiFucci added that Microsoft "has a near monopoly in the Productivity Suite market with its Office offering and therefore has been, and will be able to continue to directly monetize AI offerings (namely Copilot) tied to that product suite." Microsoft rose 1.1% to $529.24.