By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, February 1st. Please refresh for updates.
GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock fell 0.4%, AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) stock rose 20% and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) rose 3.1%, as volatility in a handful of heavily-shorted stocks continued against a backdrop of continued restrictions on trading by Robinhood and others.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock rose 1.3% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) stock climbed 1.4% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the oil giants discussed a merger last year as the oil price slumped into negative territory. The paper described the talks as preliminary, but such a deal, if it were to occur, would be one of the largest in corporate history.
Viela Bio (NASDAQ:VIE) stock soared 53% after Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HZNP), down 0.7%, announced a deal to buy its rival in a deal valued at just over $3 billion in order to gain experimental treatments for rare diseases.
Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) stock rose 9.3% after the company announced on Monday that it will redo its aborted December flight test as early as Feb. 13, even after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) downgraded its investment stance to ‘equal weight’ from ‘overweight’ after the stock’s recent sharp gains.
Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) stock rose 22%, Coeur Mining (NYSE:CDE) climbed 32% and Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) rose 14% as the silver miners benefitted from the retail surge into the metal.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock rose 3.1% after Piper Sandler (NYSE:PIPR) raised its price target to a Street high of $1,200 per share from $515 a share, citing new opportunities that will pay out over decades.
CureVac (NASDAQ:CVAC) stock rose 12% with the German drugmaker set to get help from Bayer (OTC:BAYRY) for its experimental Covid-19 vaccine in order to boost its manufacturing capacity.
- Otis Worldwide (NYSE:OTIS) stock rose 2.9% after the world’s biggest producer of escalators and elevators reported earnings and revenue ahead of estimates as well as positive guidance for 2021.