By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Friday, June 24. Please refresh for updates.
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) stock rose 2.6% after the delivery giant reported higher quarterly earnings and issued a stronger-than-expected full-year forecast late Thursday, after it cherry-picked profit-boosting deliveries amid softening global demand for shipping.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock rose 1% after the streaming giant announced it had laid off 300 employees, or about 4% of its workforce, in the second round of job cuts aimed at lowering costs.
Seagen (NASDAQ:SGEN) stock rose 3.5% after the Wall Street Journal reported that pharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE:MRK), up 0.1%, is pushing forward with a deal for the biotech, in what would be one of the largest takeovers of the year.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock rose 1% after Citigroup calls the software giant a “top pick”, saying the worst of the selloff in the sector is over.
Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ:SWBI) stock fell 1.5% after the gun manufacturer’s fourth-quarter report showed a drop in annual revenue. The stock had posted sharp gains during the previous session after the U.S. Supreme Court established the right to carry firearms in New York, potentially a large market for the gun manufacturer.
Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) stock fell 1.8% after the Food and Drug Administration suspended testing of the biotech’s experimental muscular dystrophy on the back of an adverse reaction in clinical testing.
Sunoco (NYSE:SUN) stock rose 2.8% after Mizuho upgraded its stance on the energy company to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, citing the company’s strong balance sheet.