Facebook, Acceleron Pharma, Spotify: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today

Sept. 28, 2021 6:53 am ET

Stock futures sagged as investors rotated out of interest-rate sensitive technology shares. U.S. government bond yields hit their highest level in three months. Oil prices hit three-year highs. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of the opening bell.

Tech stocks including Facebook, FB 0.18% Apple AAPL -1.05% and Amazon.com AMZN -0.58% —all sensitive to the outlook for interest rates because profits are expected to grow far into the future—fell more than 1% each in premarket trading.
Acceleron Pharma XLRN 6.69% shares gained 2.4%. Merck MRK -0.34% is in advanced talks to buy Acceleron, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would bolster the pharmaceutical giant’s rare-disease business. Merck shares were roughly flat premarket.
Spotify Technology SPOT 1.19% fell 2.1%. The music and podcast-streaming company has started its first global brand campaign to court marketers, part of an effort to expand revenues from advertising.
Occidental Petroleum, OXY 7.44% Devon Energy DVN 5.77% and Diamondback Energy FANG 7.62% were among the firms to get a boost from rising prices for oil and gas prices. Crude has been swept up in a broad rally in energy markets.
Shares of chip companies including Nvidia NVDA -1.91% and Micron Technology MU 1.53% slipped ahead of the bell. Micron is due to report earnings Tuesday. The latest threat to supply chains for semiconductors: High coal prices and efforts to curb energy consumption in China.
Entertainment giant Endeavor Group has agreed to buy an online sports-betting business from game developer Scientific Games SGMS 2.05% for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. Scientific rose 2.5% premarket.
Ford Motor F 2.76% rose 1.9%. The auto maker plans to spend $7 billion to build two battery factories in Kentucky and a third in western Tennessee—part of a collaboration with SK Innovation—as well as a factory for producing electric trucks.
Concentrix CNXC -0.76% gained 4.6% ahead of the bell. The business-services company’s quarterly profit more than doubled and revenue rose 20% from the year earlier.

The Ford Motor Mustang Mach-E electric SUV for sale at a dealership in California in June.

Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has a more-than-8% stake in Huntsman HUN 4.31% and plans to agitate for change at the chemicals producer, The Wall Street Journal reported. Huntsman shares ticked up 0.9% premarket.

Chart of the Day

Banks are on pace this year to merge at a level not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. It is a turnaround from last year, when the economy spiraled and many regional and community banks put merger plans on the shelf. Now, bank executives are feeling more certain about what the future holds, but some are finding it hard to make it on their own.

Write to Joe Wallace at [email protected]