U.S. stocks set to open lower
Wall Street stock futures weakened in early trade on Thursday as market participants braced for the weekly jobless claims report from the U.S. Labor Department.
The report, to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show that an additional 2.4 million claims were filed in the week ending May 16, according to Bloomberg News.
More than 36 million Americans have filed jobless claims over the past two months as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to cause widespread economic damage on the labor market.
By 5:40 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures dropped 159.5 points, or 0.65% to 24,359.5. S&P 500 futures fell 19.75 points, or 0.67% to 2,948.75 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 50.38 points, or 0.53% to 9,435.12.
Aurora Cannabis shares rocket after entering U.S. market with Reliva acquisition
Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) stock rose in premarket trade Thursday after the company announced plans to acquire U.S.-based CBD platform Reliva.
The all-stock deal, valued at about $40 million, is expected to close in June. According to Aurora, the deal marks the culmination of a “multi-month strategic evaluation” of the U.S. CBD industry.
Reliva’s management team will stay with the firm, with current chief executive Miguel Martin taking the role of president of Aurora USA. As of writing, Aurora shares gained 34.82% to $17.19 each in premarket trading session.
Nvidia to report earnings after the bell
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is set to report its first-quarter earnings after the closing bell today revealing the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the chipmaker. Analysts are anticipating earnings per share of $1.66 on revenue of $2.97 billion, based on FactSet consensus estimates.
Data Center revenue is expected to come in at $1.05 billion, based on FactSet estimates. Revenue from the company’s Gaming segment is expected to have grown 23% to $1.3 billion in the quarter.
However, it is difficult to compare reported earnings to Wall Street estimates for Nvidia’s Q1, as the pandemic continues to hurt global economies and make earnings impact difficult to evaluate.
Other notable earnings to watch today include Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), TJX (NYSE: TJX), Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU).
