Stock futures edge higher; Rivian IPO, Elon Musk, Disney, and more

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Wall Street

Markets expected to open higher

Wall Street looks likely to open with slight gains on Thursday, as market participants attempt to shrug off inflation concerns.

As of 5:45 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow advanced 43 points, or 0.12% to 36,035. S&P 500 futures added 15 points, or 0.32% to 4,657 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 86.75 points, or 0.54% to 16,067.25.

On Wednesday, the Dow lost 240.04 points, or 0.66%% to finish at 36,079.94 after government data showed that U.S. consumer prices climbed 6.2% in October compared with a year ago. That was the biggest annual inflation increase in about 30 years.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, jumped 4.6% for the month. The rise in inflation was driven by ongoing supply chain issues and surging energy prices, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite gave away 38.54 points and 263.84 points, respectively.

Elon Musk offloads about $5 billion worth of Tesla shares

Elon Musk has sold about $5 billion worth of Tesla stock to cover tax obligations, according to regulatory filings made by the billionaire on Wednesday.

The Tesla CEO exercised options to acquire around 2.2 million shares in the electric-car maker and then offloaded about 4.5 million shares in recent days.

Musk sold the shares shortly after holding a poll a Twitter poll over whether he should offload 10% of his huge stake in Tesla.

However, the filings didn’t make clear whether the poll had any effect on his decision to make some or all of the transactions, or whether he will continue offloading until he has met the 10% threshold.

Tesla stock jumped 4.34% to close Wednesday’s session at $1,067.95. The stock was up $28.05, or 2.63% to $1,096 per share in the pre-market trading session Thursday.

Rivian soars 29% in its first day of trading

Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) soared by 29% on Wednesday as it became the latest unprofitable company to make its stock-market debut.

Shares, which trade under the ticker RIVN, opened at around $106 apiece after pricing at $78. That was up from a prior range of $72 to $74, which had been raised from $57 to $62.

The stock first rose as much as 50% before climbing to a high of $116 per share. Shares closed the day at $100.73.

Rivian issued 153 million shares, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The offering raised about $11.9 billion and gave the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)-backed company a valuation of almost $88 billion.

Disney slides as earnings disappoint

Meanwhile, Disney (NYSE: DIS) shares are under pressure after the company posted lower-than-forecast Q4 earnings late Wednesday.

Disney reported adjusted earnings of 37 per share, well below analysts’ expectations of 51 cents. Revenue stood at $18.53 billion, slightly missing estimates of $18.79 billion.

Despite the downbeat results, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during the company’s earnings call that the company still expects to meet its previously-announced target of having 230-260 million global paid Disney Plus subscribers by 2024.

Disney also expects the streaming service to post its first profit in 2024.

Shares of the entertainment giant were down 5.10% to $165.70 in the pre-market trading session.

 

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