Stock futures slump
U.S. stock futures were mostly lower Friday, one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 500 points following a worse-than-expected inflation report.
The Labor Department said that the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose at a 7.5% annual pace in January, the highest level since 1982. The report fueled speculation the Federal Reserve could act more aggressively than expected to hike interest rates in order to combat inflation.
At the close on Thursday, the Dow gave away 1.4%, over 500 points, the S&P 500 shed 1.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 2.1%.
As of writing, futures tied to the Dow tumbled 140 points, or 0.4% to 34,999. S&P 500 futures dropped 23.5 points, or 0.52% to 4,474 while the Nasdaq 100 futures were down 104.5 points, or 0.71% to 14,596.
Zillow shares soar on fast iBuying exit
Meanwhile, Zillow (NASDAQ: ZG) was trading higher in premarket trade Friday after the company disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings report that has made “significant progress” in its efforts to wind down its iBuying business.
Zillow said late Thursday that the “wind-down process is running smoothly and efficiently” and the company is “selling homes faster than we anticipated at better unit economics than we projected.”
For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net loss of $261 million, or $1.03 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates for a loss of 90 cents a share. Revenue came in at $3.9 billion, also beating expectations.
As of writing, Zillow stock was up $6.49, or 13.56% to $54.35 a share.
Zendesk rejects $16 billion takeover bid from private equity firms
Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) has turned down a takeover bid from a consortium of private equity firms for as much $16 billion.
The software company said Thursday that it rejected an unsolicited and non-binding proposal from several private equity firms in an all-cash deal valued at between $127 to $132 per share.
The proposal “significantly undervalues the company and is not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” the San Francisco, California-based company said in a statement.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Zendesk is facing pressure from activist investor Jana Partners to scrap its proposed takeover of SurveyMonkey parent company Momentiv (NASDAQ: MNTV).
Shares of Zendesk rallied 10.7% on Thursday to end the session at $114.18 apiece.
