Wall Street stocks seen opening lower
U.S. stock markets look likely to open with losses on Friday, after fluctuating wildly in the previous session, following a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the blue-chip Dow dipped 187 points, or 0.56% to 32,969. S&P 500 futures fell 24 points, or 0.56% to 4,260 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gave away 59.5 points, or 0.43% to 13,907.
On Thursday, the Dow ended 92.07 points, or 0.28% higher in a dramatic reversal as President Joe Biden announced new harsh sanctions targeting Russian elites, banks and state-owned enterprises.
The S&P 500 finished 63.2 points, or 1.50% to 4,288.70 while the Nasdaq Composite closed with a gain of 436.1 points, or 3.34% to 13,473.58.
KAR Auction surges 60% after selling its Adesa U.S. subsidiary to Carvana
Shares of KAR Auction Services (NYSE: KAR) skyrocketed before the opening bell on Friday, after announcing that it is selling its ADESA U.S. physical auction business to used-car seller Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) for $2.2 billion in cash.
The deal, which was announced on Thursday, includes exclusive use of the ADESA.com marketplace in the U.S. and all auction sales, operations and staff at 56 ADESA U.S.
As of writing, KAR stock was up $8.31, or 60.7% to $22 per share in the premarket trading session.
Shares of Carvana, which also posted a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, fell 3.17% to $122.05 apiece.
Etsy posts strong Q4 results, stock soars 17%
Meanwhile, Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) moved higher in premarket trade as traders digested its fourth-quarter financial results that topped Wall Street expectations.
The online retailer said late Thursday that it had earnings of $1.11 per share and revenue of $717 million in the holiday quarter. On average, analysts polled by Refinitiv expected Etsy to post earnings of 79 cents and revenue of $685 million.
For the current quarter, Etsy expects revenue of between $565 million and $590 million, above analysts’ forecast for revenue of $630 million.
Shares of the company were indicated $21.96, or 17.13% to $50.12 apiece before the opening bell.
SEC reportedly probing Elon Musk and his brother for potential insider trading violations
In other news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating recent trading activity by Tesla (NYSE: TSLA) chief executive Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, that SEC officials are looking into the whether the Musk brothers breached insider trading rules.
According, the probe reportedly started last year around the time Elon held a Twitter poll asking his followers if he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla. Kimbal offloaded more than $100 million in the electric carmaker shares around the same time.
Elon sold his stake in order to help settle a tax obligation that was tied to options being exercised.
