LUMN Lumen Technologies Inc

By Paul J. Davies 

Here's what we're watching ahead of the opening bell on Thursday.

-- U.S. stock futures are down, with the Nasdaq losing 1.2%, led lower by technology companies that reported earnings after Wednesday's close, including Apple, Tesla and Facebook.

S&P 500 futures are down 0.8%. Apple is off nearly 3% in premarket, Facebook is down 1.5% and everyone's favorite story stock, GameStop, which jumped 134% on Wednesday, is up a deeply ordinary 4% in premarket.

What's Coming Up

-- Earnings are due from Visa, Juniper Networks, Dolby Laboratories and Fair Isaac after the close.

-- Fourth-quarter GDP numbers this morning won't show the kind of huge growth seen in the third quarter when the U.S. economy was bouncing back from Covid-induced lockdowns. New weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET are expected to remain very high.

Market Movers to Watch

-- Tesla is down more than 5% in premarket trading after the trendy electric carmaker reported its first-ever full-year profit but missed expectations for how big that profit would be. The share price has still risen by almost ten times since the start of 2020.

-- Lumen Technologies seems to be one of the latest stocks to join the Reddit rollercoaster: Having shot up more than 30% in two days, it's down nearly 7% premarket. There's not much news, but there are some lemon-related gifs on Twitter.

-- ViacomCBS B shares are among the most shorted stocks in the U.S., according to Goldmans Sachs, which means investors are betting heavily that the stock price will fall. It's another stock that will be causing hedge funds pain because it has risen nearly 23% in the past three days and has doubled since August. Premarket it is down 8%.

-- More fairground fun with AMC Entertainment: up 301% on Wednesday, down 6% in premarket.

-- Bed Bath & Beyond is another stock that's part of the Reddit rally. Up by 43.5% on Wednesday, it is also down 7.4% ahead of the open Thursday.

-- Hologic, the Nasdaq-listed medical diagnostics and imaging company focused on women's health, is the big gainer in premarket trading up more than 7.5%. First quarter revenue nearly doubled, it reported at the market close on Wednesday.

Market Fact

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday notched its longest losing streak since February 2020, having fallen for five consecutive trading days, on the highest volume trading so far this year.

Chart of the Day

The man who created Reddit's WallStreetBets never imagined the community would send GameStop shares into overdrive, nearly topple a hedge fund and leave professional money managers staring at Twitter with mouths agape.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2021 07:30 ET (12:30 GMT)

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