Investing

Friday's 10 Premarket Winners and Losers Include Etsy, Moderna and Nike

Paul Ausick

Published: February 25, 2022 8:14 am

The three major U.S. equities indexes closed higher on Thursday. Equities had traded lower by more than 2% in the premarket. By the end of the day, the major indexes managed to higher, as investors went on a buy-the-dip spree. The Dow Jones industrials closed up 0.3%, after falling to down 2.6% earlier in the day. The S&P 500 closed up 1.5%, after posting a similar intraday low, and the Nasdaq closed up 3.3%, after being down 3.5% earlier.

Among S&P 500 stocks, winners outnumbered losers by 319 to 185 in Thursday trading. Seven of 11 sectors closed higher, with the biggest increases coming in technology (up 3.4%), communications services (up 2.8%) and consumer cyclicals (up 2.3%%). Consumer staples posted the biggest decline (down 1.7%), with financials showing the second-largest decline (down 1.2%). Looking just at the mega-caps in the S&P 500, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla all posted gains of at least 4%.

The sanctions against Russia that President Biden announced Thursday afternoon limited certain Russian exports (but not oil and gas) and put limits on Russia’s ability to do business in U.S. dollars. However, the sanctions did not exclude Russia from the Swift financial system that processes some 5 billion bank-to-bank transactions every day.

At around 7:00 a.m. ET Thursday morning, S&P 500 futures traded down by about 0.74%, the Nasdaq was down about 0.58% and the Dow traded 0.79% lower.

Crude oil settled at $92.81 a barrel on Thursday (up $0.71 for the day), after trading up by more than 8% in early morning trading. The 10-year Treasury note settled at 1.97% and the two-year at 1.54% on Thursday. The yield curve widened to 0.42 by the end of the day, up by just one basis point. The spread had narrowed to around 0.38 in early trading Friday.

Here are the five S&P 500 stocks that closed with the largest gains on Thursday: Enphase Energy (up 16.43%), Moderna (15.10%), SolarEdge (14.86%), Fortinet (11.23%) and Generac (11.20%).

Thursday’s biggest losers among S&P 500 stocks were Epam Systems (down 8.60%), Bookings (7.08%), NetApp (5.71%), Philip Morris (5.34%) and Altria (4.58%).

Here are Friday’s premarket leaders and laggards. Not all are S&P 500 stocks.

Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) traded up by about 17.1%, at $150.11 in a 52-week range of $109.38 to $307.75. The e-commerce company beat estimates for fourth-quarter earnings and revenues.

Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) traded up 2.5%, at $46.50 in a 52-week range of $28.05 to $48.11. Analysts at Berenberg downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold on Thursday and maintained a $50 price target. That cannot overcome current market bullishness on fertilizer stocks.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) traded up 3.5%, at $30.49 in a 52-week range of $25.84 to $47.05. J.P. Morgan Securities raised its rating on the stock from Underweight to Overweight Friday morning and lowered the price target from $42 to $40.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) traded up about 1.5%, at $106.55 in a 52-week range of $94.50 to $310.16. On Wednesday, board member Frank Yeary filed a statement with the SEC revealing a purchase of 4,500 shares of PayPal stock at a market price of $103.96.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) traded up about 1.1%, at $81.25 in a 52-week range of $76.37 to $99.89. The company reported results that missed on profits but beat on sales. In its outlook for the current quarter, the company said that it continues to have supply chain issues but that it thinks that some of the higher costs are transitory.

Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) traded down about 3.6%, at $108.99 in a 52-week range of $100.60 to $182.00. The company had no specific news.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) traded down by about 2.6%, at $220.00 in a 52-week range of $133.73 to $240.97. The energy producer is giving back some of its gains from earlier in the week.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) traded down about 1.4%, at $135.20 in a 52-week range of $125.44 to $1790.10. The company had no specific news.

Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) traded down about 1.3%, at $154.15 in a 52-week range of $117.34 to $497.49. The stock added more than 15% on Thursday after the company said that it expects COVID-19 to reach an endemic stage this year, lifting vaccine sales in the second half of the year.

Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) traded down about 1.3%, at $57.98 in a 52-week range of $52.07 to $71.38. The company had no specific news.