Morning Movers: Novo Nordisk sinks after Alzheimer’s disease study results

Stock futures are modestly positive, but there remain lingering concerns around growth, tech valuations and incomplete data. Equity markets are showing tentative strength heading into the Thanksgiving holiday week, buoyed by growing hopes that Federal Reserve policy may turn more accommodative in December.

The key driver remains policy expectations. Comments from the Fed’s New York president suggesting room for a rate cut pushed odds of a December move higher, but this optimism is tempered by mixed signals as recent labor and inflation data has disappointed in places, and several Fed officials remain cautious. 

Coming up this week, the focus will shift to inflation readings, notably the producer price index and other data that could tip the balance in the Fed’s policy deliberations. Liquidity will likely be thinner than usual given the holiday and markets are braced for potentially sharper moves given the reaction-sensitivity.

From a positioning perspective, the market seems to be tentatively holding until the policy and data fog clears. There’s a sense that without a clear catalyst, rallies may lack breadth and risk appetite could be more fragile than headline numbers suggest.

In pre-market trading, S&P 500 futures rose 0.62%, Nasdaq futures rose 0.95% and Dow futures rose 0.31%.

Check out this morning’s top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. 

HIGHER –

• Green Dot (GDOT) up 12% after entering into agreements to be acquired by Smith Ventures and CommerceOne Financial 
• Tesla (TSLA) up 2% after CEO Elon Musk posted that “…we are close to taping out AI5 and are starting work on AI6”
• US Foods (USFD) up 1% after Performance Food Group (PFGC) and the company mutually agreed to terminate the previously announced information sharing process and will no longer pursue a potential business combination

UP AFTER EARNINGS –

• WeRide (WRD) up 9%
• BioLineRx (BLRX) up 1%

DOWN AFTER EARNINGS –

• Waldencast (WALD) down 10%

LOWER –

• Novo Nordisk (NVO) down 1o% after announcing top-line results from the two-year primary analysis of evoke and evoke+ phase 3 trials in early-stage symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease
• Performance Food Group (PFGC) down 4% after the company and US Foods have mutually agreed to terminate the previously announced information sharing process and will no longer pursue a potential business combination between the two companies