U.S. stock futures rallied in Tuesday’s pre-market trading session after the Trump administration said it is making federal resources available for Biden’s transition into office. Indicating a 330-point gain at the opening bell, Dow Jones futures jumped 1.1%. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 surged 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively.
Shares of Boeing popped 3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after Alaska Air said it will lease 13 new Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft from Air Lease Corporation. This development comes after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the flying ban on the Max aircraft last week, with the planes set to be delivered from the fourth quarter of 2021 through 2022. Merrill Lynch analyst Ronald Epstein recently bumped up BA’s price target but reiterated a Hold rating, saying that the FAA’s lifting order is “a major milestone towards the MAX flying once more, which significantly reduces risk to Boeing’s equity.”
Meanwhile, BlackRock has reached an agreement to buy Aperio from private equity firm Golden Gate Capital and Aperio employees in an all-cash deal worth $1.05 billion. According to BlackRock, the tie-up with Aperio, a company that provides personalized index equity solutions and customizes tax-optimized index equity separately managed accounts (SMAs) and boasts $36 billion of assets under management, could increase its SMAs by about 30% to over $160 billion. “The wealth manager’s portfolio of the future will be powered by the twin engines of better after-tax performance and hyper-personalization. BlackRock and Aperio, working together, will bring unmatched capabilities to meet these objectives,” head of BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory business, Martin Small, commented.
In other news, Snap launched a new feature called Spotlight within the Snapchat app that lets users share short videos, with shares up 1.6% in Tuesday’s pre-market trading session in response. Snapchat users can now win over $1 million every day if their videos top the Spotlight platform. “We view it as a thoughtful adaptation of a TikTok-style destination for content that could reenergize public content creation on Snapchat and create valuable incremental ad opportunities,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst John Egbert noted.
As for earnings updates, Urban Outfitters blew Q3 expectations out of the water despite the impact of COVID-19 on retailers. The company reported EPS of $0.78, surpassing the $0.44 consensus estimate, with it also beating on the top line thanks to gains in the Urban Outfitters and Free People brands. That said, weakness in the Anthropologie Group and Menus & Venues brands weighed on sales.
Nutanix surged almost 9% in after-hours trading on Monday after it posted a Q1 loss that was lower-than-expected. The adjusted loss of $0.44 per share came in ahead of the analysts’ forecast of a loss of $0.57 and the prior-year quarter’s loss of $0.71. However, according to management, the top line was “negatively impacted by a year-over-year decline in average contract term associated with the ongoing transition to a subscription-based business model.”
Monmouth, on the other hand, reported Q4 results that missed the mark. Adjusted funds from operation (AFFO) fell 9.5% year-over-year to $0.19 and missed the $0.21 consensus estimate. The company said it witnessed a drop in dividend income from securities investments and an increase in preferred dividend expenses, and in reaction, shares ticked down in Monday’s after-hours trading. Following the earnings release, BMO Capital analyst Frank Lee said, “FY20 highlighted MNR’s resilient portfolio as collections/occupancy remained near 100% throughout the pandemic. FY21 is off to a good start with notable progress made on upcoming expirations while three new BTS (Built-to-Suit) properties were added, bringing the total pipeline to $338m. We think additional leasing and execution on the deal front to help reduce leverage remain key catalysts for the stock.”
