By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trading on Monday, 24th January, at a time when stock futures are pointing to a broad-based selloff at the opening. Please refresh for updates.
- Kohl's (NYSE:KSS) stock rose 33% after reports that private equity company Sycamore Partners had made an offer for the struggling department store chain. No details have been confirmed, but the news effectively kicks off a bidding war for a company that is already clearly in play after Acacia Research’s move last week.
- Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) stock fell 4.3%, finding no support amid the general risk-off mood despite reports of pressure from activist investor Blackwells Capital.
- Unilever ADRs (NYSE:UL) rose 7.3% as Trian, the investment vehicle of activist investor Nelson Peltz, was reported to have acquired a stake (of unspecified size) in the Anglo-Dutch consumer giant. Unilever’s management strategy, heavy on ESG compliance but light on shareholder returns, has increasingly attracted the attention of activists…
- Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) stock fell 3.1% even though the oilfield services company comfortably beat forecasts for its fourth-quarter earnings. It also raised its dividend to 12c a share from 4.5c, in contrast to rival Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB), which had decided against such a move last week.
- Koninklijke Philips ADRs (NYSE:PHG) fell 3.9% as its quarterly report delivered the weak earnings that it already predicted two weeks ago.
- Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) stock fell another 11% and is set to open at a new all-time low, tracking the collapse in cryptocurrencies, trade in which is its core business. MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) stock, another popular Bitcoin proxy, fell 15% and is on track to open at its lowest since December 2020.