By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, July 20th. Please refresh for updates.
- Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) stock rose 5.4% after the oil and gas services company reported a surprise profit of 5 cents a share, after adjusting for a $2.1 billion impairment charge. Second-quarter revenue fell 46% on the year, however, as the number of drilling rigs contracted by U.S. companies plummeted to decade-lows.
- Chevron (NYSE:CVX) stock fell 0.2% after the oil giant confirmed plans to buy Noble Energy (NASDAQ:NBL), whose stock rose over 10%, in an all-stock transaction valued at $5 billion,]. That's the largest deal in the sector since the coronavirus pandemic erupted.
- Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) stock fell 0.8% after the Wall Street Journal reported that Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), one of the biggest ad spenders, has become the latest company to slash its advertising spending on the social media giant over its handling of hate speech and controversial content.
- Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY) stock rose 1.8% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the e-commerce giant is in advanced talks to sell its classified-ads unit to Norwegian group Adevinta in a move to refocus on its core marketplace business.
- Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock rose 0.2%, after the retail colossus said it will require customers to wear face coverings at all of its stores, making it the largest retailer to introduce the controversial policy.
- Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock rose 1.9% despite JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) downgrading its investment stance on the biotech company to neutral from overweight, largely on valuation. The stock is up 386% year to date.
- AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) ADR rose 1.3% with the U.K.-based pharmaceutical set Monday to publish in the medical journal The Lancet the results of the latest trial of its experimental drug being developed in conjunction with Oxford University.
- Denbury Resources (NYSE:DNR) stock rose over 46% after a press report emerged that the company was subject to a buyout offer. However, Denbury's CEO said on Bloomberg that his company did not put out the press release about the buyout offer, and that it appears to be "completely fraudulent."