By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, August 31st. Please refresh for updates.
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock was up 1.0% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock was up 0.8% after the two companies prepared to start trading for the first time since their respective splits. The splits were intended to make it easier for small investors to buy the stock.
- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock was down 2.0% and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) stock was down 2.8% after China introduced new restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence software, complicating U.S. plans to force video-streaming app TikTok to a U.S. buyer. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock was down 2.5%, having risen sharply on reports that it would partner Microsoft in buying TikTok’s U.S. assets.
- AT&T (NYSE:T) stock was up 1.1% after The Wall Street Journal reported that it’s in early talks around what could end up being the sale of its underperforming DirecTV unit. Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH), a DirecTV competitor, was up 5.8% at a six-week high on the same story.
- Koninklijke Philips ADRs (NYSE:PHG) were down 2.1% at a six-week low after the company said the U.S. government had cancelled a contract to buy over 43,000 of its medical ventilators, citing the reduced need to add further to the national stockpile. The company has delivered some 12,000 units since signing the contract in April.
- General Electric (NYSE:GE) stock was down 1.2% after JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) analyst Stephen Tusa suspended his price target for the stock, citing the lack of transparency in the current outlook. Tusa’s latest report put the fair value of the stock at less than $5, implying at least 25% downside from the current price.
- Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) stock was up 2.0%, after Citigroup (NYSE:C) analysts upgraded it to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’ on valuation grounds. The stock is still nearly 50% below its peak price in 2019, but has essentially gone sideways since May.
- GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock was up 11.3% at its highest in nearly three months after RC Ventures announced it has built a stake of some 9% in the video game retailer.