S&P futures are up 0.2% in Thursday morning trading. US equities were mostly lower in Wednesday trading, extending Tuesday's declines.
Oil up, gold up and Bitcoin (BTC) down.
Here are some of today's trending stocks:
CF Acquisition Corp VI (NASDAQ: CFVI)
CF Acquisition Corp VI (NASDAQ: CFVI) is once again trending. This is the SPAC poised to take YouTube competitor Rumble public.
CFVI stock rose 2.7% in yesterday's session but is down slightly pre-market. Rumble announced yesterday that it enjoyed record-high monthly active users in March, hitting 44.3 million. This helped take its Q1 MAU's 22% higher than in Q4 2021.
Another reason Rumble and CFVI stock are generating interest is on the back of its association with former President Donald Trump.
Rumble recently announced a deal with Trump's social media company and platform Truth Social.
Trump's media company is also going public through a SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: DWAC).
HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ)
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A |NYSE: BRK.B) disclosed a $4.2bn stake in HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ), leading HP shares to rise over 14% in pre-market trading.
The disclosure late last night signals that Buffett is once again ready to pounce on value after largely sitting out the chaos of the pandemic rally.
The owner of insurer Geico, BNSF Railway and the Dairy Queen has been growing its cash pile, ready to make sizeable investments. Therefore, the HP deal will be welcome news to many of Buffett's long-term fans.
Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA)
Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) fell in yesterday's session amid news a US banking consortium may move to ensure Zelle is a checkout option at big retailers.
The banking group includes JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Capital One (NYSE: COF) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). Together they own Earning Warning Services, which owns the digital payment network Zelle.
Visa and Mastercard are already embroiled in a class-action lawsuit alleging they charge fees up to six times the maximum level on corporate credit cards.
Zelle is owned by Earning Warning Services, which is in turn owned by seven of the largest US banks.
Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK)
Eyes are on medical technology firm Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK) as its debt pile comes under the spotlight. Spruce Point Capital released a short report on Stryker Corp yesterday, causing the share price to dip, but it soon rebounded.
Shares of Stryker Corporation (SYK) closed the session down -0.11%. Over the past year, Stryker Corporation (SYK) has traded between $236.09 and $281.16. Today it sits around $268.
Spruce Point Capital's report stressed the company has $16.4bn of debt and only $1.5bn in available cash. It also highlighted supply chain disruption, issues with inventory management and delaying bad news. It also accused Stryker of trying to recruit analysts to rate its stock a Buy. The company is currently valued at $101bn.
The report stated:
We believe Stryker left investors flat-footed when the pandemic hit by not warning investors that its true exposure to elective procedures was 50% of sales. Things got so bad for Stryker, that we find evidence it went delinquent on paying property taxes at its global headquarters,
Erytech Pharma (NASDAQ: ERYP)
Biotech stock Erytech Pharma (NASDAQ: ERYP) is trending today. After a positive phase II trial announcement, the ERYP share price is up over 21% in pre-market trading.
The company develops therapies inside red blood cells, and now the results of this Phase II trial of its drug eryaspase have now been published in the British Journal of Haematology. End points of the trial were met.
The drug is intended to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of blood and bone marrow cancer.
Of the 55 patients in the trial, two experienced severe allergic reactions and withdrew from treatment.
Over the past year, Erytech Pharma SA (ERYP) has traded between $1.27 and $9.50.
