Walmart, Cisco, Deere, Ulta Beauty rise premarket; Alibaba falls

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures traded slightly higher Thursday, ahead of the release of retail sales data with investors optimistic of the possibility of an interest rate cut in September.

Here are some of the biggest premarket U.S. stock movers today

• Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock rose 6.6% after the retail behemoth reported strong second-quarter growth, driven by robust eCommerce growth and improved margins.
• Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) stock rose 5.9% after the networking equipment giant reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and announced a restructuring plan, including substantial job losses.
• Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) stock soared 13% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) reported a new stake in the cosmetics company, signaling an interest in the sector.
• Nike (NYSE:NKE) stock gained 4.3% after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square (NYSE:SQ) revealed a position in the sports footwear retailer, with the stake, comprising approximately 3 million shares, valued at around $229 million at the end of the second quarter.
• Deere (NYSE:DE) stock rose 2.7% after the agricultural equipment manufacturer maintained its annual profit outlook, signaling a resilient market for its tractors and other farm equipment.
• JD (NASDAQ:JD) stock rose 3.4% after the Chinese e-commerce giant beat estimates for quarterly profit, helped by a mid-year sales festival and aggressive price cuts that drove more cost-sensitive consumers to its platform.
• Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) stock fell 3.3% after the Chinese e-commerce company missed expectations for first-quarter revenue, as its e-commerce sales came under pressure from cautious spending by Chinese consumers in a faltering economy.
• Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) stock fell 0.2% after the cryptocurrency mining company announced it has purchased $249 million worth of Bitcoin.