Pre-Bell｜US Stock Futures Steady As Middle East Tensions Cool; Quantumscape Soared 40%

U.S. stock futures were flat on Wednesday, as a ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding and investors awaited more comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Market Snapshot

At 08:26 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 4 points, or 0.01%, and S&P 500 stock futures were up 0.15%. Nasdaq100 E-minis were up 79.5 points, or 0.35%.

Pre-Market Movers

Quantumscape Corp. soared 40% after the solid-state battery start-up said it successfully integrated its advanced Cobra separator process into baseline cell production, in what the company called "a major milestone in the scale-up of its production capabilities." CEO Siva Sivaram said, "By significantly improving throughput and shrinking the equipment footprint, Cobra gives us a powerful path forward for commercializing our next-generation battery technology."

FedEx reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.07 share and revenue of $22.2 billion that beat Wall Street forecasts. But the shipping giant was down 5.7% after saying it expects first-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.40 to $4 a share versus estimates of $4.05, and revenue in the period to be flat or increase up to 2% compared with analysts' projections that called for revenue to increase about 0.6%. FedEx didn't provide fiscal-year profit guidance as it usually does.

BlackBerry was rising 8.8% after the cybersecurity company boosted its fiscal-year sales guidance after swinging to a profit in the first quarter and reporting better-than-expected revenue.

Worthington Enterprises jumped 11% after the maker of building and consumer products reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that were better than analysts' forecasts.

Coinbase Global was up 2.9% in premarket trading after the cryptocurrency exchange closed up 12% on Tuesday, finishing as the best stock in the S&P 500 in the session. Analysts at Benchmark Capital on Monday raised their price target on the stock to $421 from $301 earlier this week, highlighting Senate passage of a bill to regulate stablecoins called the Genius Act. Stablecoins are a "major segment of the company's business," Benchmark said.

Nvidia rose 0.7% to $148.93. Shares of the chip maker were close to their record high from January of $149.43. Analysts at Loop Capital on Wednesday raised their price target on shares of the leading maker of artificial-intelligence chips to $250 from $175 and kept a Buy rating on the stock.

Micron Technology slipped in premarket trading ahead of fiscal third-quarter earnings from the memory-chip maker. Micron makes memory and storage solutions, including high-bandwidth memory for artificial intelligence. The demand for high-bandwidth memory has been growing as the need to power AI data centers by hyperscalers has grown. Coming into Wednesday, Micron shares have risen 52% this year.

Market News

Fed kicks off effort to ease bank leverage rules

The Federal Reserve meets on Wednesday to advance a proposal that would ease leverage rules for banks, which would grant the industry a long-sought win they say will help big firms facilitate Treasury market trading.

The central bank's Washington board will consider a plan to revamp the so-called supplementary leverage ratio (SLR), which directs banks to hold capital against assets regardless of their risk level.

US exchanges, SEC in talks to ease public company regulations

U.S. exchange operators are in talks with the Securities and Exchanges Commission on easing regulatory burdens for public companies, as they seek to encourage more richly valued startups to list, according to four people familiar with the matter.

These deliberations, the details of which are reported here for the first time, involve the SEC, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. The reforms under discussion range from reducing the quantum of disclosures and the costs of going public to making it harder for minority investors to agitate, the sources said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.