Pre-Bell｜Wall St Futures Rise On Trade Hope; Block Up 9.1%; Verizon Up 5%; Sarepta Down 6%

Wall Street futures edged higher on Monday, buoyed by prospects of trade deals between the U.S. and its key partners, while the earnings season picked up pace with several industrial and tech firms set to report this week.

Market Snapshot

Futures tracking the S&P 500 rose 14 points, or 0.22% at 8 a.m. ET, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis climbed 54 points, or 0.23%, hovering near all-time highs hit last week. Dow e-minis rose 104 points, or 0.23%.

Pre-Market Movers

Sarepta Therapeutics was down 6% in premarket trading after tumbling 36% on Friday. The company issued a statement late Friday after stock markets closed that said it would "continue to ship Elevidys to the ambulant population," following a request from the Food and Drug Administration to stop shipments of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy. Sarepta said there was "no new data to suggest it is dangerous to the patient population currently using it." Two patients died earlier this year after taking the drug, and Sarepta already had paused shipments of Elevidys to a subset of patients with more advanced disease. Early Friday, CEO Doug Ingram acknowledged he hadn't disclosed the recent death of a patient in a trial of a different gene therapy while rolling out a major restructuring late Wednesday that included staff cuts and a trimming of its pipeline.

Block, Inc. was rising 9.1% after it was announced Friday that the financial technology company formerly known as Square would be joining the S&P 500 before the start of trading Wednesday. Block will replace Hess following Chevron's purchase of the energy company on Friday. Robinhood Markets and AppLovin, both prime candidates for admission into the benchmark index, were up 0.4% and down 0.4%, respectively, in premarket trading.

Tesla gained 1.5% in premarket trading. CEO Elon Musk issued a tweet Saturday that he was, "Back to working 7 days a week and sleeping in the office if my little kids are away," which will come as good news to investors in the electric-vehicle maker with Tesla set to report quarterly earnings Wednesday and the stock down 18% this year. Wall Street expects Tesla to earn 43 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the second quarter, down from 53 cents a year earlier.

Domino's Pizza rose 3%. The pizza chain reported second-quarter earnings of $131.1 million, or $3.81 a share, compared with $142 million, or $4.03 a share, a year earlier. Analysts expected profit of $3.95 a share. The company said the quarter included a $27.4 million charge associated with the company's investment in DPC Dash. Revenue at Domino's rose 4.3% to $1.15 billion and U.S. same-store sales jumped 3.4%.

Shares of cleveland-cliffs were up 5% after the steel maker posted an adjusted loss of 50 cents a share in the second quarter, narrower than the loss of 63 cents expected by analysts. Revenue of $4.9 billion matched expectations.

Jeep maker Stellantis NV fell 0.3% after swinging to a loss in the first half of the year. Stellantis said earnings included a hit of about $350 million from U.S. tariffs as well as loss of planned production.

Alaska Air was up 1%. The carrier temporarily grounded its fleet late Sunday following an IT outage. Alaska didn't specify the cause of the disruptions. The rounding appeared to have minimal impact and has since been resolved.

Verizon Communications was up 5% in premarket trading ahead of second-quarter earnings from the telecommunications giant. Analysts expect Verizon to post adjusted profit of $1.19 a share on revenue of $33.72 billion.

Market News

EU to ramp up retaliation plans as US tariff deal prospects dim

The European Union is exploring a broader set of possible counter-measures against the United States as prospects for an acceptable trade agreement with Washington fade, according to EU diplomats.

An increasing number of EU members, including Germany, are now considering using wide-ranging "anti-coercion" measures which would let the bloc target U.S. services and other sectors in the absence of a deal, diplomats say.

Figma aims at $13.7 billion valuation as tech IPOs bounce back

Figma is targeting a valuation of $13.65 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, as the cloud-based design software firm prepares for a debut that could inject fresh momentum into a tech listings market already roaring back to life.

The San Francisco-based company, along with some investors, is eyeing proceeds of up to $1.03 billion through a sale of nearly 37 million shares priced between $25 and $28 each, it said on Monday.