Pre-Bell｜Stock Futures Fall. USA Rare Earth Drops 8%; Bitfarms Sinks 7%; Novo Nordisk, Lilly Fall About 4% Each; Oracle Slides 2.6%

U.S. stock index futures slumped on Friday as mounting concerns over risks and deteriorating credit quality triggered a selloff in regional banks, further weakening investor confidence strained by U.S.-China trade tensions and a government shutdown.

Market Snapshot

At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 50 points, or 0.11%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 21 points, or 0.31%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 127.5 points, or 0.51%.

Pre-Market Movers

Zions Bancorp rose 2.7% after a 13% drop Thursday. The regional bank said late Wednesday it recently became aware of "legal actions initiated by several banks and other lenders" against parties affiliated with two of its commercial and industrial borrowers. The bank said it was taking a $50 million charge-off as part of a $60 million provision related to the loans.

Regional bank peer Western Alliance Bancorp. jumped 1.5%, extending losses after closing down 11% on Thursday. The bank said it filed a lawsuit in August against one of its borrowers, alleging the company committed fraud.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk fell 3.8% after President Donald Trump suggested the price of its blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy could be reduced to $150 a month. The current list price for the medicines is around $1,000. Trump's comments came amid a wider push for lower medicine prices for Americans. Shares of Eli Lilly, which makes rival drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, fell 3.8% in premarket trading.

Rare earth stocks sank in premarket trading. UAMY, USA Rare Earth down 8%; The Metals down 7%; Critical Metals down 6%.

American Express rose 1% after the credit-card giant reported third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates as revenue rose 11% to $18.43 billion, topping forecasts of $18.05 billion. Amex also raised the lower end of its full-year guidance range on profit and revenue.

Oracle fell 2.5% after shares of the enterprise software company closed up 3.1% in the previous session. The move higher Thursday followed the stock whipsawing throughout the trading session as Oracle discussed the outlook for the next five years and weighed in on cloud margins. Following a report by the Information last week saying that profit margins at Oracle's cloud server-rental business were surprisingly low, the company attributed the low number to the rapid expansion of data-center expenses before customer contracts go live.

AST SpaceMobile declined 5.4% to $84.63 after shares of the satellite operator were downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Barclays. The analysts left their price target unchanged at $60. While direct-to-cellular will prove to be a "very attractive opportunity" and AST SpaceMobile has key assets to succeed, the stock's valuation "has become excessive," the analyst said in a research note, the Fly reported.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise extended losses in premarket trading, falling 1.7%. Shares closed down 10% Thursday. The move lower came after the server and cloud company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for fiscal 2026.

Market News

White House's Hassett on Credit Markets: Optimistic We Can Stay Ahead of Curve

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that banks have ample reserves and that he was optimistic that credit markets could stay ahead of the curve.

Markets should realize there is a new administration in the United States, Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

HSBC Expects Gold's 'Bull Wave' to Hit $5,000/Oz in 2026

HSBC on Friday forecast that gold's bull rally would drive prices as high as $5,000 an ounce in 2026, supported by elevated risks and the impact of new entrants into the market.

Spot gold breached the $4,300 level on Thursday and was headed for its strongest week since December 2008.