Pre-Bell｜Wall St Futures Edged Down; Beyond Meat Surged 75%; Intuitive Surgical Soared 17%; Vertiv Up 7%; Netflix And TI Down 7%

U.S. stock index futures edged down on Wednesday, as investors treaded carefully through the thick of earnings season, with Netflix's weak profit pressuring market sentiment.

Market Snapshot

At 07:45 a.m., Dow E-minis were down 40 points, or 0.08%, Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 79 points, or 0.31%, and S&P 500 E-minis were down 5.5 points, or 0.08%.

Pre-Market Movers

Beyond Meat, Inc. shares surged 75% in premarket trading Wednesday. The rally may have been powered by bearish traders covering their bets against Beyond Meat and the company's announcement of increased availability of its products at Walmart Inc.'s stores.

Netflix dropped 7% after the streaming giant reported third-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates. Netflix posted adjusted earnings of $5.87 a share, below expectations of $6.96, blaming an unexpected tax dispute in Brazil. Revenue of $11.5 billion matched expectations. Netflix said it had its best-ever quarter for ad sales and was on track to more than double revenue from that business in 2025.

Texas Instruments declined 7.6% after the semiconductor company issued a disappointing earnings forecast for the fourth quarter. Texas Instruments said it expects profit in the period of between $1.13 and $1.39 a share, which at the midpoint was below Wall Street consensus of $1.41. For the third quarter, Texas Instruments' adjusted earnings of $1.48 a share missed consensus by 1 cent. Revenue of $4.74 billion topped expectations of $4.65 billion.

Heading into its third-quarter earnings report, Tesla shares edged up 0.2% in premarket trading. Wall Street analysts expect the electric-vehicle maker to report adjusted earnings of 56 cents a share on sales of $27.3 billion. Tesla has gained 9.6% this year coming into Wednesday, trailing the benchmark S&P 500 index.

Wireless carrier AT&T Inc said more customers than Wall Street expected had switched to its cellphone plans over the third quarter, boosting the stock 2% in premarket trading. AT&T's earnings and revenue for the quarter were in line with analysts' estimates.

Vertiv Holdings LLC rose 7% after the technology infrastructure company posted third-quarter adjusted earnings that beat analysts' forecasts and raised its full-year earnings expectations.

Intuitive Surgical soared 17% after the maker of robotic surgery systems posted third-quarter earnings that topped analysts' estimates. The company also said it expects growth of its da Vinci robotic surgical system of between 17% and 17.5% this year, higher than its prior forecast for growth between 15.5% and 17%.

Mattel fell 6.4% after the toymaker's third-quarter earnings and revenue fell short of expectations. North America sales declined 12% from last year, weighing on total sales, which fell 6%. CEO Ynon Kreiz said Mattel's U.S. business "was challenged in the third quarter by industry-wide shifts in retailer ordering patterns."

Newmont Mining fell 4% after the gold miner tumbled 9% on Tuesday, the largest daily percentage decrease in about a year, as gold prices sank. Front-month Comex gold for October delivery declined 5.7% to $4,087.70 on Tuesday, the precious metal's steepest one-day percentage decline since June 2013, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Gold futures were trading at $4,055 an ounce, down 1.3%, on Wednesday.

Shares of General Motors gained 0.5% after rising 15% on Tuesday to close at record high of $66.62, bringing gains this year to 25%. The move came after the auto maker posted third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' predictions. GM's earnings also lifted rival Ford Motor, which finished up 4.8% on Tuesday.

DraftKings Inc. rose 4% after the sports-betting site acquired prediction markets company Railbird Technologies and said it plans a mobile app that will allow users to trade contracts on the outcomes of events in finance, culture and entertainment.

Market News

Uber, Nebius to Invest Up to $375 Million in Robotaxi Firm

Uber Technologies Inc. and Nebius Group NV are committing as much as $375 million to develop Avride, the Dutch cloud infrastructure company’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary.

The new funding, which includes strategic investment and commercial commitments, will help accelerate the growth of Avride’s driverless fleet to as many as 500 cars, an Avride spokesperson said. If Avride reaches certain agreed milestones, both companies will contribute additional capital, bringing the total potential investment to $375 million, the spokesperson added without providing more details.

BlackRock invests big in Meta data center debt deal

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) was one of the biggest investors in the $27B private debt raised to build Meta Platforms' giant data center in Louisiana, according to a media report.

The asset manager purchased more than $3B of bonds issued last week to finance Meta's Hyperion project, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.