GameStop, Zscaler, Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today

Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Wednesday’s opening bell.

U.S. stock futures rose as investors grew more comfortable that the Federal Reserve and other central banks would maintain their economic support despite a near-term bout of inflation.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 added 0.3%, indicating that the broad market index could post gains after declining Tuesday. Nasdaq-100 futures also rose 0.4%, suggesting advancement for technology stocks after the New York opening bell. Read our full market wrap here.
Dow futures were up 0.2%. Wednesday is the 125th anniversary of the launch of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Earnings are due from
Snowflake,

SNOW 2.30%

Okta,

OKTA 0.97%

Williams-Sonoma

WSM 2.58%

and

Workday

WDAY 0.21%

after the close.
Chief executives of the biggest U.S. banks will testify before the Senate Banking Committee starting at 10 a.m. ET.

Urban Outfitters

URBN 10.04%

jumped 12% premarket. The retailer reported a profit for its latest quarter as the shopping landscape continued to normalize.

Photo:

Richard B. Levine/Zuma Press

Zscaler

ZS 12.42%

shares also jumped 12% premarket. The cloud-based security platform said revenue grew and its profit, after adjustments, climbed during its latest quarter.
Dick’s Sporting Goods

DKS 16.91%

advanced 8.8% premarket. The retailer said sales and profits rebounded from the pandemic in its latest quarter as consumers snapped up items used everywhere from golf courses to youth-sport leagues.
Abercrombie & Fitch

ANF 7.81%

shares climbed 7.7% premarket. The clothing retailer said it had its best first-quarter operating income since 2008.
Meme stocks pushed higher in premarket trading, with
GameStop

GME 15.82%

adding more than 11% and

AMC Entertainment

AMC 19.20%

up 9%. A new page advertising GameStop NFTs recently appeared on the videogame retailer’s website, stoking speculation that GameStop may be building digital products that users could own.
Nordstrom

JWN -5.78%

shares dropped 6.1% premarket. The department-store company narrowed its first quarter loss, with better-than-expected sales in the first quarter.
Toll Brothers

TOL 3.79%

shares gained 1.1% premarket. The luxury homebuilder’s sales rose in the fiscal second quarter, lifting its bottom line, as low mortgage rates and low housing supply continued to boost home-buying trends.
Intuit

INTU 0.87%

shares rose 1.4% ahead of the bell. The TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint parent raised its full-year financial projections, as the company sees strong demand for its products and services.

The cost of softwood lumber, which is often used for framing, is now at a record, up over 83% from this time last year, according to CoStar Advisory Services. Overall, lumber and wood prices are also at record levels, up 34% from one year ago, CoStar said.
China’s yuan has strengthened to a near-three-year high, boosted by a falling dollar despite attempts by the central bank to keep the currency in check. On Tuesday, the offshore yuan strengthened below 6.4 per dollar.
On this day in 1667, mathematician Abraham de Moivre was born in Vitry, France. In 1688, he fled to England to escape King Louis XIV’s persecution of the Huguenots. In London, de Moivre discovered the normal statistical distribution (the “bell curve”) and worked out the formula for standard deviation, or short-term volatility.

As the pandemic wanes, timeshare stocks are the vacation from speculation investors need, writes Heard on the Street columnist Laura Forman.