Dow futures jump 250 points, recovering from worst drop since October: Live updates

Here are some of the names moving before the bell:

To see more stocks making premarket moves, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox

The third reading of real gross domestic product came in lower than expected.

Real gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 4.9% in the third quarter, according to the third estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s down from the second estimate’s increase of 5.2%, and lower than the rise of 5.1% anticipated by economists polled by Dow Jones.

In the second quarter, real GDP rose by 2.1%.

— Sarah Min

Initial jobless claims were little changed week over week and below Wall Street expectations, as the U.S. labor market continues to show strength.

There were 205,000 initial unemployment claims last week, up 2,000 from the previous period, according to the Department of Labor. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting 215,000 claims.

Continuing jobless claims came in at 1.87 million, which was also little changed from the prior period.

— Jesse Pound

CarMax shares jumped 7% after the used vehicle retailer reported third-quarter earnings that topped expectations. The company posted earnings of 52 cents per share, above the earnings of 42 cents per share anticipated by analysts polled by FactSet. On the other hand, revenue of $6.15 billion fell short of the FactSet consensus estimate of $6.29 billion.

CarMax also resumed a share repurchase program in the third quarter.

Market strategists have shared several possible reasons behind Wall Street’s sudden sell-off on Wednesday afternoon.

Some suggested it was as simple as investors taking profits after a nine-day bull run, in the absence of any discernible catalyst and with U.S. stocks widely seen as overbought.

Other market watchers pointed to a high volume of zero-day options trading as the death knell for the winning streak. These are risky put options, increasingly popular with retail traders, that expire on the same day they are traded.

Several strategists blamed the sell-off on a disappointing revenue outlook from delivery giant FedEx, often seen as a bellwether U.S. economic health, which missed expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the combination of FedEx earnings and a “general shift in market focus from when rates will be cut to the underlying health of the economy” had tempered investor optimism.

Read the full story here.

– Elliot Smith

As Salesforce‘s data cloud offering gains traction, Morgan Stanley sees a “bridge to better growth” for the software company in 2024.

Analyst Keith Weiss upgraded shares to overweight, saying that while the ramp in generative AI-related apps may be more than 12 months a way, data cloud represents a “key foundational layer” in that long-term vision.

“Low investor expectations vs potential top-line upside drivers in price increases, product bundling and Data Cloud adoption frame an attractive risk/reward for CRM,” Weiss said.

The stock gains more than 2% before the bell. The firm hiked its price target, representing 34% upside from Wednesday’s close.

Salesforce shares have rallied more than 96% in 2023. But according to Weiss, they still trade at a discount to its large cap software peers on a GAAP PEG basis. That gap should narrow as the company shows better-than-expected top and bottom line growth in the months ahead.

“Salesforce remains one of the best secularly positioned names within Software, as the global incumbent for front-office applications and a platform squarely addressing many of enterprises’ top digital transformation needs,” he wrote.

— Samantha Subin

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.4% in early trade on Thursday, tracking global declines.

Autos dropped 1.2% to lead losses as all sectors and major bourses slid into negative territory.

Most Asia-Pacific markets fell overnight, led by Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix indexes shedding 1.6% and 1%, respectively.

– Elliot Smith

Shares of South Korea’s largest container shipping firm HMM plunged as much as 12.5%, leading losses on the country’s benchmark Kospi index. The drop follows a three-day rally that saw the stock rocket by over 40%.

On Tuesday, a consortium made up of South Korean poultry processor Harim Group and private equity firm JKL Partners was chosen as the preferred bidder for HMM in a $4.9 billion deal.

However, Reuters reported that HMM said on the same day it had ordered its ships departing Europe — which would normally use the Suez Canal — to reroute via the Cape of Good Hope for an indefinite period of time, following a series of attacks on merchant ships.

HMM is among the top 10 largest container shipping firms globally, moving almost all of South Korea’s exports.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japanese automaker Toyota led losses on the benchmark Nikkei 225 index, falling as much as 4.87% Thursday.

This comes after Toyota announced to recall about one million vehicles on Thursday. The safety recall involved certain 2020-2022 Toyota and Lexus models in the United States.

This also comes after Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu halted shipments of all its vehicles on Wednesday, after an investigation found safety issues with its vehicles, including cases where airbag control units used in airbag tests for some models were different from the ones sold to the public.

The panel has been investigating Daihatsu after it said in April it had rigged side-collision safety tests carried out for 88,000 small cars, most of those sold as Toyotas.

Producer prices in South Korea climbed 0.6% year-on-year in November, its slowest rise in four months. PPI had risen 0.8% in October.

On a month-on-month basis, producer prices fell 0.4% in November, deepening from the 0.1% drop seen in the month before.

South Korea’s producer price index measures monthly variations in the prices of goods shipped by industrial producers within the domestic market.

— Lim Hui Jie

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount slid in extended trading as investors reacted to news of merger talks between the two media giants.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery slipped about 1.5%. Paramount shed around 0.7%.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish met Tuesday about a potential deal, sources told CNBC. The discussions are considered preliminary.

— Alex Harring, Alex Sherman, Mike Calia

Micron advanced in after-hours trading on the back of a strong financial report and outlook.

Shares of the semiconductor manufacturer added more than 4%. The company posted a smaller loss per share than anticipated by analysts surveyed by LSEG for the first fiscal quarter. Meanwhile, its revenue came in above consensus forecasts.

The company also offered strong guidance for the current three-month financial period.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures traded up shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

Futures tied to the Dow and S&P 500 each added about 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed by about 0.2%.

— Alex Harring