Pfizer, Gilead, Ross: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today

By Jem Bartholomew 

Here's what we're watching as markets kick into gear Friday.

-- Stock futures wavered near the flatline, putting Wall Street on track to end a choppy week with muted losses. Futures tied to the S&P 500 edged up less than 0.1%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.1%. Read our full market wrap here.

-- What's coming up. Foot Locker reports earnings this morning. A measure of European consumer confidence is due at 10 a.m. ET, and the Baker Hughes rig count, a proxy for drilling activity in the oil industry, is expected at 1 p.m.

-- IPOs to watch. Maravai LifeSciences Holdings and Sotera Health are expected to begin trading Friday.

-- Pfizer said it plans to ask U.S. health regulators on Friday to permit use of its Covid-19 vaccine, a milepost in months of frantic efforts to find a medicine that could beat back a rampaging pandemic. It could put the vaccine on track for distribution in December if cleared quickly. The pharmaceutical company's shares climbed 1.8% in offhours trading.

Market Movers to Watch

-- Gilead Sciences fell 2.3% before the bell after the World Health Organization recommended against the use of antiviral drug remdesivir for Covid-19.

-- Moderna, another company in the race for a coronavirus vaccine, saw its shares climb premarket more than 4%.

-- Ross Stores surged 4.4% offhours after the retailer posted third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' predictions.

-- Workday dropped 4% premarket after the cloud-software company warned of lingering Covid-19 effects, despite reporting profit and revenue that topped Wall Street's expectations.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2020 07:17 ET (12:17 GMT)

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