U.S. stock futures rose slightly Wednesday as Wall Street monitored the Israel-Iran cease-fire and as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell goes before Congress for a second day of testimony after telling lawmakers on Tuesday the central bank would be taking a wait-and-see approach on interest rates.
These stocks were poised to make moves Wednesday:
FedEx reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.07 share and revenue of $22.2 billion that beat Wall Street forecasts. But the shipping giant was down 5.8% after saying it expects first-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.40 to $4 a share versus estimates of $4.05, and revenue in the period to be flat or increase up to 2% compared with analysts' projections that called for revenue to increase about 0.6%. FedEx didn't provide fiscal-year profit guidance as it usually does.
BlackBerry was rising 13.3% after the cybersecurity company boosted its fiscal-year sales guidance after swinging to a profit in the first quarter and reporting better-than-expected revenue.
Quantumscap soared 31.3% after the solid-state battery start-up said it successfully integrated its advanced Cobra separator process into baseline cell production, in what the company called "a major milestone in the scale-up of its production capabilities." CEO Siva Sivaram said, "By significantly improving throughput and shrinking the equipment footprint, Cobra gives us a powerful path forward for commercializing our next-generation battery technology."
Worthington Enterprises jumped 10.6% after the maker of building and consumer products reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that were better than analysts' forecasts.
Coinbase Global was up 1% in premarket trading after the cryptocurrency exchange closed up 12% on Tuesday, finishing as the best stock in the S&P 500 in the session. Analysts at Benchmark Capital on Monday raised their price target on the stock to $421 from $301 earlier this week, highlighting Senate passage of a bill to regulate stablecoins called the Genius Act. Stablecoins are a "major segment of the company's business," Benchmark said.
Earnings reports are expected Wednesday from Micron Technology, Paychex, General Mills, Jefferies Financial Group, and Winnebago Industries.
Micron Technology rose 0.6% in premarket trading ahead of fiscal third-quarter earnings from the memory-chip maker. Micron makes memory and storage solutions, including high-bandwidth memory for artificial intelligence. The demand for high-bandwidth memory has been growing as the need to power AI data centers by hyperscalers has grown. Coming into Wednesday, Micron shares have risen 52% this year.