Goldman, Alibaba, Unilever Down in Premarket Trading; Activision Soars

© Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith

AiVIF.com -- Here is a selection of stocks in focus in premarket trading on Tuesday, 18th January. Please refresh for updates.

• Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) ADRs fell 4.7% after Reuters reported that U.S. regulators are looking at its Cloud hosting business, concerned that data hosted there could be accessible to the Chinese government.
• Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) stock soared 38% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is nearing a deal to buy the games publisher for over $50 billion, substantially bulking up the ecosystem around its Xbox console. Activision stock has languished under a lengthy scandal over its toxic workplace culture, seemingly tolerated by its CEO Bobby Kotick.
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) stock fell 4.0% after the bank missed expectations for earnings in the fourth quarter due to higher expenses, notably for staff and for litigation provisions. Revenue  from bond trading also fell 7% although investment banking fees were up 45% on the year.
• PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) stock drifted after missing fourth-quarter earnings expectations by nearly 20%. The bank’s loan book also grew less than hoped, adding to a general pattern of bank earnings that suggest the boost from pandemic stimulus is fading.
• BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) stock fell 0.2% after the bank just managed to beat expectations for the fourth quarter, thanks to strength in its custody business. The stock has more than doubled in the last 16 months.
• Unilever (NYSE:UL) ADRs fell over 10%, catching up with their underlying stock in London and Amsterdam, after GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) rejected a $68 billion bid from it for its consumer health unit.
• Toyota ADRs (NYSE:TM) rose 0.5% despite the Japanese giant saying it will likely miss its production target for the year through March owing to component shortages, chiefly related to silicon chips.
• Citrix stock was up 2.9% following a report that activist investors including Elliott Management are building a stake in the company.
• Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) stock fell 2.0% after the maker of exercise machines said it will start charging customers for installation, a service that had previously been free.
• Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) stock fell 2.7% after the brokerage narrowly missed expectations for both earnings and revenue in the quarter, as well as for average daily trades.