By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, December 12th. Please refresh for updates.
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) stock fell 3.2% after the Wall Street Journal reported the biopharmaceutical giant was in pole position to acquire Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HZNP), up 15%, after French rival Sanofi pulled out over the weekend.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock rose 0.5% after the tech giant announced plans to take a 4% stake in London Stock Exchange Group, in return for a big 10-year commitment to its Azure cloud hosting service.
Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock fell 2.4% after the EV manufacturer suspended a project that would have seen it launch electric van making in Europe in partnership with Mercedes (ETR:MBGn).
Box (NYSE:BOX) stock rose 3.7% after JPMorgan upgraded its stance on the cloud-based content management provider to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’, saying the stock can rally 20% given its strong financials and product suite.
- Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP) stock soared 26% after private equity firm Thoma Bravo agreed to buy the tech firm in a deal worth $8 billion.
- Gap (NYSE:GPS) stock rose 3.2% and Tapestry (NYSE:TPR) stock rose 2.6% after Goldman Sachs upgraded both retailers to 'buy' from 'neutral', expecting them to thrive as customers became more discerning with their spending. On the flip side, the investment bank downgraded Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI), down 0.7%, to 'neutral' from 'buy'.
- Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) stock rose 1.9% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the electronics retailer to 'neutral' from 'sell', citing the ability to maintain prices and gain market share in the difficult climate.