December S&P 500 futures (ESZ23) are up +0.21%, and December Nasdaq 100 E-Mini futures (NQZ23) are up +0.23% this morning as market participants looked ahead to a reading on the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric.
In Wednesday’s trading session, Wall Street’s major averages ended mixed. Cigna Corp (CI) plummeted over -8% following a Wall Street Journal report stating that the health insurance giant is engaged in merger discussions with Humana, which analysts said would be challenged by antitrust regulators. Also, Hormel Foods Corporation (HRL) slid more than -4% after reporting weaker-than-expected Q4 results and issuing a soft FY24 outlook. On the bullish side, NetApp Inc (NTAP) surged over +14% and was the top percentage gainer on the benchmark S&P 500 after the data infrastructure company reported better-than-expected Q2 results and lifted its FY24 forecast. In addition, General Motors Company (GM) gained more than +9% after the carmaker said it would boost its dividend by 33% and repurchase $10 billion of shares.
