Healthcare Stocks Get a Boost From Berkshire UNH Stake

U.S. stock futures are relatively flat in premarket trading after the S&P 500 posted its third straight day of all-time highs. The Dow index is outperforming this morning after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake in United healthcare (UNH). 

Stocks are set to end the week with solid gains led by a resurgence in small caps (RUT). Investor focus today will be on the fallout from hotter than expected PPI numbers along with data, including July Retail Sales and Consumer Sentiment figures.

Snapshot (as of 7 AM ET)

• Oil (/CL) – Oil prices are down 0.9% near $63.40 a barrel as traders awaited talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, which some expect could lead to an easing of the sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine war.
• Gold (/GC) – Gold prices are flat near $3385, as hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data dented hopes for a super-sized 50-basis-point (bps) Federal Reserve rate cut in September.
• Bitcoin (/BTC) – The Crypto Future is up 1% near 119,500 in the premarket. Bitcoin hit an all-time high above 125K yesterday.
• VIX – The CBOE Volatility Index was down 2.3% on Thursday and settled at 14.83 as stocks were relatively muted. The VIX came off its lowest level since December 24th of 2024 on Wednesday.
• U.S. Dollar (/DX) – The dollar is down at 97.88

Biggest Premarket Movers (Mark % Change as of 7 AM ET)

1. UnitedHealth (UNH): +12.3%
2. Nucor Corp (NUE): +5.99%
3. DR Horton (DHI): +3.84%

1. Applied Materials (AMAT): -14.58%
2. Lam Research (LRCX): -5.01%
3. KLA Corp (KLAC): -4.75%

Economic Data

• 8:30 AM ET: Retail Sales, Import/Export Prices, Empire State Mfg. Index
• 9:15 AM ET: Industrial Production
• 10:00 AM ET: Consumer Sentiment, Business Inventories
• 2:00 PM ET: Fed’s Barkin Speaks

Notable Earnings

• Premarket: FLO
• Postmarket: N/A
• Premarket Monday: N/A
• Postmarket Monday: FN, PANW, XP

Upgrades/Downgrades

• DA Davidson upgrades Salesforce (CRM) to Neutral from Underperform
• CIBC upgrades Willams (WMB) to Outperformer from Neutral
• Raymond James upgrades Wingstop (WING) to Strong Buy from Outperform
• Summit Insights downgrades Applied Materials (AMAT) to Hold from Buy
• HSBC downgrades Cisco (CSCO) to Hold from Buy
• BofA downgrades Target (TGT) to Underperform from Neutral