Wall Street inched modestly higher in premarket trading Tuesday amid a flurry of corporate news during a week of critical economic data being released by Washington.
Futures for the S&P 500 were up just 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrials Average rose about 0.2%.
Shares of Shutterstock and Getty Images both soared after they announced they were joining to become a $3.7 billion visual content company to provide customers with a broader array still imagery, video, music, 3D and other media.
Getty Images shareholders will own about 54.7% of the combined company and Shutterstock stockholders will own approximately 45.3%. Getty shares jumped more than 57% in premarket, while Shutterstock climbed 32%.
Meta Platforms shares were largely unchanged after the owner of Facebook appointed three new directors to its board, including Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a key figure in the orbit of incoming President Donald Trump.
The social media company is also adding auto tycoon John Elkann and tech investor Charlie Songhurst, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post late Monday.
Shares in some notable Chinese companies fell after the U.S. Defense Department added dozens of them to a list of companies it says have ties to China’s military. The announcement caused some of the companies to protest and say they will seek to have the decision reversed.
Added to the list were gaming and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world’s biggest battery maker CATL. Tencent’s Hong Kong-traded shares fell 7.3% on Tuesday while CATL shares dropped almost 3%.
In Europe at midday, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.8%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.4% and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.2%.
In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped nearly 2.0% to finish at 40,083.30. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.3% to 8,285.10. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1% to 2,492.10.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 1.2% to 19,447.58 as shares in technology and games company Tencent plunged 7.3% after it was hit by U.S. sanctions.
The Shanghai Composite edged 0.7% higher to 3,229.64.
Investors are also watching for possible policy changes under incoming President Donald Trump, whose term is beginning soon, said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
“The convergence of these financial indicators points to a heightened alert among traders, who carefully calibrate their strategies for potential shifts in policy and economic directives that the new administration may bring,” he said.
