By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Tuesday, March 3rd. Please refresh for updates.
Apple (NASDAQ:) stock was up 0.9% after its biggest manufacturing contractor Hon Hai Precision said it expected its Chinese factories to be working roughly as normal by the end of March.
- Apple had cited supply chain constraints at its Chinese factories as one of two factors for its warning in February that it would not meet its sales targets in the current quarter.
Chevron (NYSE:) stock was down 0.6%, unimpressed by an announcement from the company that it intends to return $80 billion to shareholders over the next five years.
- Chevron is holding an investor day in New York on Tuesday.
The company also said it will stick to its current capital expenditure plan, which foresees investment of between $19 and $22 billion a year through 2024.
Qiagen (NYSE:) stock was up 15.6% at its highest since early December after Thermo Fisher agreed to buy the diagnostics group for $11.5 billion.
Qiagen is, among other things, developing kits to test for the Covid-19 virus.
Thermo Fisher (NYSE:) stock was up 5.7%.
Target (NYSE:) stock was up 0.4% after the retailer reported adjusted earnings per share up 10.6% from a year earlier in the final quarter of 2019 – some 2.5% ahead of expectations. Revenue fell slightly short of forecasts.
- For 2020, Target) said it expects a low-single digit increase in comparable sales and a mid-single digit increase in operating income.
The company made no mention of any potential impact from the Covid-19 outbreak.
AutoZone (NYSE:) stock fell 4.5% after its fourth-quarter revenue missed expectations, even though earnings per share were slightly above consensus.
Inventory rose 3.3% per store as a mild winter led to lower demand for seasonal products at the auto parts retailer.
"We had particularly challenging sales in specific weather sensitive categories and geographies, indicating to us that the mild winter was a considerable headwind to our and our industry's sales performance," said CEO Bill Rhodes.